Cloth Diaper Chronicles: Diaper Diaries

I wanted to experience modern cloth diapering without making the total commitment. I visited several shops in Houston asking if any of them do sampling with no avail. So of course I turned to the internet and viola! there were several to choose from. I chose the Customized Diaper Trial through Diaper Daisy which is a three week trial.

I saw what they had online and was even more confused. What was an All in one or all in two or pocket diaper or prefold? I had used prefolds for burp cloths but how was that supposed to go on a baby's bottom? So I sent a note to Diaper Daisy through her website. She quickly sent me an email and asked all about my little one and what I was willing to deal with. She then walked me through what she would suggest as I looked at her website to get a visual for what she was talking about. Within days I had a set of cloth diapers in my mailbox.

I wanted to accurately document a non cloth diapering Mom learning the cloth diapering way of life, so I kept a journal to help you understand the learning curve and overcome the difficult parts of the transition. Cloth diapering isn't as scary as it sounds.

WEEK 1

DAY 1
Opened the package of cloth diapers today. Was sooo excited to get it. Raced home and put on the bumgenius first. I don't think I put it on right but it worked. Mostly, kinda soaked through since I didn't put the liner inside of the liner of the diaper. I should have realized that if two out of 4 came like that then they all probably wear worn the same way. R(the baby) pooped in it. It was solid poop but I wasn't sure what to do when I changed him. Ran into a problem when I dumped the poop with the wet wipe in the toilet. Oops! Not supposed to put the wet wipes in the toilet...gotta come up with another clean up method. Before wet wipe and poop would all just get wrapped up in the dirty diaper and thrown in the diaper champ. R pooped in the second diaper (Fuzzibunz one size) as well but this time the liner was in correctly and I just used a wet wipe to wipe the poop off the butt, dropped the poop in the toilet, then threw away the wet wipe...There's gotta be a better system.

Need to think of a way to put a trash can for wipes in babies room, put dirty diapers in the champ, and poop in the toilet.

Washed both used diapers. Cold/cold wash and rinse with no soap, hot/cold wash and rinse with soap, one more rinse, then hang to dry...takes around 45 minutes just to wash. Now hopefully they will dry overnight.

DAY 2
So I ran out of cloth diapers...ie. 4 diapers is definitely NOT enough for a day. Considering how you have to wash them and hang to dry! But the Bumgenius 3.0 and knickernappies covers dry the quickest. I ended the day with the use of 2 disposable diapers since all the cloth were out drying. It didn't help that R pooped 3 times today!

So the second poop happened right when we got to church and I had to change R in the church bathroom with the messy kind of poop. Luckily I brought a bag within the diaper bag to put the used diapers in but unfortunately holding a baby, wiping messy poop into public toilets, not throwing the wet wipe in the toilet(or getting some toilet paper to wipe the diaper!), and not getting the poop all over you all at the same time is not the easiest thing to do. Once again, disposable diapers would have been much easier in the this particular situation. So back to the idea that cloth wipes would be easier to manage with cloth diapers since you could basically do the same with cloth on cloth by just wrapping the wipe in the diaper like wrapping the wet wipe in the disposable. I asked a friend about this particular situation the other day and she showed me her cloth wipes that she made...I should have asked what material she used because they looked very simple and makes me want to follow in her footsteps rather than spend the money to buy cloth wipes.

Also, the diaper that R slept in last night lasted all night. It was definitely wet this morning when I changed him but it didn't leak or soak through!

DAY 3
So we had to put R in disposable over night since the cloth diapers were still not dry. But he wore cloth all day. He was pretty happy in them, he seemed very comfy. R pooped in the first change of the day at the grocery store and I put off changing him till we got home since I didn't want to have to deal with changing the diaper at the store...wasn't happy about that but R was ok and nothing was leaking out and the smell wasn't noticeable.

I did buy some flushable wipes to see if it makes it easier to change the cloth diapers but I kinda feel like it is working against the purpose of using the cloth diapers in the first place...ie. the whole environmental reasons but if they are flushable then they must not be THAT bad. Looking more into the cloth wipes, as far as what kind of material to use and how to transport them...do you wet them before using? I have several questions for my BBB friends that are already using the cloth diapers.

Also looking into the AIO...all in ones, apparently the insert is attached and works it way out in the wash. And looking at the Covers that have insert that you can reuse the cover multiple times and just take out the insert when soiled.

DAY 4
R wore a cloth diaper overnight and it didn't leak. That's always good cause he slept all night.

We took a trip out of town today. And I decided to put R in disposable on the way up there since he usually poops the first time you put him in the carseat in the morning and I didn't think we would be able to easily dispose of poop right when we got to where we were going. Well he didn't poop and I decided to put another disposable on to walk around taking pictures...just in case. But in hindsight I wish I would have put on a cloth diaper in the first place but I would have definitely if I would have had more diapers (I only have 4!). I did decide to put on the Bumgenius before we left to come home.

I have been leaning more and more towards the velcro but I get discouraged from it because I would think it would wear out quicker and if I'm paying $17 - $20 for a diaper then I want it to outlast my kid(s)! C (the hubby) admitted tonight that he likes the velcro too.

DAY 5
The cloth diaper R wore last night leaked...or maybe he just peed that much? Not sure but it wasn't that bad, have had worst leaks in disposables. Unfortunately he wore disposables most of the day since the other diapers weren't quite dry yet.

We did put on a cloth(Bumgenius) after his swimming lesson and when I got him out of the car around 1 1/2 hours later his clothes were all damp. I'm not sure if C accidently laid R down on a wet towel, if the diaper leaked, or if the liner wasn't in correctly or wasn't big enough for the diaper. I was embarrassed and I was out of the house and of course I forgot to put an extra pair of clothes in the diaper bag so I just told K that it was the first excuse(wet towel)...

C changed his first poop diaper in one of the cloth diapers. He wasn't too happy about it and said it was definitely more work than disposables but it was do-able. But he also wasn't having to hold R like a typical situation when changing a diaper when out of the house.

DAY 6
The cloth diaper R wore last night leaked...again. He did wake up and I feed him twice last night so that MIGHT be why. But I only put in the Loopy Do super insert in so I am going to try putting in more inserts in the overnight diaper.

I went to my Mom's group and got some great advice from other cloth diapering friends. The cloth wipes that I was looking into turns out to be receiving blankets that she cut up and sewed up the edges from fraying. And they told me about some other diapers worth trying and they had the suggestion to not buy a whole lot of one type of diaper at the beginning and to try as many as you can before committing to just one.

I went by Bebeverde to see if they had any good specials on diapers. They have the Poppy pants on sale for $15 a piece and they are so cute! Got 2 to try them out. Also got 1 DiaperChange to try out.

DAY 7
Today was MUCH easier with the three extra diapers. I am noticing that I'm stressing about whether or not I will have clean and dry diapers when I need them. But I guess that is why all the mama's I talk to about cloth diapering say they have anywhere from 12 -24 diapers. I now have 7 diapers...yeah, I guess why I've been stressing!

I decided to try and work the sewing machine to make my own cloth wet wipes out of the receiving blankets. I got the needle threaded and that's about it. I'm going to need some help with learning how to sew. Will try again with you tube videos but not sure it's going to do the trick.

Also R stayed dry overnight! But I need to take note of which diapers work best overnight...I do know that the doubling up of inserts and adding more padding in the front(since R is a little boy!) seems to help, alot! All the padding makes him look a bit odd in his jammies but it doesn't really matter considering he goes straight to bed then gets changed first thing in the morning.