Gussets, Aplix and Snappis! Oh my!

I cloth diaper my 1 year old son. I stumbled across cloth diapering while on Babycenter.com as I belonged to the Birth Boards throughout my pregnancy. They are fun to read and commiserate with other pregnant mamas. Anyway, someone had posted about cloth diapering. Now, when I think of cloth diapering, I picture this being done on a commune or sister wives being the only one's who do this. I was obviously wrong. The women who cloth diaper are from all different backgrounds yet they all spoke the same language. The language of gussets and compression leaks. They used acronyms like AIO, BGE and CD. ( I got that CD one after a few reads :) ) I had no idea what they were talking about, but I was hooked. I wanted to know more. I wanted to know why people cloth diapered and what the big deal was. Then, I stumbled across the Cloth Diaper Swap page and I quickly saw what the big deal was. The cutest, most adorable prints and colors. Pictures of babies wearing their "fluff". I was hooked.


Look at them!  Aren't they beautiful?

(photo by Mooshinindy on Flickr)

  So, I told my husband that I was going to start cloth diapering our baby. He is used to my outlandish ideas, so he just asked how much this would cost. Of course, I told him to think about all the money that we spend on disposables and how this is so much better for the planet and F.'s bum, as there are no chemicals in cloth diapers... He gave me the go ahead and told me it could be my thing. off to the swap I went! So many choices! Flats? Prefolds? Pockets? All-in-ones? I did a little research and decided to get some prefolds and covers and some pocket diapers. Well, there are so many to choose from! So many brands and so many patterns. It is really a bit overwhelming. A small amount of research went in to my choices and I purchased some used prefolds and two covers and a lot of 4 pocket diapers with inserts.

When the "fluff mail" came, I was ecstatic! Visions of my baby with a fluffy booty and me reducing our family's carbon footprint filled my head! After I figured out how to put the prefold on, thank you You-Tube, I popped the cover on and man! F.'s butt was huge! Like, I couldn't get his pants on over it huge. Thinking this could not be the way it is supposed to be, I put him down to change it. Perhaps I had the fold incorrect. Well, he only had the prefold on for about 10 minutes and when I removed the cover to re-do the diaper, It. Was. Soaked. Like, you could wring it out soaked. Ugh. Well, I put my smile on because this was life when you CD! Ok, let's try the pocket diaper. Got that on him. Oh so cute! Fast forward about an hour and I smell something. Really? We are just "trying" on the diapers and he has to poop in it?? My fantasy world of cloth diapers was slowly fading. It can't be that bad to change. Umm... WRONG!! Cloth and poop. Hmm.. not a good combination. Or perhaps TOO good of a combo as they were attracted to each other so well. (Let me add here that I do not have a diaper sprayer. As F. is our last baby, I wanted as little money invested in CD'ing as possible.) So, off to wash off the poopy diaper in the sink. That was gross. A bit too much for me. So, I began researching diaper liners. Flushable liners that hold the nasties off the diaper. Again, SOLD!

Since I have been a stay at home mom now since last month, I have been trying to CD regularly. Now, if we are going somewhere, I cheat with 'sposies. (disposables). And, I use 'sposies at night. I have also found that CD's must be changed at least every 2 hours. I have settled in with pocket diapers and they seem to be pretty trim on F. I am grateful that the weather is getting warmer, so we can show off the fluff as he can be without pants or shorts on. All in all, my little adventure in cloth diapering has been going pretty well. Cloth diapers can be very addicting to buy! As I have also come to find out. I stalk swaps and oogle the pretty prints and HTF (hard to find) dipes. But, I believe I am done buying.. for now!

Look how cute!