I wonder how many kid-related posts I’ll need to write before my previous audience completely disappears into thin air? Sorry guys. But I guess you had nine months to prepare for this.
This week we decided to start Penny in cloth diapers. Her disgusting umbilical stump finally fell off late last week, which was one of the things we were waiting for. The other reason we waited was to use up as many of the disposables that we had been given as we possibly could. We have a small stash left for going out and traveling, but with that running low it was time to bite the bullet.
Yesterday was Penny’s first day exclusively in cloth. We started her in pre-folds with covers, but she quickly wet through those. Then we tried her in the BumGenius 3.0 pocket diapers which were a success! Today being the second day, we’ve figured out just how tightly to secure them as well as how to best position them to prevent leaks. And I gotta say, I’m pretty impressed. (I also will say that she developed a small diaper rash over the weekend which quickly disappeared as soon as we put her in cloth. Take THAT, disposables!)
I have a supply of about 14 or so BumGenius pocket dipes, and each day I go through about 10-11, which means doing a load of laundry every day. I think I might pick up another 4-6 which would allow me to do diaper wash every other day – you wouldn’t really want to push it longer than that. The other issue we need to solve is to find a suitable lidded trash can to keep my wetbag in. I searched high and low while pregnant and landed on one trash can that really is better as just a trash can. So I’m sending Matt on the search for a better container. This is a task that he will shine at.
Overall, I have to say that cloth diapers are really nice and seem very doable. Yesterday we ran a few errands (to the jeweler! to have my engagement ring reset! FINALLY!), and Penny was in cloth the whole time. I had my small wetbag with me and didn’t wind up needing to change her. I plan to keep her in cloth for most around-town errands and only put her in disposables while we’re doing major traveling. Even Matt is totally on board with these diapers and doesn’t find them to be any more challenging than the others.
Now I just need to go through her clothes to figure out what will fit over her huge butt! Goodbye newborn onesies. 
July 27th, 2010 at 9:13 pm
For all the suggestions I got from the nurses/doctors about Sam’s tenacious and painful-looking diaper rash(es), no one ever suggested cloth. Now, I wonder. If it would have helped. Fortunately, he learned to use the potty and the whole mess went away.
Sounds like it’s much more doable than I imagined.
July 27th, 2010 at 10:07 pm
All we ever used were the BG (albeit an earlier model), and we rarely had problems with diaper rash in those (only when SG had the rare case of diarrhea). Hooray for tushies in cloth!
July 27th, 2010 at 10:38 pm
my boys have been the same way. put ‘em in cloth and the rash goes away! so glad your first few days have gone well!
July 28th, 2010 at 12:20 pm
I’d recommend getting about 24 dipes, that will get you to doing laundry every other day or every two days which isn’t a big deal at all (at least it wasn’t to me). Newborn dipes are lots different than when they start solids so you’ll do lots of dipes to begin with, but the amount will lessen with time. diaperjunction.com is a great site I just used. They offer a 30-day return policy on anything you get that you don’t like and sell things second-hand after they’ve been cleaned and sterilized in their facility. The used dipes I got looked like new and have worked wonderfully for Zachari!
July 29th, 2010 at 8:37 pm
Great to hear you’re having a good experience so far. I used cloth exclusively (even when travelling) and loved it. I took great advantage of the second hand diapers people offered, great way to build a stash.
As for the giant butt – you can get little extenders for the onesies, it’s a piece of cloth with snaps on either end to ‘bridge’ the extra room the cloth takes up. As well, if you go with something like fitteds, you can use woolies or fleecies for pants and covers in one.