Our First Day of Cloth Diapers!

As our family has grown we decided to take a journey down the road of cloth diapering. After MUCH research and tons of bugging friends we settled on beginning with slightly more than the "bare basics". Our journey began yesterday when the diapers began to arrive and I have to say I wanted to write this up to share with all of you how we began this road we hope to travel until our newest addition is potty trained and for any future children.

We chose to wait on cloth diapering until our son was big enough to fit in "one size" diapers. I'm pleased with this choice even after beginning our journey. Our family's decision to cloth diaper was driven primarily by price, not "being green" or being fashionable so the $250+ investment in cloth diapers for a newborn that would have only fit until maybe 2 weeks from now would have been ridiculous vs. the $50 we have spent TOTAL on disposable diapers for his first 4 weeks of life.

Our journey begins on the day after his one month birthday.

The beginning "I want to try this but don't want to waste my $$" stash is:

3 Flip Covers: $27.90 @ Cotton Babies (on a buy 2, get 1 free sale) - 2 snap, 1 aplix
2 Thirsties Covers (size 1): $25.10 @ Amazon (supporting FOV!) - 1 snap, 1 aplix
12 Osocozy Better Fit Prefolds (infant): $27.99 @ Sweet Bottoms Baby
1 Kawaii Snazzy Minky: $10.25 @ Sweet Bottoms Baby
1 Planetwise Wet/Dry Bag: $21.00 @ Amazon
1 Rockin' Green Hard Rock 45/90 Load Bag: $16.80 @ Amazon

Total Shipping Cost: $0.00 :)

Total Cloth Diaper Investment: $129.04

Please note if you're using this blog to research cloth diapers (apparently far into the future because this is the only post right now! LOL) this is NOT enough to diaper full time. We are planning to diaper part time while we figure out what we like before we purchase the rest of our stash. Initially we had planned on doing the trial from Jillian's Drawers. However losing $20 of deposit and getting some diapers we weren't interested in trying didn't seem wise for OUR needs. We would have still needed to purchase cloth diaper detergent (due to extremely hard water where we live) and at least one wetbag so the total cost to try would have been $192.34 and would have been out $57.80 if we decided cloth diapering wasn't for us. This just made more sense and since I have friends using everything I have listed here I can pass it on to someone I know will use it if we decide this isn't for us.

Now let's talk diaper prepping. If you're new to this you may not know that cloth diapers need to be prepped. I chose to prep the prefolds using the "boiling" method. The dozen prefolds were done in 2 "loads" in my pressure cooker pot I use for canning. I used the same water for all of them and boiled for 30 minutes. Then I threw them in the washer and ran a rinse cycle. Then I added all the covers and Kawaii inserts and ran a wash cycle on warm. Then I pulled out the covers and pocket diaper and put them in the dryer on hot (to "seal" any mini holes) while I ran the prefolds and inserts on another cold rinse. Once the rinse was done I took out the covers and pocket and put in the prefolds and inserts to the dryer and dried for 2 cycles. I hung the covers and pocket to finish drying while the others were in the dryer. Voila - prepped diapers! (all were wonderfully absorbent and performed well when used.)

Okay - that disclaimer aside, let's get down to the meat and potatoes of how today went.

Our son, as of today, is approximately 10 lbs and 22 inches long. He's 1 month old.

Our FIRST foray was a Flip with snaps stuffed with an Osocozy BF Prefold.

We did 3 of these back to back. Here is what I learned:

1. Set up your covers with prefolds ready to rock and roll in advance to make diaper changes fly by. A squirming screaming 1 month old is NOT fun to try and corral - hence the one sock, we'd dunked the missing one in a messy diaper! :)

2. If you have leftover disposable diaper wipes, they're excellent for wiping out the covers and giving them a nice "scent" after they've been used but are still able to go another few rounds.

3. Hang covers to dry and air out after use. Don't plan on reusing the same cover right away to avoid stench.

4. Set a timer. If you're new to cloth diapers, set it for 1 hour until you know how long your baby can wait between diaper changes so you don't end up with unnecessary unpleasant surprises.

5. Preset multi-setting covers to the right size. Not something you want to be attempting either!

6. Leave velcro attached to laundry tabs until you're going to put it on the baby to prevent snagging your prefolds or covers.

The good news is I did all of this in advance! :) I can say after going through 6 cloth diapers today changing roughly every 1 1/2 to 2 hours we have not had a single leak or blowout despite having an EBF baby! :) I'm so pleased by this there aren't words!!!! Not a single problem with the Flips with a prefold. I'm thrilled - really! When putting on the 4th diaper of the day I honestly had the thought of "I can DO this!!!" That's pretty impressive for someone with post-partum depression. :)

And now for the Thirsties:

Worked just as wonderfully and despite the purple protesting baby looked MUCH better on. That said this cover was just as functional but will not fit above 18 lbs. - a definite consideration.

Overall I'm pleased with how the experiment went. No leaks, no blowouts, and it was VERY easy to just swish the diapers ad toss in the wetbag. For day 1 and 6 changes I feel like we did awesome!!!!