The Beginning: Cloth Diapers

A lot of you already know I cloth diaper and LOVE it! So much so, I'm what you could call "addicted" although I'm trying desperately to hop on the wagon to recovery. What most of you don't know is why. If you know me at all, this doesn't seem like something I would go for, as I'm always about the latest "great" thing to make life easier & uncomplicated. Let's face it: Cloth diapering certainly doesn't make life easier. It just adds to the piles and piles of laundry already waiting to be washed & folded. Not to mention, having to deal with cleaning off poop? GUUUHHHHROSSSSSSSS!!!!!! Right?

One thing I never could anticipate is how I would feel/see things when I was pregnant. I spent HOURS on Babycenter and other baby-related websites, looking/researching and making sure what I was purchasing was not only top-rated but top ranked in safety, cost-effective and the BEST for my baby. In all of this researching, I came across discussions for cloth diapers. I started looking into it more vs. disposables and the more I looked at it, the more I thought it made sense but all the choices though were so overwhelming and I just couldn't FATHOM washing DIRTY DIAPERS?! GUUUUHHHHHROOOSSSSSS!!!!

So I found a local diapering service - Tidee Didee which delivers and picks up the dirties and brings me new ones! How cool was THAT?! After a small talk with Pappa Bear, he agreed to try it out. We only had a four week commitment, and we could at least give it that long to try, yes? At the service's recommendation, we started off on an 80 diaper (prefolds) a week rotation. Holy COW! That was a LOT of diapers!! After our first week, Pappa Bear though that it really was no different than changing disposable ('sposie) diapers and I agreed! It just took one extra step, a little coordination and know how and voila! Easy as pie! Of course they were HUGE on our little guy - just check it out for yourself:

 See how big his bottom half is? He looks like a pear!

 

Once Cubby started solids (around 5ish months or so) and his diaper started to have more solids in it, I thought I'd give washing/caring for our own cloth diapers a try. The main reason? Not only to cut costs, but man - they were so darn CUUUUUUTE! Turns out, it was all easy peasy as pie. Well, almost. We've had some stink issues, a suedecloth reaction, an eczema flare-up and oh the dreaded MUSH poop that required the installation and use of a diaper sprayer but for the most part - it's been a breeze! Besides, you can't capture this kind of adorable-cuteness in 'sposies, right?!!