Cloth Diapers 101 - Choosing a Diaper (Part 1)

 

Choosing a Diaper
Believe it or not, there are quite a few types and brands of cloth diapers to pick from. They range from the old-fashioned pre-fold with a diaper cover to more modern pockets and hybrid diapers. Deciding what type of diaper you want to go with depends on why you're doing cloth diapers (to save money, to be eco-friendly, because they're awesome...you know...whatever your reason) and how much "extra work" you are willing to deal with (although, as I mentioned last time, the extra work isn't that big of a deal, hence the quotes).

No Matter What, I Need to Save as Much Money as Possible!
If you are solely looking to save money and don't care about how much work the diapers are, I would recommend looking into pre-folds and diaper covers. Pre-fold diapers are what a lot of moms use for burp cloths now - those white, rectangular cloths that are thicker in the middle and pretty dang absorbent. They seem intimidating because you have to fold them yourself, but it's actually really easy. (Click here for a great video on different ways to fold them!) Pre-folds come in different sizes depending on the size of your kiddo, but there aren't a lot of sizes (because you can fold them!) so you don't have to buy a bunch of them throughout your kiddo's diaper career.

To keep the diapers in place you can use safety pins or you can use snappies. These are stretchy clips, similar to the ones you use with ace bandages, that hold the diaper in place. They are MUCH easier to use than safety pins, especially with a squirmy baby. These are also inexpensive and, unless you lose yours, they are a one-time purchase.

Finally, the diaper covers, which you place over the pre-fold to keep pee and poo from going everywhere, cost very little compared to other types of diapers. And because they are just covers, you don't need that many. Unless the cover gets poo on it, you can just wipe the pee residue out with a baby wipe and let it dry while you use another. These are also typically sized, like the pre-fold inserts, so you will most likely need to buy separate sets a few times, but, like I said, they don't cost much.

Another big reason that these diapers are so cost effective is because you don't need to use special laundry detergent like you do on other diapers. From my experience, regular free and clear detergent works just fine, which leads me to...

My Two Cents
When Justin and I decided to do cloth diapers, we did not decide to use pre-folds and diaper covers. However, once we got Levi home from the hospital, it became clear that he wouldn't be big enough for the diapers we had for a while. We didn't want to use disposables because newborns poo and pee A BUNCH and we were trying to save as much money as possible. So, after some research (see Making the Decision), we decided to try pre-folds until our other diapers fit. One of the main reasons we went with these diapers, besides the cost, was the fact that you can get them in extra-small that fit newborns. They even have a little notch for the belly button, just like newborn disposable diapers.

We bought two Thirsties diaper covers in extra-small ($12!), a set of snappies, and just used some pre-folds that were given to us as gifts. Two covers was definitely enough because most of Levi's poos weren't substantial enough to dirty them up. And since breast-fed baby poo is water-soluble, we just threw the pre-folds right into the wash, poo or no poo, without dunking them in the toilet or any of those other horrors you hear about that scare people away from cloth (don't worry, I'll cover cleaning and laundry in a future post). Honestly, it was easy as pie and it worked great for us while we waited for Levi to fit into our other diapers. And once Levi could wear his other diapers, we still kept the Thirsties around until he outgrew them - they worked really well!

While I didn't have the foresight to take a picture of tiny Levi in his Thirsties diaper, I won't leave y'all completely picture-less. Here he is!

What better way to brainwash your child into attending your university than to take him to sporting events? Sic 'em Bears!

Cloth Diapers 101: Making the Decision



After four months of baby-ness, I can finally say, with authority, that I love using cloth diapers! The following is the first installment of a little-bit-of-everything guide to cloth diapers. In this post I'll let you know how Justin and I made the decision to use cloth diapers, including helpful research information for those of you who are thinking about using them, but just aren't sure.

Research!
Justin and I found out about cloth diapers pretty early-on in my pregnancy. We were looking for any way to save money and this seemed like a great way to somewhat avoid the "babies are so expensive" feeling that was slowly creeping toward us. Before we decided to use cloth we did LOTS of research, which I highly recommend to anyone that's looking into it. There are plenty of blogs out there dedicated to cloth diapering. They have all kinds of statistics and reviews to look through for all the different types of cloth diapers, and let me tell you, there are lots of them. Here are a few places that were helpful research sites for us:

• Baby Center - This is a good website for pregnant folks anyway, but this page specifically gives a brief rundown of all of your options, as well as links to give you more information on what it means to use cloth diapers.
• Dirty Diaper Laundry - This is one of those blogs I was talking about that's dedicated to cloth diapers. It's got more reviews and videos than you could ever ask for. We visited this site a lot!
• Product Sites - when we started seriously considering a brand of diaper we would visit the company website. Obviously the sites are all biased, but they give you good insight into how the diapers work and the overall cost (i.e. disposable inserts, special detergent, sizing, etc.). Warning: These sites are designed to sell! You may want to google negative reviews after visiting the site just to give you some perspective.

YouTube
Another random but excellent place to go to research cloth diapering is YouTube. There are videos about all aspects of cloth, from organization and folding to reviews and time commitment. Here are a couple videos that we found helpful in the beginning:

Why Choose Cloth Diapers?

  



A Day in the Life of a Cloth Diapering Mom

YouTube is also a good place for the hubs to research cloth diapering. Justin found some videos made by other dads that gave him the male perspective, so that was good. I've read about some women doing cloth diapers without having their husband on board with it, but I imagine that's a huge pain in the butt. Just sayin'...

My Two Cents
If you're on the fence or are just finding out about cloth diapering as an option, you may be wondering why people would willingly give themselves more work to do when it comes to taking care of their baby (although I would argue it's not that much more, but I'll get to that another day). As I mentioned earlier, Justin and I originally started looking into cloth diapering because of the lower overall cost. I know there are some price comparisons out there that factor in things like disposable liners and laundry services, neither of which apply to us, so this is all relative, but from what I've read we're saving about $1500 over the course of Levi's diaper career by using cloth. Other benefits include the fact that cloth-diapered babies tend to potty train faster because they know what it feels like to be wet, they are better for the environment because you aren't throwing away large numbers of diapers each week, and the threat of diaper rash is slim to none. In fact, the only time Levi started to get a little diaper rash was when he was wearing disposables when we first brought him home. Since we transitioned to cloth we haven't had a problem with it. Finally, call me crazy, but I hate the smell of disposable diapers. I don't know if they're scented or what, but I think they smell like a public bathroom and I'm so glad that I don't have to mess with that on a regular basis.

Obviously, other things that you may want to consider are the additional loads of laundry you will be doing and the fact that you will most likely need to buy special laundry detergent for the diapers. Other than that though, and I know I'm biased here, I totally think they're worth it.

In future Cloth Diapering 101 posts, I'll explain some of the things I've briefly touched on above, but as a first installment, I hope this is helpful in providing some background information on how to go about researching cloth diapering and why Justin and I decided to go this route. If you have any questions, please feel free to comment!

And now, a gratuitous baby picture featuring, you guessed it, a cloth diaper (and a cute baby to boot)!



The Nursery is Finished (well...pretty much...) Part 2

I'm sure my last post left people wanting more. I mean, I didn't even post anything about what's actually inside Levi's nursery. Sorry! Here's what his actual room looks like:

Just in case anyone wasn't sure whose room they were entering, I put this sweet pennant on the door from the baby shower put on by my cohort. Friends, correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe Emily made this. Thanks girl! Bonus, the colors match his room perfectly!

 

 

Here's what the room looks like when you peek in. You can see the rocking chair that I got from my parents (the same one that my mom used when I was little), Levi's toy boxes under each window, and the bookcases. As I mentioned in my previous post, our apartment is rather small so even though Levi's room is now a nursery, we still needed to use the space for our books like we had when it was our office/study before. The blanket on the back of the rocking chair was made for Levi by my mom. She used the monster shapes from a set of sheets as a template for the quilt. It's absolutely precious!

 



 

Here's a close-up of the wall art above the bookcase. I painted a verse that Justin and I picked out onto an orange canvas.

 

Here's the wall next to the door when it's open. This is where the rest of our books are. I tied it into the rest of the room by hanging some Julius Alphabet flashcards above the bookcases. Please excuse the lighting, I'm not the best photographer with an iphone...haha!

 

 





Here's the far wall with the crib. I made three monster pictures for him as well as a pennant with his name on it. Close-ups are below.

 

 

 

 

Here's a close-up of one of the letters of Levi's pennant. I cut the letters out of felt and then stitched them onto pre-made pennant triangles that I found at Hobby Lobby.

 



 

Finally, here is the diaper station. I found this great antique buffet at Ms. L's Chic Tiques here in Waco (I also got my coffee table from them!). They had already painted it and replaced the drawer pulls...I couldn't resist the sunflower yellow! Click here to visit their Facebook page and see all the cute stuff they make!

 

 

 

Yay for a finished nursery (almost)! Hopefully I'll be able to find a replacement cushion soon (or learn how to recover this one...).

The Nursery is Finished (well...pretty much...) Part 1

I got my last needed item in the mail today (hello, white lamp stand!) and can finally say that Levi's nursery is ready to go! Granted, I'm still looking for a new cushion for the rocking chair since the sage doesn't really match anymore (and I've only been able to find other fall shades in stores lately...lame), but other than that it's ready!! Here's what we've got goin' on...

Because we live in an apartment with limited storage space (understatement!), I've expanded Levi's room to include the little entryway just outside of his door. Thanks to one of those cube storage units from Target, this space now makes up for the lack of storage in the bathroom, kitchen, and Levi's room. Yay! I topped the storage unit with a name board that my sister made (super cool!), a set of sock monkey nesting dolls (just combine my two favorite things why don't you?) and some vintage baby books that I got at one of my showers (thanks Cindy!).

 

 

Here's a close-up of the name board that my sister made. It's pretty neat! You can see other cool stuff she does here.

 

 



 

I'll post more pics soon of the rest of the room.