Cloth Diapering

So we chose to do cloth diapers for the primary reason of saving money.  I did all the research and talked with many other cloth diapering mommas.  I chatted for hours with a lovely lady in Bloomington with a cloth diapering store and she answered all my questions and helped me determine a diaper that would work well for us and those caring for Micah.  Micah is in daycare 3 days a week so this had to be something that anybody could figure out.  Ms. Nancy cares for him most of the time but there are times when other teachers sub throughout the day.  We chose the BumGenius 3.0's with hook and loop (Velcro) closures.  These diapers should get him from 8lbs to 35lbs and I really hope he's potty trained before hitting 30-35 lbs (he's a small guy to start).  These work well for us.  There are quite bulky on a little baby and looking back I kinda wished we would have done a small sized diper until he reached 15lbs or so.  They fit him quite well now that he's bigger.  Cotton Babies is the manufacturer of these diapers and they've been great to work with.  I had problems with the Velcro pulling away from the diaper and there was no way to fix it.  They are replacing 9 diapers and mailing new ones with the snap closures.  What a great company!

I  had a few people who thought we were crazy for doing cloth diapers, but I hope we've proved them wrong.  It's just an extra load of dipes every other day and it's a small price to pay to save thousands of dipes from going to the landfill.  Another bonus is that they should save us some cash.  I don't really know that we've saved as much as we should have.  I tend to spray the heck out of them before they go into the We paid about $350 for 18 diapers in the beginning, but I've since added to our collection.  Just today I received a super cute fire truck cloth diaper by Rumparooz!  It was like Christmas opening it! Funny how I used to get this excited over a new purse or a pair of shoes, not its cloth diapers for my baby's bottom :)   We've also tried Thirsties Duo diaper, BumGenius Flips, and FuziBunz.  All of these are one size diapers except for the Thirsties which have a size 1 and 2 to keep baby diapered from 8-15#.  The Flips have disposable biodegradable inserts which are great for the diaper bag, when I forget to put the diapers in the dryer, and some smaller outfits (again most of these cloth diapers are bulky). The flip insert is a cross between modern diapers and the prefold/cover diapers.   My only beef with these is that the Poo runs off the diaper right on the cover and I have to change the whole thing anyway which defeats the point of "flipping" out the insert and replacing it with a new one.  The Thirsties Duo diapers are a cute print but they still seem really big on Micah.  They should fit 18-40# and Micah is 18.5#.  The FuzziBunz are very trim but have a ton of snaps in odd places.  I've only used this diaper once and I'm sure I'll figure out the perfect fit soon.  I wish I would have tried a variety of cloth diapers before settling on one brand.  I do like the BG 3.0's but I wonder if my choice would have been different if I'd tried other cloth diapers as well.  The hook and loop closure is great for daycare, dad, or the baby sitter but I think I prefer the snaps because of less laundry care and less wear and tear on the diaper.  And I've had a heck of a time with the hook and loop closures making a chain of diapers in the wash!