Cloth Diapers Part II

You may recall 5 ventures ago I talked about doing cloth diapers, you can check that out more here if you so choose. But basically I gave a little intro about how I wanted to do cloth diapers for when my baby would be born (I typed that venture when I was still preggo), and showed off the fancy things we found online and all that jazz. Well the babe has come and it is now two months later, and I know you are just DYING to know how it is all going, to know how the whole cloth diaper thing is going, right!? (since you check up on me SO often, right!?)
Well then, this is your lucky day, I will tell you exactly that: how the cloth diapering is actually going...


Here is her showing off one them...


First off, I would give it all time 8 Star, for it is going pretty good (not perfect yet, but still pretty good!)! I got a good amount of disposable diapers as gifts from various people. Since a good amount of the gifts were newborn sizes, I knew I needed to use those up first, especially since I knew the first few weeks of diapers would be a lovely tar like ordeal, and it would be nice to take in this whole thing slowly and I also wouldn't want those new born disposable diapers to go to waste since I figured she would out grow that size pretty quickly, and she did. So I didn't use cloth in the very beginning...

After about 3-4 weeks, when her diapers became more manageable in smell and looks (poop is such an interesting thing), I began in my venture I promised I would try. It has taken quite a while to get used to a routine of laundry and keeping up in that department in order to not have to use as many disposable while the cloth are, well in the laundry. But after two months now I think I got a good system down and things are going pretty smooth. I do still have occasions where I still do disposables like when we get a babysitter (I wouldn't want to have to put them through this too :) and then I like to use them for church on Sunday as a "day of rest" sort of deal, in giving myself a little break after a long "poopy" sort of week, if you get my drift :)

On a fun and thrifty note- we still have not bought any packages of disposable diapers since she was born, because we got a good amount at the baby shower, and because we are finally using the cloth enough we just haven't needed to buy any so far yet. We will prob need to be buying a package soon though, since in a couple of weeks we will finally start doing a little of traveling to see family, which will also be a time when we wont do cloth- could you imagine trying to keep up on this sort of thing on the road? I don't want to have to imagine it :)

On some other fun and frugal notes, to help keep up with the laundry I was thinking I would need more of the outer shells (we originally bought three, hoping they wouldn't get that dirty while the inserts we knew would, so we got 24 of those) and it actually has worked out pretty well, as long as she doesn't poop. For some reason the inserts catch all her pee pretty good, but when she poop it tends to get past the inserts and making a mess onto the shells- thus creating the need to do more laundry. So long story short, I decided we needed more shells, but before we jumped right in on buying more, I wanted to try making one, and well folks... I think it just might work, for what I put together. Here is just my first round of one, and if it continues to be a success I think I will make a few more, especially to help things out when she will start pooping more when she will start eating solids soon.

Her showing off her new fancy shell that I made

I made this double layered. The outer material has a sort of waterproof feel to it, and then I also sewed a layer of plastic wrap in between the two to help give that much more leak protection. This homemade one isn't reversible like the store bought ones are, and I put Velcro on it instead of the cool fancy buttons, but other than that it is basically the same, and is still adjustable so that it should fit her as long as she needs it too.  Now the only fun part to see if this will really work is to see how well it will wash in the laundry and if the plastic layer wont get messed up.

Anyway, long story short, it has been a great venture, one I haven't regretted wanting to venture on. It is comforting to know I don't have to run to the store every week or so to reload on diapers, and it is saving lots of money in our pocket- which ALWAYS gives me a good peace of mind! And not to mention it is also fun to think we are also helping the environment- one diaper at a time!

Until next time!....