We’re on day 2 of cloth diapering and I am finding that I truly forgot how easy it is! I feel a bit more at peace when I put them on Matthew – as if I’m doing him a favor. I have no idea if he prefers them or not, but I like to believe he does.
We’re not going to be doing this 100% of the time. We’ll be using a disposable diaper at night, and I’ll keep disposables in my diaper bag to use when we’re out. I just don’t see the point in lugging cloth diapers around with me given that Matthew doesn’t usually require a diaper change when we’re out and about, and he is rather impatient with diaper changes and the cloth do take a little longer due to the snaps. We have not noticed him getting more upset in the cloth when he’s wet – we’re not needing to change him any more often in cloth than we were in disposables, so that’s good!
Washing the diapers isn’t a big deal – but the thought I had about letting it go a few days since we have so many isn’t going to work. Even after spraying out the dirty diapers, they still smell and I can’t stand the idea of them sitting dirty in the diaper pail. I’m washing a load right now and there are only 5 or 6 diapers in there – and that’s OK. Washing them isn’t the hard part – stuffing and organizing them takes the time. If I only have 6-10 to do each time – that’s just not an issue!
Matthew’s shorts just fit over them. Whew! We do have a pair that I know won’t fit, and on the days he wears those, he can use disposables. They’re cute and they have embroidered marlins on them, and I’m not willing to put them away yet. 😉
All the Sun For You 
July 5, 2012 at 2:23 pm
We use cloth 24/7 and have since the girls were big enough to fit even the teeny newborn diapers starting around maybe 6 weeks old. (The newborn diapers went down to 4lbs, but the girls’ legs were too skinny for them until 6/7 lbs). It took a bit of adjusting to figure out sizing, but once we did (maybe a week in), it was awesome. I still love them so, so much. We don’t have to change them all the time b/c the diapers are so absorbent, washing them is NBD, we don’t have to constantly buy diapers (although we do keep a pack of disposables around just in case), and they’ve never had a “real” diaper rash– just some redness that maybe once or twice we’ve taken seriously, and it was gone in a day. We’ve had poops that go straight up the back which are successfully stopped by cloth diapers many, many times– almost no diaper blowouts ever between BOTH girls! Disposables just don’t have the elastic across the top of the back to hold poops in. We use Rumparooz and Bum Genius one-size pocket diapers, by the way One of our girls goes all night long without almost ever leaking, too– she sleeps up to 11 hours in a row without being changed. The other eats ever 3 hours so she just has too much pee to last 😉
I take the cloth with me now when we go out, but I used to always just take disposables– they take up less room in our diaper backpack, which is already filled to the brim as it is! Nowadays we don’t go out for long and they rarely need an on-the-go change, so I only bring three.
July 5, 2012 at 11:44 pm
People don’t believe me when I tell them we didn’t have blow-outs with the CD’s when Matthew was a newborn, but it’s true. Not one.
I looked at the newborn Rumparooz tonight – we use only Rumparooz now. We got the one size ones thinking they’d work for a newborn. They did OK, but Matthew was 8 pounds when he came home and they were just so bulky. I would consider trying the newborn ones next time… but we’ll see. I didn’t get them for Matthew because I figured he’d be huge and they wouldn’t last us too long. they would have worked for a couple months, I bet.
July 5, 2012 at 7:07 pm
Haha, I TOTALLY don’t believe people when they say the extra laundry is no big deal. I don’t know, I just was never interested in CDing–it does feel like a lot of work to me. But then I’m a lazy SOB.
July 5, 2012 at 11:31 pm
Funny – my friend told me yesterday that she TOTALLY doesn’t believe mothers who say their kids sleep 10-12 hours a night. Good stuff! Between you and her – no one’s believing me 😉
Seriously – it’s easy. It was not when he was tiny – holy hell – I just could not keep up with it. But now that he’s going through 5-6 diapers a day, it just isn’t an issue. I sort of like washing them and getting them ready. I love doing all of Matthew’s laundry – it makes me feel at peace. That’s weird, I know!
July 6, 2012 at 3:20 pm
It’s not so weird–I love doing Alice’s laundry. And I truly hate anything domestic. Her clothes are just so cute and adorable and I love holding them. But diapers… it just doesn’t do it for me. 🙂
July 5, 2012 at 10:44 pm
I truly don’t even notice the extra laundry – it becomes as much a part of your routine as starting the dishwasher every couple of days (and honestly, takes less time than loading and unloading the dishwasher!).
I’m glad you have restarted and are liking the experience! When we are going out for a few hours, I’ll usually toss one CD, a cpl of disposable diapers, and a small wet bag in the diaper bag. I have never actually needed the disposable back ups, but it gives me peace of mind with less bulk. 🙂
Do you have a wet bag to store the dirty diapers in? That has been key for us to containing smells. Google “Planet Wise Diaper Wet Bag” – I have one large (which hangs in the nursery and most CD go in – when I was the diapers, the bag and all go in the wash), one medium (which goes to daycare and easily holds one work day’s worth of 4 AIO diapers + spit us clothes/rags), and one small (which goes in the diaper bag and can hold 2 CDs.
July 5, 2012 at 11:25 pm
Funny – that’s the wet bag we have in the car at all times. I love that bag! I also have a bunch of Kushies wet bags all over – in the car, in all diaper bags (we have a few – trial and error!), in the stroller. When we started up with cloth diapering, I was obsessed and bought all sorts of things to make it easier so that we would have the best chance at sticking it out.
You and I travel the same way! I have 2 CD’s, 3-4 disposables, and the wet bag in the big diaper bag. Today, we used no disposables until bed time. I’ll always have CD’s in the car – I tend to change him in the car versus in the restrooms wherever we are. The big diaper bag really is the car bag – hence why it’s so full!
This just isn’t seeming to be a challenge at all. It was hard when he was tiny because I just couldn’t keep up with them (spraying the dirties, un-stuffing, un-snapping, washing, drying, re-snapping, re-stuffing, putting away) – but now that he’s bigger and only pooping once or twice a day, it’s just not a big deal. I marveled today at how easy the transition back to CD’s has been.