A Year of Cloth

This week marks our one year anniversary using cloth diapers! I had wanted to try them out from before Ariella was born, but everyone I knew at that time told me that I was crazy. They said I would never take the time to take care of them, that they were annoying and didn’t work as well as “regular” diapers. I’m not even sure why I wanted to try them at that point, I had no experience with them, I just thought they made sense!

Well, with no support of the idea, and the thought of all that work ahead of me with our first newborn, I gave up and bought disposables for the first nine months. But every time I threw one away, all I could think of was how it was going to sit in a landfill for such a long time that MY disposable diapers from WAY back when are STILL out there somewhere trying to break down.

So I asked a few friends who used them about how easy they were to use, did they leak a lot, did they smell, were they good for baby’s skin, and of course how much work were they. All the ladies I spoke with were gushing about them so much, it got me excited again! But I was also confused about so much, I had no idea where to begin! It seemed like there were so many steps into actually diapering my baby – fold this like this, put this under here and fold this way, then use these things to attach it here, then get the cover and put it over here… – I was lost in all the directions and steps it almost made me give up again!

But thankfully I found the #clothdiapers chat on Twitter one Monday evening, where everyone was talking about the diapers they used, how easy they were and how much they loved them! I got talking with a wonderful woman named Marissa from Growing Green Bums, and she saved me! She sent me links and e-mails, offered to show me on-line how to fold and use the dipes on the baby, and was so encouraging for me to try them out!

With her guidance I chose to go with a bit of an easier version of the cloth diaper, the Bum Genius 3.0’s. The pocket system has been wonderful, and after a full year’s worth of use the only thing I have had to do to them is take out some of the laundry tabs in the back that were scratching my daughter’s back. These diapers are so wonderful, I can not say enough about them!!

Now that we are expecting our second child, I am so excited this one will be a cloth diaper baby from day one. I am hoping that potty training Ariella will come soon, I’ve been so sick so far with #2 that I’ve let it really go by the wayside (bad Mama!). This way I all ready have a good stash for “Poppyseed”, because Ariella should only be wearing them at night. I would like to suppliment our stash somewhat, but now I’m not sure what to get! I wouldn’t mind saving a bit of money and trying some prefolds, but does that make sense when I am used to the ease of the pockets? And then comes what brand to try? There are so many out there it can be confusing trying to figure out what you’d like!

All in all, I am a VERY happy cloth Mama! I have become an advocate within my circle of friends and am a proud cloth diaper user! Happy Anniversary to us!!