Cloth Diapers - Our Stash & Why

We talked about the idea of using cloth diapers before Abby was even born  We even talked logistics of installing a diaper sprayer, and wondered what guests would think of it.  We got a little overwhelmed when we first started looking into the idea, as the information out there is overwhelming.  Aplix or Snaps? Pockets or AIOs? Prefolds, covers, snappi's.....WTF?  Too many choices and too much lingo in a world I was very unfamiliar with.

So, for the first month of Abigail's life, she was in what the "CD" world (CD = Cloth Diaper) calls "s'posies" (aka disposables).  We got a bunch of diapers as gifts, and I bought a few boxes before she was born.  Well, we had one box of Newborn (NB), and the rest size 1's.  Everyone said that they won't be in NBs long cuz they grow so fast.  She was in NBs for 3 weeks.  Meaning, once or twice a week we had to go out and buy diapers, even though I had about 5-6 packages of perfectly good size 1's laying around.

Do I dare mention, that we went through 15-20 diapers a day?  We're down to about 10-12 now, but that is still a lot.  Enough that a box of 76 size 1's would last us about 6 days.  That's not even a full week.  And, at $20/box, it was getting expensive (I'm not even including wipes in that cost).  We're living off of one income til February, so we need to cut corners.

We probably spent almost $100 on diapers & wipes in those 1st 3 weeks.  Not to mention, how annoying it is to constantly be running to the store to pick them up.  You have to plan in advance when you think you might run out.  Then, you also run the risk of having an overstock of a size you can't use.  Luckily, Abby only had 2-3 "blowouts" during the end of her NB stage.  We were lucky, and were at the end of a box anyway.  I can't imagine what we'd do if we just opened a box, and a few days later, had to switch sizes, leaving a ton of diapers we can't use behind.

Side Note:  I hate Pampers, and how their stupid mesh linings ALWAYS stuck to her bottom.  I felt like I was ripping a band aid off her bum every time I changed her.

So, we took the plunge.  Another new mom that was in our birthing class, and who I see weekly at Breastfeeding Support group informed me about a local Work-At-Home-Mom (WAHM) who sells cloth diapers.  Her name is Jen Starks, and she is the owner/operator of Ecological Babies.  I sent her an email, and the 3 of us went over to her house.  She introduced us to all the different kinds of cloth diapers, pros & cons of each, helped us figure out how many we'd need, and also told us about necessary accessories (wet bags, pail liners, diaper rash creams, etc) that we'd most likely need.  She spent 2 hours with us.  A week later, we placed an order!

Here is our stash:

21 prefolds (though, we need more since our daughter is a $hit-Machine as Steve likes to say)
4 Thirsties Duo Wraps (covers the prefolds - we're waiting for one to become available in stock)
2 Thirsties Duo Diapers (waiting on one of these still also)
1 BumGenius 4.0 
1 Fuzzi Bunz
1 Grovia All-In-One
1 Happy Heiny's (still waiting here also)

I'll go over the differences between each and which we like best and why in future blog posts.