Cloth Diapering

I think I have alluded to this in a few posts before Miss Ev was born, or may have mentioned it casually in some...but in case you haven't caught it - we are cloth diapering!

{Insert your approving applause or gasp of shock and disgust or look of complete confusion at the screen [people still cloth diaper?!] here.}

So, in case you didn't think that my going to midwives for care, preparing for and achieving a completely natural and intervention-free birth was crunchy and granola enough to contradict the whole former sorority president who wore pearl earrings while achieving said birth and brought her baby home in an SUV- let's throw in cloth diapering!

Seriously though, what I mean to say is, stereotypes be damned. If you are a parent, or going to be a parent, of a little human who has no control of the last stage of their digestive system - you should get behind {punny} cloth diapering. It rocks, we love it, and what follows is a no holds barred love fest for cloth diapering and how we are doing it {so far}. Be prepared for a long post.

Upon getting knocked up and discussing all the many options regarding baby gear, etc. we knew that we wanted to cloth diaper. There are many, many blogs and sites out there that can explain the benefits of cloth diapering, so I won't go too into it. But, for us, we had friends who were advocates {mainly this lady}and I had plenty of bloggers who were advocates too {aka, people I like to think of as 'friends' who give me great advice while asking nothing from me in return - that's normal, right?}. This lady and this lady both cloth diaper and provide great posts on it. Oh! and this lady too, who I have followed since she blogged back on Weddingbee, when I was still not even engaged to be married. Le sigh.

ANYWAY, cloth diapering seemed like a totally normal, and dare I say trendy, thing to be doing. It just made sense to me, good for baby, good for environment, good for our wallets, etc. Plus, have you seen cloth diapers? How freaking cute are they? They make your baby's butt so big and puffy and freaking adorable.

{The ruffle really accentuates the junk in the trunk look.}

Bless my husband's heart, I mentioned cloth diapering to him, in a "we will be doing this" sort of way, and he totally went for it, even though he apparently thought things were still back at the pre-fold and diaper pin stage of yesteryear. Oh, my love, things have come so far. Some other family members who seemed to have reservations may have been thinking the same thing...who knows.

We knew from the get-go that we would be using disposables off the bat, so as not to have to worry about umbilical stump interference and all that jazz. Plus, I didn't really want to spend money buying newborn fitting cloth diapers as we weren't sure how big the baby would be at birth, and how fast they would be outgrown. With our next baby we may attempt it though, as I think I may have been slightly dramatic about how difficult it would have been while I was pregnant {shocker} - stay tuned.

On top of the whole newborn situation, our cloth diapering journey was further delayed by travel. I just really didn't want to start while at my parents' house, or while on the road. It just seemed like a crazy idea to me. Therefore, Ev was in disposables till about two and a half weeks ago. {We got a little further delayed because of the B of a hurricane, because I was all "oh no what if the power goes out and we don't have washing machine capabilities!?! We had better buy more disposables!" So then we had to use those ones up, blah blah blah}

But, now we are in it, full swing. And we couldn't be happier.

These are the diapers that we have, and how we feel about them {so far}.

1. bumGenius 3.0 All-In-Ones

Sadly, these diapers are now discontinued {tears forever}. You can still pick them up at some cloth diaper websites on clearance, but the sizes and colors available are pretty limited. We have a few of these because I scooped some up when they went on clearance way back when I was pregnant. We have a few smalls, and more mediums (which Evelyn doesn't fit into yet, but will wear for a good long time - somewhere around 15-22 pounds, if you believe the website, maybe more, maybe less). 

{cell phone photo from first day of cloth diapering - wearing the bG AIO}

The great thing about these diapers is that they are just as easy as disposables. The "soaker" [def: the absorbent part of the diaper, also referred to as "doublers" or just "inserts"] is sewn in, and there is a pocket so you can reinforce for more absorbency if you want [by adding additional inserts], but otherwise they are just sort of my clutch grab and go. But, in order for the sewn in liner to really work well, these have to come in specific sizes, unlike the rest of my cloth diapers. So, you did have to worry about that when planning and ordering, but now bumGenius has moved to all "One Size" diapers. Which brings me to...

2. bumGenius 4.0 One Size 

We have a couple of these diapers as well. Awesome in that they each come with two inserts, one light weight one for "newborns" and a more versatile larger one for bigger babies, growing babies, etc. These diapers are one size because the snaps on the front make them adjustable - just like almost every other one size diaper on the market. They make these with both velcro and snap closures (p.s. did you know Velcro is a proprietary eponym, meaning it is a brand, like Kleenex, that has become synonymous with its function? Which means it should be capitalized. Regardless, I will continue to use it improperly throughout this post. fyi). We decided to go velcro because velcro is easy peasy to replace. (Um, plus, did you know there are people out there willing to convert them to snaps for you if you want? Hello Etsy, I love you.) We really like these diapers as well, one big plus is the flap that the bG's have over the pocket opening to ensure that the soakers stay in place and ensure for minimum leakage. Bonus! These are available (online) for a Babies 'R Us registry, so if you have to use that evil place like I did for a baby registry, at least you can get them there.


**Sidenote: bumGenius recently announced {recently as in I was all up in their website to do this post and saw this for the first time so I am assuming this is recent news} a NEW line of All in Ones! Woot! They are called the Freetime All in One One Size cloth diapers. 

They look to be a combo of the two types of bG diapers that I already have and love, and will be shipping in December 2011 according to bG's Facebook page. Trust that we will be ordering some. Plus they come in a color called "Dazzle". Done and done.**

3. FuzziBunz One Size

I scored two of these when they were on a Zulily special one day with a set of coordinating leggies. I actually really like them. They look teeny tiny, and the snaps on them are a little confusing to me for some reason (too many snapping options! Ack!) but the inside is super soft and I really love the adjustable elastic parts of the diaper, so clever! At each leg opening and at the waist there is a replaceable strand of elastic with numbers and button holes that then attach to cleverly hidden little buttons in the diaper's lining. This way you can tighten or loosen these openings to make sure your baby is snug, but not too snug, and you can prevent leakage. Awesome sauce.

They come with one soaker to insert, and they are a little small in my opinion, but so far we haven't had any leaks with them. I am presuming I will need to use a bigger insert as my little one's bum gets bigger.

4. Kawaii One Size Pocket

The actual Kawaii website is here, but they don't have the diapers that I have listed. You can still get them at the link above though. I will have to investigate if they are discontinuing, etc. Anywho, these are very similar to the bG One Size 4.0 diapers. The most notable difference is that there is no little flappy part to cover the pocket opening like the bGs. But, the price on these suckers is amazing. They retail for approximately $9.95 each, which is hella cheap in the CD world, and so far they have worked great for us. You can get them even cheaper per diaper in big package deals through some sites. They come with two generously sized inserts, and so far these are the only diapers we have put on Evie overnight (with both soakers). We have never had a leak, and she is now sleeping through the night, sometimes even 10-12 hours. We do use them every now and again during the day, but they tend to be a bit bulkier in between her legs than some of the other diapers, so I like using them for the night time routine. We have just started trying them with some hemp inserts which have cut down on the bulk, but more on that later.

5. Rumparooz G2 One Size

These are the newest additions to our collection and so far, I love them! They have an "inner gusset" system which is supposed to help keep leaks to a minimum. So far they have been doing the job, but I don't know that they have really been put to the test just yet. We shall see! They seem to be super well made though, and I love their 6r soaker system. They have two soakers, one that is contoured to go in between legs, and then a more traditional longer soaker. Here is the best part though,both of them have snaps so that they can be used together in different configurations as well as independently. I especially like that they can snap to give better coverage for a boy or a girl. Genius.


Whew, that is a lot to read, but we still aren't done! As with everything else in life, there are accessories for cloth diapering.

Pail Liners

We have this one by Kissaluv. Why? The reviews were good, and it was the cheapest one that qualified for Amazon Prime shipping. Done and done. We have been pretty happy with it so far. It fits a tall kitchen trash can that we use to collect diapers and goes right in the wash with them. My advice? Get at least two, so that you can rotate them off and on with your loads of diapers. I am sure you wouldn't have figured that one out on your own, because I am like a MENSA genius over here. Ha.


Wet Bags

Wet bags come in all sorts of sizes. Some people just do the large version of these hanging in the nursery instead of the trash can/pail liner route that we decided to go for...because we have an awful dog who would undoubtedly get into anything that isn't tall with a lid. BUT, we did get a small one of these for when we are out running errands etc. We have this one, again because it was the cheapest that qualified for prime shipping. I am a sucker for free next day delivery. Plus, it's cute. You can, of course, go the plastic bag route here instead, but if you are going green by cloth diapering, take it the next logical step!


Detergent

We use Charlie's Soap Powder. Cloth diapers are susceptible to detergent build up, so you want to make sure that you use less than you think you need when washing, and you use something that is dye/fragrance/etc. free since they are going to be right against your baby's sensitive parts. We love Charlie's Soap so far and are moving toward using it for all of our clothes. PLUS you can sign up for subscribe and save with Amazon and get it for even cheaper. Clearly, I am all about being cheap. Follow the instructions on your diapers for washing...currently we run our diapers through a cold, then warm wash and double rinse to make sure we don't get build up. We dry out on the line while it is nice and warm out, who knows what we will do come winter.


Hemp Inserts

Remember how we talked about hemp soakers a little while back? Well, turns out hemp is super crazy absorbent and awesome for cloth diapering. I ordered these the other day after seeing a recommendation from this lady on a mutual friend's Facebook inquiry about cloth diapering. I have no idea what other hemp inserts are like, and had no idea how to differentiate between them when I was deciding which ones to order - so when I saw a recommendation, I jumped on it. So far they are great, though truth be told, we have only used them one night. I am sure Andria will be doing a post about her own love for cloth diapering soon (no pressure lady!) and may be able to include her experience with hemp (which far outweighs my own).



And that's it! For now...

In our future we may add some accessories, especially a diaper sprayer like this dude:

Right now we don't have to worry about it because you can just wash exclusively breastfed baby poop without rinsing first. Strange, but true. And awesome.

Again, I certainly do not claim to be a genius on this one, since we just.started. but do not be afraid! Cloth diapering is super awesome and easy. Think about it. Captain Planet would thank you.

Evelyn is two months old 

...and she loves her cloth diapers! but does not love shots, or maybe that's me. 

Later today is Ev's two month appointment and this momma is a little scurred. I hear nursing cures all?