Down the Rabbit Hole: Cloth Diapers.

What do you think of when you hear the words: Cloth Diapers.

Come on. Tap into your senses.

My sisters and I were cloth diapered (CD’d) when we were little, and this is what comes to mind:

Just kidding.

Kind of.

When I heard about cloth diapering, I was instantly taken back to 1985. I was 4, I had a baby sister, and I can still smell it: Ammonia. I can picture my mom….dunking. Diaper Pins that would just as easily kill you as look at you. And the ubiquitous rubber pants.

Now, I understand completely that my mom, and my grandmother, and all the mothers before Huggies, would cloth diaper out of necessity, or just the sheer frugality of it. Today, diapers are a mega-industry. People spend BILLIONS of dollars on them. Because they’re convenient. They’re full of all kinds of amazing, liquid-soaking compounds that defy nature. And you can just toss them in the trash…and then go out and buy MORE diapers. $$$$. With cloth, you spend money once (you can do it for as little as $100 up front. The average is around $300). Invest a little bit more of your time, and add in (by average estimate) $1 water bill increase a month–sounds reasonable.

So a year or two ago, I came across this blog post, and this couple, who are totally modern and normal, were talking about cloth diapering their baby (they also recently revisited the topic). Read the post and then come back. Or not, it’s your life.

All I could say after reading was, “What? THESE are cloth diapers today?”

Where are the rubber pants? Diaper pins that want to stab me? What’s going on here? These are kind of cool.

So then I started researching, and pricing, and boldly told Dave, “Dave. We are going to cloth diaper. End of story.” He responds, “Okay.” Without even looking away from his computer. I wasn’t pregnant at the time, and I happily went back to whatever it is I was doing. Probably nothing.

A few months later he finally processed what I told him, and had a few misgivings. I was starting to rethink it too, because…come on…dunking? Gross. And did I really want to do all that laundry? And what would you do with wipes? They’d have to go in the trash. So in one hand you would have dirty wipes and the other hand you’d have a dirty diaper.  And question after question. Uuuuuugh. Maybe we wouldn’t.

Fast forward to today. I’m 8 months pregnant, and Dave and I are looking at our finances. Some people spend up to $1000 just on diapers alone, in a year. Suddenly, we’re thinking, what’s an extra load of laundry? I can handle dog poop, why not my own childs? What if we did disposable diapers for when other people watched Junior or when we went on an extended trip?

So. Now I’m back to researching, researching, and finally…deciding.

I decided to go a little cheaper than Bum Genius that Young House Love went with. I’m going with the Flip system (by the makers of Bum Genius). I like it because it’s a hybrid. So, I have a cover (which, lets admit it, the covers are cute) that I will line with a liner (or in my case, cheap prefolds) while at home. I can save money because I would (in theory) only need a cover or two for one day, with 6-8 liners per day. Change out the liners, and if the cover isn’t dirty I can just wipe it out and reuse. If not, then toss it in the wash and get another. Do laundry every other day. So I would need between 6-8 covers, with about 24 liners/prefolds. What I like about the Flip, is the disposable option. I can get a couple of boxes of disposable liners for when we have a babysitter or for when we travel. We *might* have to get two newborn sized covers, since there are reports that the one-size covers are a tad bit too big for brand-new babies. My shower is tomorrow though, and if I get newborn diapers as a gift, then we’ll just use those for the first few weeks.

But that’s not all in the world of cloth diapering. No no no. Google it, and you’ll find yourself going down this rabbit hole of options. There are people who are PASSIONATE about it. There are ladies who make their own. Tutorials on how to make them out of a t-shirt and a shopping bag in case of weather emergencies. So much information out there. And the YouTube videos!

So, I’ll let you know how it goes. We have 6 weeks before Little Ezra James gets here. I’m ridiculously excited about his first poop.

Thank you Lord for Contentment

I just wanted to put it out there, that I’m thankful that God gave me the gift of contentment a couple of weeks ago. Before then, I was in this weird spiral of panic when it came to baby gear. Everything needed to be new. Everything should probably be useful. And everything should probably be awesome. Oh. And have an average of 4.5 stars on Amazon with at least 100 reviews.

The panic spiral set in, when I started getting advice from other Moms saying, “Oh, you can find those cheap on Craigslist.” Or, “Yard sales are coming up! I bet you can find something like what you’re looking for…” And in my head I’m thinking “I don’t want anyone else’s junk!” “This is my first baby! Let me dream a little!”

I literally had a small anxiety attack when the crib I was eyeing was “Out of Stock” online.

People.

It was no way to live.

But thankfully, I snapped out of it. Through conversations with my family, and through personal evaluations of what was truly important…I discovered that the only thing I really wanted new…were diapers and a car seat. Everything else was just fine. Everything else…all of these things that were previously rejected…were fine. What mattered was that I had a healthy baby, I had a clear head, and I wouldn’t regret saving money. I mean…who regrets saving money?! Apparently I was convinced I would three weeks ago.

So this is not a mind-blowing post…but I guess when you have “pregnancy brain” and you can hardly remember the name of your own spouse…a breakthrough moment seems pretty amazing.

**Regarding the lack of posts: I have a terrible habit of writing up rambling blog posts after a good session of navel-gazing. So I’ll write and rewrite and delete and write again…only to save as draft and walk away. So. I’ve been writing…just not publishing. There’s one post in particular that I really want to get out there, I just need the words.**