We finally took the plundge!

Into cloth diapers! I'm pretty excited about it too. The covers they make these days make it so easy and they are so darn cute! So, while I'm super excited to share my adventures into cloth diapering, I do realize that not everyone may feel the same way. So some of you may want to scroll though and just look at the cute pictures of my chunker buns' thighs instead of reading my...probably long winded... cloth diaper story.

Claire in her Bumkins diaper cover.

It took me a while to decide on which brand to use, which kind of diaper to use, how many to get. I have to admit I was pretty lost at first. You can spend hundreds of dollars or you can get some prefolds, pins and some plastic pants (they sell them at Babies R Us for like 4.50 for a set of three). I decided I wanted something right in the middle.

After a bit of research I decided that I wanted to use old fashioned cloth diapers with a cover. I bought some prefolds from walmart (pretty much a dollar a piece), but if I had had the extra money I would have bought Cloth-eez® Prefold Diapers.

I decided if I was going to do this I might as well try the old fashioned way for a while. So for a while I used pins and plastic pants. This actually worked fine. Although, now that I have covers I will only use pins as a last resort. I do plan on getting some Snappi Fasteners. These are clips to hold the diaper on without using pins.

Ok onto which covers I chose.

Bumkins makes the most awesome bibs. So I thought I would look into their diapers. The diaper covers were cute and I loved that they could be used with prefolds, flat diapers, contour, and fitted diapers (basically anything out there). When I found out Costco was selling them for a good price (basically one whole diaper cover was free!) I decided to try them out. I do want to eventually get some of their contour diapers (this would be inplace of the prefolds) because I hear really good things about them.

Anyway, I love them. They are very trim fitting and the diaper stays in the cover great. Even after all her wiggling it stayed in place and we don't have leaks. When she needs a new diaper I grab a cover (with the diaper already in it) put the new one on. Then I throw the cloth diaper in a bucket (rinsed if needed ;p). I hand wash the diaper cover off and lay it out to dry. Most of the time it is dry before she even wets a new one.

The elastic is a bit tight and does leave little red marks... but I'm pretty sure that's why it hold leaks in so well ;) Oh, they are highly recommended for parents of thin legged babies (Claire is not one of these babies, lol, but they still work great). I read that Bummis Super Brite (pretty much the same type of diaper) are a little easier on chunky legs. I plan on getting a pair of those someday too.

And all of the patterns are super cute! Robbie likes the rock star one with skulls (that print is even cuter in the boy color)

My friend Sarah love her gDiapers. G-Diaper's are sort of a "best of both worlds" diaper. They are cloth diapers with a plastic free diaper refill that you can flush or toss. I was really interested in them... except that I would still have to buy diaper inserts. And while I'm all about trying to be a little more green... buying more diapers is what I'm trying to do away with. However!... you can put a regular cloth diaper in them and they also sell their own cloth inserts now. And if I'm somewhere where I don't want to be lugging around a bag full of dirty diapers (like at an amusement park or shopping all day) those flushable inserts will be live saving! They don't work as well with plain cloth diapers as my other diaper covers but I really don't have any complaints. One advantage is that the waterproof liner is on the inside and the outside is a soft cotton/spandex material.

Claire in her gDiaper.

We are in the process of potty training Aidan. He's not doing to bad considering he had no real interest in the potty until a few weeks ago. We do need to work on his aim since he insists on standing like his dad! Anyway, he still wears a diaper at night and if we need to go somewhere. So I wanted to figure something out so that we would only be using disposable diapers in emergency situations (I keep one in my bag and car). I had been checking on Craigslist for any sort of cloth diaper stuff. I found this lady selling five Kushies Ultra AIO (all in one) diapers in toddler size that were practically unused. Along with that she had five doublers (extra cloth liners for naps and night time) and a roll of flushable liners (not something I had planned on getting but totally awesome for clean up). Anyway, this is about $85.00 worth of stuff and she was asking for $20 for the whole lot. She had the original plastic case and everything. I really don't like All in Ones because you have to wash and dry this bulky diaper every time and it just seems like a pain to me. But it works for what we need it for. I wouldn't recommend this toddler size diaper though, it is very bulky. More so then a cloth and cover would be. However they do have other types of diapers and covers that seem a bit newer in design... and it is a sturdy diaper that I'm sure will last.

If you are on the fence about using cloth diapers I totally recommend them. I was a little scared at first to do this, but I can honestly say now that we have started I think it is great. If you don't want to wash your own diapers but would like to be a little kinder to the environment, I would recommend the gdiapers. My friend Sarah has a code to get 6 gdiapers (normally $70) for only $40. But it only lasts until July 31st. Really worth taking a look. And if you want to take a look at the Bumpkins deal at Costco check here.

Thanks for reading! Sorry for my ten page post on cloth diapers. But if you are reading this part it probably means you actually wanted to read the whole thing.

If you have any questions feel free to ask!