Cloth Diapering: Starter Stash

I think I've mentioned in passing how we're planning to cloth diaper our baby. But I know I haven't gone into much detail, and since there are at least a few of you who are curious about it, I figured I'd post about our choice and, eventually, our experience. So, this is just the first in what is sure to be a series of posts about cloth diapering.

The Decision
In the past, I never, ever would have thought that I would cloth diaper. But enter the internet, and well... you end up finding out and researching things that you never would have considered on your own. Even before we got pregnant, I saw cloth diapers discussed on numerous blogs and message boards. Once I learned about all of the different types of cloth diapers available these days, I was intrigued. However, I brushed it off as something that I would love to do if I were a stay-at-home mom, but not something I would be able to handle as a working mother.

Then, I kept reading about all these working mothers who were successfully cloth diapering--all of these "CDing" parents who swore that it's really not that much work. So when we found out we were pregnant, I started slowly doing some more research to see if it was something we should consider. The biggest thing, however, was approaching the subject with Michael. I was sure that he would immediately tell me how ridiculous I was being and I'd be knocked back into my sensible world where disposables were the only option.

But then I mentioned it. I told him about the pros and the cons, and my reasons for wanting to do it (money savings, less waste in the landfill, and more natural materials on baby's bum). And to my surprise, he was 100% behind the idea. That meant getting serious about my research and figuring out a plan that was going to work best for us.

The Plan and Our Starter Stash
Although I did a lot of research, I was still largely non-committal to any one method or style of cloth diapering. I figured that before we made any decisions and started buying anything, we needed to make sure that one more very important person would be on board with us--our daycare provider.

When we started meeting and interviewing potential daycares, we made sure to add the cloth diapering discussion to the list of questions. I knew that if these daycare providers knew how many of today's cloth diapers work, they'd probably say yes, but I feared that they would say no based on assumptions of complicated folding and pinning and rubber pants. Surprisingly, no one seemed to really bat an eye--even the daycare center that we interviewed. And thankfully, our perfect daycare provider was cool with it, too. It was a relief!

With baby in daycare, one thing was for sure: By the time the baby is in daycare, we need to be using an all-in-one or pocket diaper to make it as easy as possible on this woman. We don't want to burden her when she has other children to care for; we figured the easier we can make it, the more successful we'll be with cloth diapering. Although we know we're most likely going with a pocket diaper, and we definitely want to go with the "one-size" versions, we're not making any final decisions on brands until our baby is here and we can try out a few different ones. It seems like everyone has differing opinions on BumGenius, Happy Heinys, FuzziBunz and Blueberry, so we don't want to make an investment in anything until we know what works best on our particular baby.

The problem with the "one-size" versions of these diapers is that, although they claim to fit babies between 7-35 lbs. (so, yes... you can use the same diapers until they are potty-trained!), they don't actually fit well on teeny little skinny newborns. It seems that most parents aren't successful with getting them to fit properly until babies are about 2-3 months old.

Soooo... although the one-size, pocket diapers are our long-term solution, we needed to decide what to do for the newborn stage. At first, I thought maybe we'd use disposable diapers for the first 2-3 months. But then, I actually got some disposables at my first baby shower, and quite frankly, I was kind of grossed out by them. Don't get me wrong--I am in no way "against" disposable diapers. Literally everyone I know uses them, and I've changed many a disposable diaper in my day (have I ever told you guys how I was an all-star babysitter?). But after doing so much research on cloth diapers and making the decision to use them for our baby, it was like I just really didn't want to use disposables. Sure, we'll use them in the hospital while the baby is still passing his/her meconium, but after that, we plan to switch to cloth as soon as we can.

What's our system of choice for the newborn stage? Well, let me show you our "starter stash." These are the things that we have purchased to get us started:

Two dozen newborn-sized, unbleached pre-fold diapers from Green Mountain Diapers, along with a 3-pack of Snappis

4 Thirsties Duo Size 1 diaper covers, 1 Planet Wise medium wet bag, 1 Planet Wise pail liner

As you can see, we plan to use pre-folds and covers. This seemed like the best solution for the newborn days, and it appears that many parents are successful with this system. In fact, many parents end up preferring the pre-folds/covers over the all-in-one/pocket systems, even though the pre-folds seem like more work.

All of the newborn CDing supply lists I've seen for the pre-fold system include 24-36 pre-folds, 4-6 covers, Snappis, two wet bags, and two pail liners. So keep in mind that the above is our starter stash. We plan to add at least another pail liner and wet bag. Once the baby is here and we get a better idea of how long four covers and 24 pre-folds last us before we need to wash, we may decide to order another dozen pre-folds and 1-2 more covers.

But that's the plan! We'll use the pre-folds/covers for the first 2-3 months, until the baby can fit into the one-size pocket diaper options, and go from there. Also, we figure that this newborn system will allow us to really try out cloth diapering and get a feel for it. If we can do it with the pre-folds/covers, we figure it'll be even easier to do the pockets when it's time. And if, for some reason, we change our minds on cloth diapering as a whole, we only invested a little bit of money upfront for the newborn stash.

Other People
Let's get one thing on the record: Our friends and family think we're crazy. I actually try to avoid talking about cloth diapering with anyone at this point, because I feel like everyone is thinking, "They're so naive. Just wait until the baby is here; they'll realize cloth diapering is not realistic." Once the baby is here and we are (hopefully) successful with cloth diapering, I feel like I'll have some clout and be able to tell everyone about what we're doing and how we're doing it, so I'm sure I'll talk about it a lot more. But for now, I'm keeping quiet. When people ask, I'm generally very vague about my answers and I casually say, "We're just trying it. We'll see how it goes."

Oh, how I would love to prove them all wrong. I really hope cloth diapering works for us!

Anyway, I feel like my thoughts on the subject are a little bit disorganized and there's a lot to say, but I'll wrap this first post up and plan to post about different aspects of CDing when it occurs to me.

Questions? Interested in researching for yourself? Feel free to ask away in the comments, although I am most definitely not an expert, especially given that my baby is not here yet.

Some suggested websites to check out for cloth diaper information:
The Eco-Friendly Family Blog
Jillian's Drawers
Green Mountain Diapers
Abby's Lane
Cotton Babies

And a couple of cloth diapering moms who have posted about their experiences:
My Life in Transition
The Lewallens

(I'm sure I'm forgetting some helpful sites and blogs, so I'll add more if I think of them.)