The Diaper Debate (CD Part 1)

You have got to be crazy. That's what I said to Jack the first time he mentioned cloth diapers while I was pregnant. I didn't consider cloth even an option, like most new parents of our generation. Diapers are disposable, that's just how it is.

Fast forward eight or so months later, and I have to say I've done a complete 180. Now I'm the one explaining: No we are not crazy, Yes we wash them ourselves, No we are not hippies, Yes it is easy to do. Since so many of my friends are here with me in the diapering days of our lives, it seems I'm talking about our baby's fuzzy bum a lot. We are the only cloth diapering trio that we know, we sometimes get honest questions from interested parents. In fact though I'd already started this post, I even had a request to blog about it!

For a quick background, I'm the oldest of four siblings and the oldest of all my cousins, on both sides of the family. Being the oldest and female, I'd changed a fair share of diapers before even getting married. All disposable of course. I knew what to do with disposable diapers and disposable wipes - ball it up and throw it away. I even knew how to work various diaper disposable contraptions that 'seal away' the odors. I had NO IDEA what to do with real cloth diapers. When we first considered it, I had visions of archaic large flat diapers that had to have some complex fold & pin method to wrap up baby. I had no confidence in my ability (or my husbands) to apply this method without poking holes in our child, nor in the feasibility or quality of cloth. Jack went to a daddy-only prenatal baby class (Daddy Bootcamp) where two new dads brought their babies in and spoke to the class. By luck, one was cloth diapering his little girl. Jack came home telling me about cloth diapers that look just like disposables. What? I didn't understand. He said they looked just like a 'regular' diaper, with velcro and elastic and everything. This is when the adventure started...

4wks old in his AIO diaper

As I do with just about everything else in my life, I turned to the web for answers. After a few weeks of researching cloth diapers (type in 'cloth diapers' in Google and see if you don't get information overload!), and the types, costs, washing methods, etc; I was convinced that it was the way to go. So what was the primary deciding factor? Well money mainly. But also that I thought we could do it. (What good is saving money if it's not feasible?). When I learned how much money we could save over disposables I was shocked and more than willing to give it a try. After five months of CDing, there are lots of reasons why we love it and are still doing it.

...to be continued.

10wks old in a prefold and cover