Wednesday, August 20, 2008

One Week and Counting!

I guess I can officially claim to be a cloth diapering mama. I’ve been at it for one week now and I can officially say- it’s gotten easier. Am I over the learning curve? No. No. And for good measure, heck no.

Although the process seems much easier now, I am still eons away from being an expert. I have finally stopped hearing a little voice in my head saying “you didn’t know what you were getting yourself into, just declare it a loss and put on a disposable” every time I change my baby’s diaper.

My baby has also gotten used to cloth diapers. He seems happier with them now than before, when he was clearly trying to figure out just what the new texture and additional moisture were all about.

Granted, I still use disposables at night. That may continue indefinitely. It works well because baby has his biggest “constitutional” in the morning. It can be kind of explosive and… never mind. It is kind of nice to get that out of the way, wrap it up and never deal with it again. (I know, except for the fact that it ends up eventually leaching into the earth and poisoning the land for future generations, but please, give me a break because I’m trying.) I also still use disposables at daycare. I just don’t know about switching them over, and too, I need to give my credit card a rest for a while.

Current Observations-Prefolds
1. As I previously mentioned, get plenty of covers. Get different kinds because they fit differently and you need to learn what works best for your baby. Invest in wool- even if it’s just one cover. It really is awesome! To keep costs down, I knit my own and it’s already my “go to” cover.

2. Buy a few different prefolds to find the best fit. If you can, try to purchase singles in a few different sizes. I had initially thought to buy a bit bigger than baby truly needed to maximize the investment, but they didn’t fit well and diapering was way more difficult and frustrating than it needed to be. Basic cotton prefolds are not terribly expensive; it’s worth it to find and buy the correct size. Both you and your baby will be much happier and it’s going to keep you from reaching for the disposable out of frustration.

3. Be realistic about your needs. Over the weekend, I found myself washing diapers daily. I wanted to rush right to my computer and order more. When I thought it out, I realized that 5 days a week, I’m only going through 4-5 diapers a night. Two dozen diapers meet our needs just fine. If I were to go to full time cloth diapering, I would definitely order another 1-2 dozen. I should also mention I grab cloth diapers when a spit-related emergencie arise (no pun intended). We go though extra diapers that way, but they absorb so well they are a must have.

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