Cloth Diapering

Since before Desi was born I thought that I really wanted to do cloth diapering with him, but the main thing stopping me (and that I was using as an excuse not to) was that to do laundry we have to go outside our back door, down cement steps, unlock a door, go down the hall and unlock another door. Three sets of doors to open, and if we are coming from up stairs in our place where the bedrooms are, then two sets of stairs also. Ugh. And then doubling or even tripling that for each load of laundry. Yes, I am a lazy bum. I would tell myself that if we ended up buying a house, that is when I would start. And then something wonderful happened. I had some cloth diapers on my amazon list, and my sister Heather bought them for us as part of our Christmas present this year. Then another thing happened, it was a Saturday evening and we were almost out of diapers, not quite enough to make it to Monday morning, and I didn't want to go to the store, especially with both boys (I think Steve was working or about to leave for work). So I opened up the diapers, washed them, and started using them. And I didn't look back.
So far I love it! It has only been about a month. The ones my sister got for us are BumGenius 4.0 with snaps. They are amazing. Then I bought an Econobum cover that came with a prefold, and a Flip diaper which came with an insert both with snaps. I hate the Econobum, and especially it's prefold that is just awkward when placed inside the cover. I like the flip diaper, you just switch the insert with every change unless you get poo on the cover which was happening almost every time, but I still liked the concept and that each cover will last a little longer. The BumGenius call themselves an All-in-one, meaning it's most like the disposables most people use, but it really isn't, it is a pocket diaper, which just means you have to stuff an insert into a cover. After that I bought two Thirsties Duo-Wrap covers, and started a sewing project sewing my own inserts to use inside of it. I had some prefolds that I can just fold and place inside them, but I hate prefolds. Some of you may remember after Simon was born we had diaper service for a week, and I wanted to like it, but I just couldn't- I just hate prefolds, they are not for me, but they are A LOT cheaper to use. Well the day after my two new covers came and I started my sewing-inserts-out-of-scrap-fabric project I went to help my friend Jenn who cloth diapered her two boys, and she lent me her BumGenius hook and loop diapers! 21 wonderful BumGenius diapers. So no need for my covers right now because I currently have a stash to get me through with a few extras between wash cycles. But I am sure as Desi gets bigger I will love those covers and will probably use them more, especially since he is a big boy I hear he will outgrow the BumGenius and end up needing something else towards the end before potty training.
Needless to say, I am pretty excited and am loving cloth diapering. Desi hasn't had diaper rash like he was getting before, and I am not throwing hundreds of diapers into landfills. A lot of people don't like cloth diapering because they say it isn't cheaper because of the cost of buying the diapers and washing and drying your diapers, but I don't care as much about it being cheaper, I care more about the environmental impact of throwing out diapers that don't decompose. So maybe a silly update especially since I haven't posted in over four months, and surely there must be other mom things going on in my life since I have had a baby since my last post, but this is what I am most excited about. Love my cloth diapers, and the extra bulk in the diaper bag doesn't bother me too much. Oh and P.S.- I may be washing diapers every two days, but Desi hasn't had a single blow out since I started using the cloth diapers and he would have 1-3 a day in his disposables, so I might be using energy to clean my diapers, but he is also not going through as many outfits each day, so it's more diapers to wash, but less clothes!
Oh and I am also going to be switching from disposable wipes to cloth wipes, but haven't done it yet. I need to sew all my wipes. I have a couple of old flannel receving blankets I cut up and I just need to hem the edges of them and then make a wipe solution to put them in and figure out if I want to do a spray bottle or wipe warmer filled with solution- I will probably just do the solution in a spray bottle because it is cheaper and I don't have to worry about keeping something plugged in by where I change diapers because there really aren't any unused plugs nearby. Happy Diapering, and wish me luck!

Cloth vs. Disposable

So one of the shower gifts I got that I am really grateful for is diaper service for a week. Yesterday the lady from Poops-A-Daisies came by to drop off the diapers. So far, I am unimpressed by cloth diapers. If Simon pees more than one time in them he will soak through the diaper and the plastic liner and onto his clothes. Yesterday he went through either 3 or 4 outfits. THe diaper lady left us 4 of the waterproof liners, and we went through three of them yesterday and had them out of commission while we waited for them to dry because we had to wash them. The service costs $80 month if you sign up for 6 months, or $100 month if you do a month-to-month contract. Not too bad to have someone drop off diapers at your house and then pick them up. We don't even have to rinse the poop off them or anything, just toss them in the diaper pail and put them out every Thursday night and Monday night. Last night, we put Simon in a disposable diaper while he slept or we probably would have had to get up about 4 times to change him during the night either that or have a very irritated cold baby sleeping in his pee. So as far as cost, it isn't really that expensive, until you add in the cost of having to buy the plastic pants and stuff. I think this is more one of those things where I would rather pay for the convenience of using disposable diapers that lock in the wetness than use the cloth ones. My mom changed Simon half an hour ago and just now had to change him again because he was very fussy, and had peed, and it almost leaked through. So yeah, its more a matter of convenience vs. feeling good because you aren't using disposable diapers that clog up landfills. I personally am fine with filling up the landfills, because it means my baby isn't crying as much and going through a bunch of outfits a day.
* I am very grateful for the diaper service though, because if Steve and I had a washer and dryer at our house, I was going to consider going with the cloth diapers, and now I know what works best for me. And it is kinda cool to be using cloth diapers and being environmentally friendly and all that stuff.
Do any of you use cloth diapers? If so, do you have any little tricks for making them work better? I tried putting a second diaper folded up inside the first one, and the first time Simon peed it soaked right through and half an hour later Steve was changing it.