Yard Sale

OK, not really a yard sale. It's a cloth diaper sale. And a small one at that.

Try as we might, we cannot fall in love with our One-Size Blueberry Deluxe Pocket Diapers. They've always been our least favorite in our stash, simply for the way they fit Nora. I wanted to love them, but Nora has a big buddha belly and relatively small thighs, so they typically ride down on her hips, creating big gaps at the legs. And gaps at the legs = leaks. Blah.

Sadly, we're giving up on them. But I know that for many people, Blueberry diapers are a favorite, so we're hoping that we can find them a good home. :) I'm actually sad to get rid of these, as they are some of my favorites in terms of the prints--so cute!

Here's what we've got for sale:

UPDATE 2/6/12 - EVERYTHING HAS BEEN SOLD. Thank you to everyone for the interest!

• OS Blueberry Deluxe in Red (Snaps) SOLD
• OS Blueberry Deluxe in Chocolate with Light Blue Polka Dots (Snaps) SOLD
• OS Blueberry Deluxe in Pink Lemonade (Snaps) SOLD
• OS Blueberry Deluxe in Cow Print (Snaps) SOLD

Here's Nora wearing the pink lemonade diaper when we first got it:

All diapers are in good used condition. These were probably used the least frequently out of all of our diapers, since they have never been our favorites. Elastic, PUL, snaps--all in good shape. We always hang our covers to dry instead of throwing them in the dryer. Smoke free home. Washed in Charlie's Soap.

Price is $14/diaper, including both inserts. Brand new, these retail for $23.95/diaper. They're the most expensive diapers we own! I'm disappointed they didn't work out for us.

Leave a comment with contact info, or e-mail me if you're interested (heatherdriveblog at yahoo dot com). I can take some pics to share if you'd like.

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Cloth Diapering: Overnight Leaks

It has been nearly a year since I've done a post about cloth diapering! HOW? How is that possible?

I guess it's because once you start, nothing really changes. It's a routine, and honestly, we still love it. I'm so happy that we decided to go with (and stick with!) cloth diapers. And for the most part, we've had a relatively easy time of it. A few small challenges here and there, but nothing that we haven't overcome.

Our latest challenge, however, has been a bit more... well, challenging.

As Nora has grown, we've faced a few absorbancy issues. Suddenly, she'd start springing leaks on a regular basis, so we would know it was time to do something differently. We'd make adjustments to the sizing (since she wears one-size, adjustable diapers that can "grow" with her--see more on that in this post). Or we'd change the inserts with which we were stuffing the pockets (more on that in this post, too). But we've always been able to find a solution that was relatively quick and painless for all of us.

Nighttime cloth diapering is a whole 'nother animal. Up until recently, we've been able to fix leaks the same way I mentioned above--sizing, stuffing, etc. But over time, her nighttime diapers had grown to be HUGE. Like, so big in recent weeks that I could barely zip up her pajamas over the enormously stuffed diaper. We've tried numerous combinations of inserts, different size settings, and Nora was still waking up at 4-5 a.m. (TOO EARLY!) due to a soaking wet diaper. After some trial and lots of errors, I believe the problems are two-fold.

First, let's talk about inserts. Frankly, the inserts just cannot hold the amount of pee that Nora apparently eliminates in the 12-13 hours overnight. When she was smaller? Sure. But now that she's a heavy-wetting toddler? Not so much. We've tried triple stuffing, using three microfiber inserts. No luck. We tried triple stuffing, using two microfiber + one combination microfiber/hemp insert. No dice.

Part of the problem with needing to stuff so much into the pocket is that you start to affect the fit of the diaper. By overstuffing, you start to create gaps in the legs of the diaper, which can cause leaks, too. So, if we weren't getting leaks due to oversaturation of the inserts, we were getting them because the diaper was ill-fitting due to overstuffing. I tried backing down the number of inserts I was stuffing with, trying just one microfiber + one combination microfiber/hemp insert, and although the diaper fit better, the inserts didn't offer enough absorbancy.

A week ago, after a number of nights in a row of Nora waking up crying and soaked at 4-5 a.m., I broke down and put her in a disposable. And, we've had her in disposables overnight ever since then, while we work on figuring out what we're going to do longer-term. The problem now? The last three mornings, Nora's been waking up wet again, even in the disposables.

It might be time to call in the heavy artillery: Huggies Overnites.

Up until now, we've been using our regular, cheap-o disposables that we keep on hand for the grandparents, or travel, or the occasional severe diaper rash (always caused by acidic foods!). But since they're not cutting it, we hear that Huggies Overnites are the way to go. And I already have them in my Amazon Mom cart, y'all. (Do you all know about Amazon Mom? Amazing!) But I am still hesitant to hit "submit," simply because I would ideally like to find a cloth diapering solution!

In reality, I'm probably going to go ahead and order a package of Huggies Overnites to use in the short-term, but continue searching and experimenting with cloth diaper overnight options. Like, I've had a few cloth diapering mom friends suggest trying pre-folds in the pockets. I need to figure out what size and order a few to try out that theory. I think I also need to experiment with our different brands of cloth diapers. We've almost always used Fuzzibunz dipes as our overnights, but who knows--maybe the bumGenius or Blueberry diapers we have will fare better.

At some point, I'm sure we'll be cutting back her liquid intake before bed, but she's still pretty young to do that. After all, she likes to have her milk before bed, and it's a way for us to nourish her before bedtime to help keep her full until morning. Until then, I guess we will have to stick with disposables just for nighttime, or, hopefully, find the answer.

Are there any other cloth diapering moms out there who have conquered overnight leaks with a heavy-wetting toddler? What is your solution?

If you're new(er) here, you may not have even realized Nora is cloth diapered!

Curious about cloth diapering?
See all of my cloth diapering posts here.

Read about our decision to cloth diaper here.

See my starter stash (and links to some cloth diaper resources) here.

Read about the start of our cloth diaper journey here.

See how we transitioned to pocket diapers (and explanation of one-size, pocket dipes) here.

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Blueberry Diaper Review & Abby's Lane Giveaway

Maybe you already cloth diaper. Maybe you're interested in trying it. Or maybe you're not into it at all.

Any which way you lean, don't discard this post! There is something for everyone; I promise.

I jumped into cloth diapering not really knowing how it would work out. I hoped we could do it, I was determined to do it, but I just wasn't sure. When I started to do all of my research and was ready to buy, one of the online stores I chose to buy from was Abby's Lane. And for every cloth diaper purchase I've made since building our initial stash, I've gone back to Abby's Lane.

Things I love:
1. Abby's Lane offers free shipping on every order, every day. There is no minimum purchase requirement. Want to try out ONE cloth diaper? Go ahead and buy just one; you won't pay for shipping. I love that, because I absolutely loathe paying for shipping.

2. If you're a member of their e-mail list, there is always a 5% off coupon code to use on every order (except for Ergo Baby products). While 5% may not seem like a lot, it is more than most cloth diaper retailers offer, and of course, every little bit of savings adds up!

3. Fast order turnaround and shipping. Most of the time, I receive my orders within several days of placing them. Even with the holiday last week, and the fact that the people at Abby's Lane were bombarded with Black Friday orders come Friday--I placed an order late on Tuesday night, it shipped on Friday, and I received it today. I love that, because when I order something, I want it yesterday. :)

4. Great customer service. One time, I placed an order for a couple different kinds of pocket diapers in different colors. As it turned out, the inventory on their website was off a little bit, and one of the colors I had ordered was out of stock. Stephanie (the owner) e-mailed me right away to apologize and let me know that it was out of stock, requested that I pick a different color, and refunded me $2 just to make up for the fact that I didn't get my first choice color. Not only that, but it's easy to ask Abby's Lane questions--and they answer them, too. Contact them by e-mail, through Facebook, or through Twitter, and they'll get back to you quickly.

5. Inventory includes a wide variety of products--those involving cloth diapers, and plenty that don't. All of the cloth diaper brands that I wanted to try are offered by Abby's Lane. Not only that, but they offer many other fun products as well. BabyLegs, Pedipeds shoes, shopping cart covers, baby carriers, etc.

All in all, Abby's Lane has been great to me. They are now my go-to online store for all things cloth diapering, and I'm just waiting for Nora to get some fat on her legs so I can order her very first pair of BabyLegs, because oh.my.gosh, so cute.

Because I love Abby's Lane so much, they sent me a Blueberry One-Size Deluxe Cloth Diaper to review on my blog. I recently told you all how we've been using bumGenius and Fuzzibunz one-size diapers, but I was excited to have the opportunity to try out a third brand as well. I picked the "pink lemonade" pattern, and when it arrived, I immediately loved it just for the way it looks.

One thing I don't care for with bumGenius is the colors--with the exception of their Artist Series they just released, all of their diapers are solid pastel colors. Booooring. Not so with Blueberry--they have many fun colors and patterns. It was difficult to choose just one!

As is the case with most (all?) pocket diapers, the Blueberry came with two inserts--a "newborn" insert, and a standard insert that is longer and more absorbent.

One thing I noticed right away is that the outside of the diaper shell is "silkier" than that of bumGenius or Fuzzibunz. The snaps are a little bit different, but the sizing mechanism is essentially the same as bumGenius--three snaps in the front allow you to "snap down" the diaper to the smaller sizes.

The pocket of the diaper provides plenty of room for extra inserts. It's also easy to get your hand in there, making for easy stuffing (which is a complaint I have about Fuzzibunz--difficult to stuff!). The pocket simply has an opening at the back; nothing fancy.

Upon trying the diaper on Nora, I noticed that it seemed just a tad bulkier than bumGenius, but still seemed to offer a pretty good fit all around. After wearing it for a few hours, however, when I went to change her, it seemed like the diaper had ridden down a little bit on her waist--meaning it was very low on her hips. This may just be a result of Nora still being a bit too small for this diaper, and perhaps this is something that will stop happening when she grows a little bit bigger. Still, she's worn the Blueberry diaper a couple of times now and we haven't had any leaks.

Overall, the Blueberry makes a great addition to our stash. We're going to wait another several weeks before putting the finishing touches on our cloth diaper supply, and if it turns out we like the Blueberry as much as the bumGenius in the long run, we'll probably order a few more of them to give some more variety to Nora's diapers.

Now... Abby's Lane has offered a $10 gift certificate to one lucky Heather Drive reader! If you aren't into cloth diapering, don't worry--as I mentioned before, Abby's Lane offers other baby/children's products as well. And if you don't have children? Well, surely you must have someone on your Christmas list that does, right? :)

Giveaway Prize:
$10 Gift Certificate to Abby's Lane

Please make sure to follow the entry instructions carefully. They're not difficult, but you must follow the instructions in order to be eligible to win.

To Enter:
1. Visit the Abby's Lane website and pick out an item that you would use the gift certificate toward if you were to win. (Please note that if you do win, you don't HAVE to buy the item you choose.)

2. Come back here and leave a comment on this post, providing: your first name, your e-mail address, and a link to your chosen Abby's Lane product. (To be eligible to win, you must provide all three of these things.)

Limitations:
Only one comment/entry per person. Giveaway open only to residents of the United States and Canada.

Deadline:
This giveaway will end at 8 p.m. on Friday, December 10. Entries left after the deadline will be ineligible to win.

Winner:
One winner will be chosen using random.org. The winner will be announced on my blog and will be e-mailed notification of the win. Winner has 72 hours to respond to my initial contact, or a new winner will be chosen.

Good luck!

Disclaimer: Abby's Lane provided the Blueberry Diaper at no cost to me, in exchange for my review of the product. However, opinions expressed within the review are my own. Abby's Lane is also sponsoring the $10 gift certificate giveaway.

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Cloth Diapering: Transition to Pockets

Our cloth diapering intention has always been to ultimately move to using one-size pocket diapers.

Pocket diapers are what convinced me that cloth diapering would be worth doing. After all, once they're put together, it's essentially like putting on a disposable. Very easy. Plus, the pockets give you the ability to add extra absorbency as needed. So they're also very flexible. And they're darn cute, too. Oh, and the one-size adjustability means that baby can wear the same diapers from when they are little all the way up until they're potty trained. So economical was also added into the "pros" column for pocket diapers.

But in my initial cloth diapering research, I discovered that the one-size pocket diaper doesn't usually fit babies from birth--babies generally have to be in the 10-12 lb. range before they fit properly. As a result, we built a starter stash and began our cloth diaper journey with newborn prefolds and covers during the day, and disposables for overnight.

A few weeks back, even though Nora wasn't yet 10 lbs. (she was about 8.5 lbs.), I decided to give the one-size pockets a try.

Now, let me back up for a minute and say that I wasn't sure which one-size pocket diapers we would be going with. Based on reviews and popularity, I narrowed it down to two brands--bumGenius and Fuzzibunz. I ordered three of each diaper and figured we'd do our own little trial using both of them, then order the rest of our stash in whichever diaper we liked better.

I started by putting Nora in each of the diapers during the day. When we went several diaper changes without any leaks, I decided to put them to the test overnight, too. And now Nora hasn't been in a single disposable diaper for weeks. Yayyy!

After testing out both the Fuzzibunz and bumGenius diapers, we ultimately decided to go with the bumGenius. The main reasons? I like the fit of the bumGenius better because they are slimmer. The Fuzzibunz are REALLY bulky, especially when they are double-stuffed for nighttime. They give Nora a ridiculous shelf butt, which is kind of hilarious. The other thing is that I like the snap closure better on the bumGenius; I find the snaps on the Fuzzibunz to be harder to fasten. Finally, I like the inner material of the bumGenius better; it seems to be softer and holds up better than the inner material on the Fuzzibunz. It's a bummer, actually, because I *LOVE* the Fuzzibunz colors--they are bright and fun, while the bumGenius colors are all kind of boring and pastel. Oh well--gotta choose function over color. Anyway, if any of you have specific questions about Fuzzibunz vs. bumGenius, feel free to ask in the comments.

Sooo... we went ahead and ordered another six bumGenius diapers, bringing our total number of pocket diapers to 12 at the moment. We're planning to ultimately have around 24, but right now, we're still able to use the newborn prefolds/covers, so we have more than enough diapers to get by for several days with no laundry. Since I'm going back to work in two weeks, we're getting ready to order another six bumGenius diapers to bring our total up to 18 before she goes to daycare.

Our daycare provider will be dealing exclusively with pocket diapers, so we'll send the bumGenius dipes with Nora every day. The Fuzzibunz diapers have become strictly overnight diapers, since they're bulkier and don't fit as well under her clothes. As for the prefolds/covers--we'll continue to use them at home as long as she fits into them, which I don't anticipate will be very much longer. The covers are fine to fit her up until 18 lbs. since they're adjustable, but the newborn prefolds typically only go to 10 lbs. and Nora is between 9.5-10 lbs. now.

For those of you who may not know much about pocket diapers or cloth diapers in general--I'm going to do a little photo demonstration of how they work. Up until now, we've been using "old-fashioned" cloth diapers with the prefold/cover system. It might be what you think of when you hear cloth diapers. Now, these are the modern versions!

This is a bumGenius 4.0 one-size pocket diaper with snap closures
(you can also get aplix closure if you prefer)
This diaper is single-stuffed with a newborn insert for daytime use

This is a Fuzzibunz one-size pocket diaper with snap closures
(again, you can get aplix if you prefer)
This diaper is double-stuffed for overnight absorbency

All brands of pocket diapers typically come with three pieces--the outer shell, a newborn (small) insert, and a standard (bigger) insert. I'll just show you the bumGenius version and how it works, since all pocket dipes are pretty similar.

Here is the empty outer shell of the diaper. You can see the pocket at the top. That is where you put the inserts.

Here is the newborn insert. It's thinner and shorter than the standard insert. Since Nora is still small and not a terribly heavy wetter, this is the insert we use for all daytime diapers (I typically change her every 2-3 hours).

This is the standard insert. It's a bit thicker and includes snaps to fold it down for when the diaper is snapped down to its smaller sizes. As baby grows and the outer shell is on its bigger settings, this insert can be unsnapped to be longer to fit the length of the diaper. Currently, we use these standard inserts as a "doubler" for overnight diapers. We use both the newborn insert AND the standard insert inside of Nora's overnight diapers, since Miss Thang is going 12-13 hours in her nighttime diapers these days.

In this pic, you can see the newborn insert inside of the diaper. So when everything is clean and dry, I sit down and stuff diapers to put in the diaper drawer. It doesn't take too long, and when it's all said and done, diaper changes are as easy as using disposables.

This is with the back flap folded over the insert. So this is what it looks like when I pull them out of the drawer to put them on Nora. Easy-peasy.

And now for a little bit on the one-size feature...

This is what it looks like when the snap closures are undone. See all those snaps? See how wide they go out? That's so this diaper can easily fit my little Nora around the waist until she's potty-trained.

And this is what it looks like when the "rise" part of the diaper is completely unsnapped as well. So this is the biggest the diaper can get, which is pretty big--bumGenius claims that this can fit a child up to 35 lbs.

Pretty cool, huh?

Hopefully this has given you a bit of an overview about pocket diapers, and I've shared our plan for moving forward with this system. As always, please let me know if you have any questions. And don't forget to check out my two previous posts (here and here) about cloth diapering if you haven't read them already.

Also, stay tuned, as I will actually be reviewing a Blueberry cloth diaper within the next few weeks, and that review comes with a giveaway! :) Very exciting stuff.

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Cloth Diapering: The Beginning

A few weeks before our peanut arrived, I posted about our intention to cloth diaper, and shared with you our plans and the things we had purchased for our starter stash.

Well, now that Nora is one month old, I know that some of you are likely curious about how this whole cloth diapering business is going for us. The short answer is that it is going great! I'm pretty sure I've already fallen in love with it.

Going back to the beginning... we didn't mess with the cloth diapers for the first two weeks of Nora's life. We had a pretty decent supply of newborn and size 1 disposables thanks to my baby showers, so we figured we might as well use them. Plus, Nora was just so tiny, I didn't think there was any way that the cloth diapers were going to work very well on her. Looking back, I'm sure they would've been fine, but I don't regret doing things the way we did them, either.

But when Nora was two weeks old, I decided to bust out one of the cloth diapers and see what we were working with. And I'll be honest--when I got that first diaper on her (which was a little bit of a challenge in and of itself), I was totally second guessing myself. Not only did it take me longer to change her, but the diaper seemed SO BIG that I thought she looked borderline ridiculous. I knew to expect a "fluffy butt," but I did not expect it to be that extreme. It seemed like her pants barely fit her anymore. Then, later that night, I had her in my lap and the diaper leaked on me.

We certainly weren't off to a great start.

The next day, I don't think I even put a single cloth diaper on her as I was kind of disappointed in the whole thing, and I was actually saying things to Michael like, "Well, worst case scenario, we can sell what we bought and we'll probably get almost all of our money back."

But on Monday, I woke up with a renewed determination about it, and I wanted to be sure to give cloth diapering a fair chance before giving up on it. So, back into a cloth diaper Nora went.

And, well, I had to admit that while still big--it was awfully cute. I also did some more internet reading and found that people said that as you get better at putting them on, the prefold/cover combination becomes a little less bulky. So I looked for instructions to remind myself how to do it, and the next time I put a fresh diaper on her, I made sure to make everything a little tighter (now that I know what I'm doing, in that photo above, the diaper is actually way too loose on her).

We haven't looked back.

In two and a half weeks, we've never had a leak, we've never had a blowout, and things have been going great. I officially love cloth diapering.

When we first worked the cloth diapers into our routine, I was still afraid to take her out of the house in them, so I was using disposables for trips out of the house. But after a few days of that, I became more comfortable with the cloth and started using them all day long.

At this point, we're still using disposables at night, as I don't think the prefolds are absorbent enough for overnight. I don't like to have her go more than 2-3 hours without changing her prefold diaper, and even then, sometimes the prefold is completely soaked (like every inch of it). And because she'll sometimes sleep for longer stretches at night, I'd hate to have her sitting in a diaper that wet for an extended period of time. So until we move into our next stage of cloth diapering (pocket diapers) and can use an extra insert for nighttime, we will stick with disposables for overnight. Thankfully, that only means using two disposables a day, which we can live with for now. Especially since we still have a supply left from the diapers people purchased us for the baby showers.

As for our starter stash, it has served us pretty well. The 24 prefolds are definitely enough for us--I'm doing diaper laundry every third day. Once I was feeling confident that we were sticking with this, we did order one more Thirsties Duo (size 1) diaper cover, as I was often running out of covers before I ran out of prefolds. (Sometimes, baby poop will leak out the side of the prefold, but is thankfully caught by the cover--but this means the cover goes in the diaper pail for washing instead of being reused!) I also ordered an additional wet bag for traveling outside of the house, and an additional pail liner (we only had one of each before now).

Here is what the laundry pile looks like before folding. It's really not a lot of work to do this every couple of days. My biggest complaint is folding the cloth wipes since they tend to stick together due to a little bit of static. We'll see how long the folding lasts before I just throw them all into the bin in a big ball. :)

Here's our diaper drawer. We use the baking soda to sprinkle in the pail every so often to help combat any odors, though I really haven't noticed any thus far.

Oh, and have I mentioned we're using cloth wipes as well? If you're using cloth diapers, it's just easier to use cloth wipes as well, since everything can be thrown into the diaper pail for washing. We purchased several packs of cheap baby wash cloths (the really thin ones, Gerber brand) at Babies R Us. They come in packs of 8 for like $5, and I think we got four packs. I have yet to run out of cloth wipes. We use a spray bottle filled with water to wet the wipes. We haven't found the need to add anything to the water.

For washing, I do a cold rinse, then add the detergent (we're using Charlie's Soap), then run a hot wash with another cold rinse. After it's all done, I hang the covers up to dry. Then all prefolds, wipes, wet bags and the pail liner get thrown into the dryer on low heat. I'll usually remove the wet bags and pail liner about 20 minutes into the drying cycle and hang them to dry the rest of the way.

Here's Nora in just the prefold and a Snappi. We've been using the "angel wing" fold, and it seems to work very well for us.

And here she is with the Thirsties Duo cover, all diapered up. (This is the extra one that I ordered--of course, now that we have a girl, I just had to order it in pink!)

I think that's really it for our routine and our experience so far. It's really been great--and I know that if we can get the hang of and enjoy prefolds, we'll be more than fine when we get to the pocket diaper stage, as things will be even easier.

My biggest concern right now is where we go from here. It's my understanding that most one-size pocket diapers do not fit babies well until they are around 12-13 lbs. And well, Nora is a month old and she's probably hanging out around 8 lbs. right now. Ideally, we'd be able to move directly from the newborn prefolds to the pocket diaper, but I'm not sure if that'll work--I'm worried she'll outgrow the newborn prefolds (the Green Mountain Diapers "orange" prefolds) before she'll actually fit into the pocket diapers. And if that's the case, do we invest in another 24 prefolds in the next size up (the Green Mountain Diapers "yellow" prefolds) so we can continue to use the Thirsties Duo covers, or do we use some more disposables to hold us over until she can fit into the pockets? Ugh, I really hope to not have to do the latter, but I'm not sure if buying the next size prefolds will be the way to go, either. For now, I'm just hoping that she'll continue to fit into the newborn prefolds for a while!

I hope this answers some of the questions you all may have, but if there are others, please feel free to ask in the comments. And if any of you cloth diapering moms have any wisdom to offer, please, I'm all ears!

If you're curious about our stash and how we got started on this cloth diapering thing, please check out my first post on the subject.

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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.)

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