Cloth Diapers Rock

When I was pregnant with my first child, there really was no question about what we would wrap on her teeny tiny tushie. Since my youngest sibling came along when I was almost 11, I learned very quickly how to manage cloth diapers. My mom used the old style, with the folding, the pinning, and the plastic pants and I didn't want to go through all of that hassle with my own kids. I was determined to use disposable diapers until my sister brought it to my attention that not only did people still cloth diaper, but the diapers had changed and become convenient and easy, just like disposable.

I was intrigued, especially when she told me that her friend who cloth-diapered found a kind that had snaps on the front that made them change sizes, and a baby could use the same diapers from birth until he or she was potty-trained! That sounded pretty sweet to me, so I checked out the website that she gave me:

http://www.cottonbabies.com/
On there I found my BumGenius 3.0 One Size diapers and never looked back.

I registered for diapers on the website  for my baby shower, I peppered my sister and her friend with questions about washing, storage, care, maintenance, I scoured CottonBabies' website for all the info I could find and I even bookmarked the website.The first diaper that I received was at a surprise baby shower, it was a white one all bundled in a neat little package with the doubler inserts.  Even those who knew about my decision to cloth-diaper were intrigued, and the bundle was quickly popped open and passed around the room as I was asked many questions (which I knew all the answers to thanks to  the website!) I received several cloth diapers that day and more in the mail later on. We supplemented those with a super-saver pack of 12. Since our first child was a girl I thought it would be cute to get all pink ones, not thinking that we might have more kids later on so needless to say, sometimes our 6-month old son wears pink diapers. On those days I dress him in his Orioles outfit to soften the blow to Daddy's heart.

I've learned a lot along the way, a lot more than I thought I would. I learned which laundry detergent worked best for washing them, I learned that the hotter the water (after the first cold rinse) the better they wash. I learned that even though you're shelling out some big bucks in the beginning to get a good stockpile of diapers, it's WAY worth it because you get to use the same diapers until the kid's potty-trained! (caveat: this is only because we got the one-size that has adjustable snaps, most cloth diapers you can't adjust them and you'd have to keep buying the next size up. To us, it made no sense to invest in cloth diapers if you had to keep buying more just like disposable). So more money up-front meant way less in the long run, and that's math that I LIKE to do. I learned that biodegradable diaper liners are amazing things once your baby's eating solid foods, it saves you a lot of icky work when you can just peel the liner and its contents out of the diaper and flush it away. The liners are also great for keeping rash cream off of the diaper, since the cream will interfere with the diaper's absorbability but our daughter inherited mommy's fair skin and gets pink at the drop of a hat.

My cloth diapers are amazing; they saved us money, I have a never-ending supply of diapers as long as I keep up with the laundry, I can rest easy knowing that I'm not adding to the landfills that are already full of (not-so)disposable diapers, and they even come in fun colors!
If I had to do it all over again, I would still cloth-diaper my babies (although I would probably buy all white this time).