Cloth-i-versary

Its coming upon one year since I decided to make the switch to cloth diapers.

When I was pregnant, I never really even gave it a thought. In fact one of the biggest things that I was hoping to get at my shower was boxes and boxes of the disposables so that I did not have to buy them myself. Everything baby was pretty overwhelming for me and did not want to think about it all too much. Picking things out, knowing what was necessary, setting it up. I mean, my nursery wasn't even set up until after Benjamin was born. Including the crib. Perhaps it would have made it too real! I was very excited and yet very nervous.

Once Ben was born I started seeing how many diapers we were going through a day. It was crazy to me, but everyone seemed to be doing it this way. Yet it still made me a little uncomfortable  My waste hating side was getting irritated.

Cloth seemed difficult. Overwhelming. How messy? How expensive? How much work? How much laundry do I have to do?

While I was pregnant, I found out that an old friend was due right around the same time I was. In fact, she had her baby 3 days after I did. After she gave birth to her beautiful baby girl I followed her blog with pictures and journey into motherhood, including her starting to look into cloth diapering. She did all the work and research for me. It sparked my interest for sure. After reading her research it seemed do-able, I just needed it to be super duper easy. I mean, I can be so lazy with certain things.

So after seeing different benefits I decided to just give it a try. Benefits such as less garbage. Less diaper rash. Fewer chemicals touching my babies skin. Can use these ones on the next kids. And cute, cute cute. I have recently seen a benefit of the extra padding on his butt when he falls back after standing up for a bit. Downside being more laundry, more water usage, one extra step of removing #2 from dirty diapers before the wash. More changes (every 2-3 hours except overnight). And explaining it to others! But I thought it certainly was not going to hurt to try, since cloth diapers have a pretty good resale value. I invest a little bit of money, which I would use on disposables anyway. I went the easiest route I could find...called "all in ones" which pretty much functions exactly like a disposable except you put it in the wash, instead of the trash.

Here is Ben in one of his first cloth diapers. A "monkey doodlez".

I tried several brands to see what I liked best. Even some Stay at Home moms from Etsy made diapers and tried some of those. (my favorites being now Bum genius Elementals and Chelory- a little pricey , but worth it in my opinion). The MD's are small and now part of the next newborn stash.

I ended up finding it pretty easy. Eventually I got my husband to buy into it. He felt good about switching, however still throws on a disposable for a "change of pace" as he calls it. And I always have some on hand at home and at the babysitters. I always like to be prepared for any scenario.  
                                                                                                                     (to the right is a beloved Chelory)

Cloth diapering is not for everyone. I don't care what you use or if you are into that elimination communication or whatever. But it works for me. This satiated my personal guilt for hating garbage   and waste and feeling environmentally friendly. And its a little old school, which tends to be more my personality anyway.

And I guess I have a little bit of hippy in me too. :)