Wednesday, July 20, 2011

Wee Buns, an obsession (AKA my experience with cloth diapers thus far)

Ok, that title probably sounds a bit sketchy, but seriously before motherhood I never thought I'd spend so much of my waking time thinking about someone else's buns!  As I have mentioned on here before, we cloth diaper Norah, much of the time.  Lately, cloth diapers have been on my mind a ton, and I find my free time dwindling away looking at them online, pricing them out at The Little Seedling, and ogling over other blogging mama's stashes and cutie tushies in fluffy cloth!  We were given a bunch of disposables for when she was just a tiny (ha!) newborn, and were using them primarily at night time and when going out and cloth was not convenient.  That has worked great and now that we've used those up, I've been pricing out disposables and man, at .25 or more per diaper, it adds up quickly!! Financially, if no other reason were compelling enough, cloth really is the way for us to go.


Here she is in her Thirsties Duo Wraps with Cotton Babies Newborn prefolds under - these covers are both size 1, snapped all the way down to the smallest setting.  These were taken when she was about 2 weeks old, and was 9.2 lbs at birth, so probably around 10 lbs here.

Purple is snap closure:




Floral is aplix closure: 




So far, with cloth we've exclusively used these Thirsties Duo Wraps covers with their Stay-Dry inserts and Cotton Babies unbleached prefolds, but now that Norah's getting a bit bigger and eventually more mobile, I've been thinking about other options to add to our stash.  Initially I thought I would just want to do covers and prefolds all the way until potty training, but now I see the perks of pocket diapers for certain occasions.  The inner liners don't shift around with a mobile child, and the ease of changes for any other caregiver than myself are a few. So,  I took the plunge (ha! again) and decided to try a Bum Genius 4.0 a few weeks ago, and it's worked out great at night - no leaks yet! We got the palest lavender color, called "Bubble" :) I like that the tabs have some stretch to them, which helps get a better fit around Norah's belly.  It's not an especially trim fit through the crotch, though, and she fills out her PJs pretty well with this sucker stuffed up for bedtime with the large microfiber insert and one HempBabies hemp liner.  Which, love the hemp! Seriously ups the ante when it comes to absorbency! Score!


I also had a Groupon for about half off of an Itti Bitti Tutto minky diaper, and it's seriously the softest thing I could imagine a tushie sitting on! This is the one we got (color called Spectra):


However, the first night with the Tutto ended in leaks about 3 am...getting up to change a soggy Norah and going back to a slightly damp spot on my side of the bed was not what I wanted to do during what should be some very important part of my REM cycle, I'm sure.  Norah was less than pleased with the state of things as well, seeing as how lately we haven't been changing diapers overnight and she too was bothered by the interruption in beauty sleep.  The instructions do say that maximum absorbency is not reached until 4-5 washes in, and I'd only done one prep wash, so I guess I'll give it a few more before declaring it unfit for night time - it was on her about 5 hours in all fairness before leaking, so it will at least be a good day time diaper.  I totally LOVE the trim fit on her though, and I don't understand why all diapers aren't tailored through the crotch like this one - it just seems more comfy to have less bulk in there, but I guess Norah's not complained so far.  

Today, I more or less impulsively decided to further jump in and bought a 6-pack of a diaper I've never tried before, because of a tantalizing deal on Zulily.com - $79.99 for 6 dipes and 12 inserts, plus shipping has them come out about $14.50 per dipe.  The colors were too cute to pass up, and my only hesitation was that I had planned to buy only diapers that were "one size" - those with adjustable snap rise so they will fit her from now until she's out of diapers.  But this deal only had sized diapers, so I decided to go with the medium, which is said to fit from 15-30 pounds, so they should work for Norah for a while.  I got the pack called "Tutti Frutti", and I just love the bright colors and can't wait to give these a try!  They should at least be a great option for Grandma and Grandpa days, if not overnight.  


I've been waiting to try out the Bamboo Minky diapers by Kawaii diapers, but their shop is closed until the end of this month for inventory.  For the price they seem like a great option, and I am a sucker for the silky softness of minky any time! I plan to try one or two and will review them when I get the chance :) 

Anyway, who knew I would be so excited about someone else's tushie?  I mean, baby booties are pretty sweet and all, but seriously, I think this cloth diapering thing could become a problem!  I have to remind myself that the reason for doing it is primarily financial, and so I have to be careful not to get carried away buying more than we need/can afford at once, and overriding the cost benefit.  I'll have to get some pics of Norah wearing all of them, and will get those posted when I can.  

Happy diapering :)  

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