Cloth Diapering | My Thoughts at Two Weeks In

***At the time you are reading this post I've been cloth diapering for over two months. These are my thoughts about cloth diapering when I had just started the process. I will be sharing another post on my thoughts now that I've been doing this awhile, but that's for another time.***

Mid-February marked the first days of cloth diapering for us. In early January I had purchased 10 of the Econobum cloth diaper sets from Walmart.com. They were washed and ready to go before the baby arrived, but I was in no shape to start the cloth diapering adventure then! I was having a hard enough time taking care of basic needs for myself and Little Man right after he was born and with him having the 'black poop of death' (as hubby called it) I didn't think cloth diapering was something we were ready to start. I decided that when I could take care of both myself and LM and be able to keep up with the housework again that I'd give cloth diapering a try.

I originally looked into cloth diapering because I knew our budget each month would be tight and there would be times when we wouldn't be able to afford paper diapers (as my grandma, Great Mary, calls them). I did a fair bit of research into the different styles of cloth diapers and the different brands available. I also looked into making them myself, but wasn't able to afford that option though I probably would've liked it best of all. {You can read more on my research here.}

I settled for the Econobum diapers because they were the style I wanted and were what I could afford to buy. Almost two weeks into using these diapers I have to say that overall they aren't that bad, though there is one thing I really dislike about them: the PUL fabric (which is what makes the diapers mostly water proof aka keeps them from leaking out onto clothes) doesn't cover the front top part where all the snappies are. I didn't know this and the first few times I put the diapers on LM they leaked at the top. I examined the cover and discovered that the top part didn't have the PUL fabric lining it. So now I just make sure to place the cloth diaper insert lower that way it doesn't have the opportunity to leak through the top.

The changing table in Little Man's room.

The Econobum prefold style diaper is wonderful. I can fold all the diaper prefolds ahead of time and have them sitting on the changing table shelf all ready to go. When it's time for a diaper change I pull out the next clean diaper, remove the soiled diaper, and if the cover isn't dirty I give it a quick wipe down with a baby wipe, put the clean diaper in and we're back in business. If the cover is dirty I just grab a new one and put the new prefold in that and we're still good to go (I usually only have to do this if he's pooped a lot and it gets on the inside of the cover). Once I have LM's new diaper on his butt I take the dirty one to the bathtub, wash it off and then put it in a bucket of water (I have a 5gal. bucket half full of water with 1/2 cup baking soda in it sitting in the bathroom in the tub) to soak until the next time I wash diapers.

Washing the diapers isn't nearly as bad as I thought it would be. I get most of the yucky part done by rinsing them out in the bathtub in our front bathroom (we don't use this tub for anything else, but I do spray it down with bleach water and wash it out any time I rinse out a dirty diaper). Soaking them in the baking soda water in the bucket helps get rid of more of the poop/pee residue that doesn't come out in the quick rinse I give the diapers before they're put in the bucket. I wash the diapers every other day or so (two or three times a week, depending on how much I use cloth diapers that week since we're not strictly cloth diapering). I dump the bucket of water in the tub to drain them, put the diapers back in the bucket and haul them to the washer. I wash them in cold water with 1 cup of my homemade laundry soap {recipe here}, which I love, and then-because I'm still trying to figure out how to completely get rid of the yellow poop stains-I hang the diapers up on hangers to air dry. {Update: check out the post Getting The Stains Out.}

I have to say that I'm glad to be a stay-at-home Mama. Spending all of my day with my Little Man is such a blessing! For the most part I don't mind cloth diapering and think it's a great way to save a little money every month. In January we spent about $30 on diapers for about three weeks worth of diapers. That's about $10 a week (since we had him in the second week of January) so on a guesstimated average if I cloth diaper MOST of the time I'd save at least $35 a month (considering I still buy one package of current size diapers to use when we go out for things like doctors appointments and those run about $6 for Parents Choice from WalMart). I like that we're going to be able to save some money each month by cloth diapering. That's what helps me keep doing it on the hard days when those diapers are really dirty and I don't love washing them out!

My thoughts on using cloth wipes: I have thought about using them and that's just something I can't bring myself to do. I really love opening a package of wipes and having them ready to use and easy to dispose of. I am pretty sure that I won't be changing my mind on this. I'd much rather pay $6 a month for wipes than try to make my own up constantly. For me I'd rather save in the area of diapers (which are much more expensive) than save on wipes.

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