As I mentioned the other day, we have started cloth diapering! Yay! (For those that haven't been reading my blog for very long, you can catch up with what cloth diapering is all about and why we chose to use them here.) So far it has been fabulous. I was actually nervous to start. As you may have realized, I felt pretty overwhelmed the first two weeks Griffin was home. So I was nervous to add something else to the mix. And since I had been so excited about cloth diapering, what if it didn't go well after all?? Then I had all these cloth diapers and no money in my budget to start buying disposables. I felt like there was a lot of pressure for this to work... Luckily it did!
My plan all along was to wait a few weeks and then begin. I, of course, assumed we would be home from the beginning and not two weeks into Griffin's life. So I still took three weeks once we were home to let things settle down. I think the fact that we had been using disposables for three weeks was what made me so nervous to switch. Anyhow, I had a whole stash from my friend Elizabeth to use until Griffin got big enough for our one size diapers (they are a bit bulky for a newborn), but because I ended up having a bigger baby and waiting so long they were not necessary. Griffin fits into majority of our one size diapers already! Wow! I mean, they are bulky on him, but not too bad.
So last Wednesday I got out a few diapers and just went for it. I was so nervous I was going to have a leak or something! Ha! But we have not had a single leak so far. Griffin seems very pleased, no more crying for a diaper change. I basically change him after every feeding and thats all. The pocket diapers wick away the wetness so he doesn't feel wet. Changing the diaper is super easy, just the same as a disposable except afterwards I do not throw it away but instead throw it into our diaper pail or wet bag (if we are out).
I have done the laundry twice now. I do one cold rinse first (to rinse out all the yuckies), then a wash cycle with detergent, then one more cold rinse afterwards. Then I line dry the pocket shells and put the inserts in the dryer. No biggie. I am a little worried about how I will dry them when I go back to work because I will have to do the laundry at night. Any suggestions cloth diapering people?
I am also using cloth wipes and loving them! They work so well and one cleans everything great (instead of two or three disposables). I am using baby washcloths from wal-mart and pre-moistening them then storing them in a disposable wipes container. My wipe solution is 1 cup water, 1 tbsp baby oil and 1 tbsp baby shampoo. It smells good! I did not use the cloth wipes the first day and everyone is right- using disposable wipes with a cloth diaper is annoying! You naturally throw the wipe in the diaper, but with disposable wipes you have to make an extra effort to throw it away and then put the diaper in the diaper pail. So using cloth wipes makes it so much easier.
Griffin has had diaper rash since birth because of the antibiotics he was on. After like two days in cloth with cloth wipes the boys rash was practically gone! Awesome! And so far in his lifetime we have only bought 1 thing of diapers. Yay for saving money!
I will post some pictures to show how the diapers fit right now soon. If any of you are interested in knowing more about cloth diapers, just let me know. I would really really recommend it! I do not feel like it is much more effort than using disposables, I promise. And I personally think the money savings make it so worth it!
:)
ReplyDelete