Tuesday, March 9, 2010

The Adventure Continues: Cloth Part II

Day one of cloth diapering is behind us. There were highs. There were lows. There was the first cloth diaper poop incident. There was one cute baby.

The day started out with me determined to conquer the pre-fold system. So help me! To start with I tri-folded a pre fold and stuck it in the thirsties cover. That's easy enough.

... but REALLY bulky. I'm not sure you can appreciate the bulk from these photos, but at least enjoy the happy baby, ok?

I ended up putting him into a onesie suite with baby legs for the day so I didn't have to worry about putting pants on him. ... because it was THAT bulky! I honestly dont think most of his pants would've gone over it. Crazy.

Enjoy the cute baby some more ...

Meanwhile, we waited for the next diaper change. I have never been so anxious to change diapers before. That's some sort of crazy.

The bulkiness, for the record, did not seem to inhibit his movements or bother him in any way, shape or form. But the fact that we would have to buy him new pants to be able to have him wear these like this makes them a complete no-go in my book. He has too many pants as it is. For serious.


Several hours later, we were on to diaper change number two. I set up the pre-fold so that I could put it on him with the snappi. He was in a non-wiggly mood again which NEVER happens, and so I managed to get this on him like so:



... while this method didn't result in any leaking or other uncool craziness, I didn't like the way it gapped on his leg. I mean, if some sort of crazy messiness was going to happen, I am CERTAIN it would not stay in there. And you do NOT want to be involved in cleaning that up, do you? I don't.


But there IS a good side to doing it this way ... no bulk! Hopefully you can see that in this photo, compared to the one above. And look? Dave was still happy!

Unfortunately all of this was about to change. The next diaper change, when I was going to conquer the pre-fold AGAIN, presented us with a wiggling, crying, tired Baby Dave who was NOT interested in being strapped into a piece of cloth. And so we ended up with the following ...

That would be Dave, crying. Conclusion: pre folds are not for people who have wiggly children or those with tight pants.

I decided to try the bum genius instead. It looks good, seems to wear well and has had no leaks. Also a LOT less bulky.

What I do not like about this is that you have to stuff the insert underneath a piece of fabric in the diaper cover. When it's time to change the baby you replace the insert and use the cover again. Does that seem gross to anyone else? The piece of fabric the insert goes under is dirty ... or is it? Unclear. Still seems gross to me.

(I know what you're thinking: grosser than washing diapers full of pee in your washing machine? ... well I don't know. That's what this experiment is all about).

A three hour nap later ... we did not get a chance to see what happens when you put a new insert in an "old" cover because it was in this particular selection that he decided to be poopy. (This is the moment you've all been waiting for). Now that I've dealt with our first poopy cloth diaper I can say -- it wasn't that bad. Of course it's not like he exploded or anything but still ... this is life, and it wasn't as disgusting as I feared. Lucky you, no pictures.


Instead we'll move on. .. to Fuzi Bunz! Which appear to be basically the same thing as the Bum Genius. So here's a photo of that (it's not very good but he wouldn't sit still so this is what you get).

Our next change will be for night time and we'll be using a disposable (given aforementioned nighttime challenges).

Also, I went ahead and ordered a few packs of Flips from Diapers.com ... they will arrive sometime next week. Flips, which were not included in our sample pack, are similar to the gro-baby diapers, but don't have a snap insert. I have a friend who uses them and LOVES them. So far the gro-babies are my favorites, but the Flips are cheaper.

And that is Cloth Diapering Part II. I'll be washing tonight (under normal circumstances I plan to wash every two days). We won't be using cloth tomorrow because we'll be out all day and Dave will be with a friend.

4 comments:

  1. I like it. You've inspired me to give it a try (after day two!) when/if I should have kids. We'll see how the experiment progresses and if I change my mind if you change yours. :)

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  2. ok. I'm going to admit that I got SO distracted by the cute pictures that I hardly read your actual words. I figure that when the time comes and I'm making diaper decisions then I'll come back and read your thoughts again...and hopefully NOT be as distracted by the cuteness. Seriously Cute.

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  3. Um... I don't know what kind of new language you're speaking, but it's definitely not the one I speak. There are an AWFUL lot of words in there that I do not understand. Perhaps your next entry could be a diapering vocabulary lesson. (Of course, illustrations with distractingly cute baby would be appreciated by me and, apparently, Abigail)

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  4. I'm not sure how I found my way over here, but congratulations on cloth diapering! I have been cloth diapering with my two for almost two years! Even here in the rainy pacific NW, I air dry the diapers. I don't mind doing laundry, which is a good thing since there is a lot of it! I use the prefolds and Prorap Classic covers or nylon pants—vinyl rips too easily. The nylon pants are less bulky and I use the Proraps (since I have them) at night. Good luck with the diapers! (my comment above was deleted--too many spelling errors!)

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