The Beginning of My Cloth Diapering Journey

Hopefully my decision to cloth diaper will not land me on my b-hind, but we'll see. I have thought about cloth diapering for quite a while. Shortly before Peanut made his appearance Hubbie and I talked about it, but it seemed like such an added chore. I was a new stay at home mom and very pregnant and miserable. I did not want to think about doing anything more than absolutely necessary. My SIL and I had talked about it a few times off and on over this past year. When she and Stephanie made the bulge to cloth diaper, I got excited! They could be my guinea pigs (I mean that in the nicest and best way possible! Y'all don't look like guinea pigs!). They could figure out what type and answer all my cloth diapering questions!!! And they have! My SIL started cloth diaper out of necessity, because Boo was having REALLY bad diaper rash and other issues. So, once they began and I had talked to Jana a few times, I started to do research. Boy! I was overwhelmed. Little did I know about there are about a MILLION different sites, with different brands and styles and colors and sizes and accesories. Its like an unknown maze for me and one that seemed too daunting several times. Then Dana sent me an ad on craigslist for cloth diapers. I thought...hmmm....they are cheap and maybe this could be a good way to start cloth diapering. Just buy a bundle of things off craigslist (yes, another plug for craiglist! its awesome!) and see what you got and what works and go from there. I did buy $10 on 2 big bags of cloth diapering materials. Once I got the bag of stuff, I called Jana. I was still absolutely confused. Jana pointed me in the right direction, but I still had a ton of questions! So I wrote down what I had gotten from the seller and went online. I couldn't figure what I had gotten and what I needed to be able to use them on Peanut. Then, along came the diapering queen (ha!), Kelli, from Gohn Crazy. I had read her blog for awhile, but usually just read her on my google reader, so I guess I had never REALLY paid attention to her "about me". It said she loves cloth diapering! I thought Ah! Ha! Maybe she'll let me pick her brain. And boy! have I! She has been absolutely fantastic. She has cloth diapered both of her kiddos and has tried everything. She has a reason for using the diapers she uses and has really given me a lot of pointers and directed me in the right path. I even called her Friday and she let me ask her questions while she has sick kiddos at home! What a gal! So, between our chat, Facebook and email, I've been able to narrow down what I have, what I need to get to start cloth diapering with Peanut and kinda how to get started.

So, once we decided to begin to research and talk about cloth diapering, our idea was to begin to cloth diaper Peanut in hopes of knowing what we're doing and it not being so new for when and if baby no 3 came into our family! Well, surprise! surprise! the following week, we found out that we are expecting, so getting cloth diapering going has been a main priority.

The main reason we are cloth diapering is because with two kiddos in diapers, that is a lot of money every month, plus the added cost of wipes- it just seems natural to cloth diaper. Like I said, we've contemplated it before. I've thought about the water, gas and electricity bill increasing and seen several sites list that it costs about 73 cents a load to wash cloth diapers. Although, ha! ha!, I have another cheap-o, bo-neap-o method!!! I am going to line dry my diapers! I live in Georgia people. Its warm or hot from about March or April until almost November. Our Decembers have had temperatures in the 80's so I think I can definitely save money by line drying and shoot! maybe I'll like it and do it with more of our wash items- like towels, etc. Cha Ching!!!

In the lot of items that I bought from the craigslist lady was 12 covers (different sizes, brands and styles), 3 snappy's (for prefolds) and about 10 prefolds. The seller threw one all-in-one in since I was asking so many questions and she has almost potty trained her last child. I have decided to use prefolds and fitted diapers. For the new baby, I will use prefolds with covers until the baby gets over 10-12 lbs. Since I have no small covers, I am going to buy these one size wraps from WonderWraps. How awesome! These covers will grow with the baby and by that point I will more than likely need some more for Gray- since I only have 2 size Large covers- and they can share. They cost $12.95, so I'm gonna start searching for a better deal or maybe find some used. I do need to purchase more prefolds before we get started. I also need to purchase some wash cloths or wipes, a wet bag for outings and I have been told by my cloth diapering genuis- that these things are awesome! So we'll splurge for one of these! We will also need to come up with a way to keep the spoiled diapers. Jana uses a tupperware container. Kelli uses a big wet bag. I've also read to go to Target or Wal-Mart and buy a trashcan with a lid. Not sure which way we'll go. We need to figure out if we'll use a changing table for the newest member of the family. We got rid of ours after Bubbie got older, so we'll see... but I need to learn a diapering method with a central diapering station.

So, this seems like a very slow going journey, but eventually we will get there. We did a cost evaluation online to see just how much money we'll save. From what we can figure out is that if if we did this for 2 kids from birth to 3 yrs old, we'd save about $3600 over the span of 3 yrs. Since we're starting a little over a year late with Peanut, its a little less and we're also not buying diapers for baby no 3 for a while, so its probably less.... so we'll see.

Its gonna be more work and Hubbie and I've talked a lot about it. Hopefully this will be good for our family and work out well. We will continue to buy some disposables for overnight trips and for Mothers Day Out/Nursery/etc. I think I can train the gals at MOPS to learn how to use cloth diapers since its the same women in the class each time. Nursery, at church, might be a little different, since its all volunteer and different people every time. We'll just see how it goes! I think by going mostly prefolds, it'll be much MUCH cheaper! And definitely if I keep a look out on craigslist, ebay and other places like that... if I can find them gently used, then I'm sure to save a lot of money.

Any tips or suggestions?! Help this momma out!!!