Saturday, July 17, 2010

full time fluff. part one.

a few people have been asking me about our cloth diapers so i thought i'd share how we came to be.

you might have remembered me mentioning that we i was interested in cloth diapers. i first started researching them when i was pregnant the first time. (btw, i hate saying "pregnant the first time" i wish there was an easier and better way to say it.)

i stumbled across some blogs and found out that cloth had come such a long way from the pins and swishing in the toilet days. of course, because of the convenience the initial cost has risen too. you can still diaper with prefolds, pins or snappis and covers. that is the most inexpensive way. i was a little intimidated by that, and i knew it would take some convincing on my already skeptic husband. i envisioned me changing all the diapers for all of eternity. (or so it would feel)

i learned all the lingo, you would not believe the amount of acronyms involved, i'll try to keep it easy here. i read up on care, wash, folds, accessories, different companies and styles of diapers. i finally stumbled across the bumgenius website.

i couldn't believe it. you could get one diaper that would fit from 7-35lbs just by changing the way it snaps? that would be amazing! the initial cost would be a lot, but you'd never have to buy more diapers. a lot of people use them for other kids too. i settled on those. how could james say no?

we really didn't have the money to drop on them, and that was the main reason i couldn't get him on board with me. we used cloth wipes from day one (thanks aunt steph!) so i knew it wasn't really the gross factor. although he did say he thinks it's weird for kids to share diapers. he compared it to sharing underwear. so i just settled on maybe buying one here and there and slowly making the switch.

i bought our first one in april and each of eliza grandparents contributed too. (thank you!) eventually we had 8 of them and i was using them and disposable. hoping for more.

then the heavens opened up. i guess i whined and prayed enough that we could find a way. we were trying to get our house rented before we moved and our realtor was over one day. she has a daughter about the same age as eliza. we were talking about babies, and somehow the topic got to diapers. she asked if we've tried cloth. i told her how i was trying to switch over and she said the most amazing thing. "i have a ton you can have. seriously, please just take them." she had gotten them from a friend who used them for about a month. their daycare wouldn't use them so she passed them on to our realtor. she used them for the first few weeks, but decided she couldn't keep up on the laundry and work full time. she just wanted to get rid of them. i wasn't sure what kind they were, or just how many there would be.

before we left georgia she dropped them off in three large boxes. of course it came one day after all our stuff shipped to korea. in total there were 166 diapers! sizes small-toddler. the only ones that had ever been used were the small. they were an all-in-one (AIO) diaper, meaning you didn't need an extra cover for them. i couldn't believe it, suddenly i was up to my ears in diapers, but what was i going to do with them? how could we get them to korea? after a little moral conflict, and advice from family and friends i decided i would sell them, and use that money to buy our stash when we got to korea. we asked the realtor if she wanted anything for them, and she refused. she just HAD to get them out of her house.

so that's what i did. i sold every last one of them. carried the money with us, and ordered enough to diaper eliza. we don't need nearly as many because we have the one size kind. i'd like to say that our stash is set, but it is a bit addicting. especially right after we got ours bumgenius announced they were coming out with a newer version, and more colors.

all the current colors.

i opted for the organic ones because they closed with snaps. i heard the hook and loop (velcro) wears after time, and thought this would be better for the long haul. with their new releases they offer the snaps on the microfiber terry ones (a few bucks cheaper) oh well! i'm happy with what we have, and we didn't have to spend too much on them.

eliza still wears disposable at night because she isn't happy if she wakes up wet in the middle of the night (the organic cotton doesn't give the stay dry feeling) when i put them on her, i cannot believe the smell of the disposable. the perfume and chemicals they have just makes my nose scrunch up. we've also had a lot less leaks with the cloth!

next time i'll talk more about what we have, how we take care of them, how easily we clean them and more!

and yes, james changes them too! :)

5 comments:

Melaina25 said...

We CD, too. Blondie Boy still wears disposables at night as well though!

Anonymous said...

I laughed when I heard you were using cloth diapers. We wanted to get them for your shower and I think you thought we were crazy. I used cloth with both of my boys and loved them. Love, Kimm

m said...

oh no, not crazy. i was into them, i just couldn't believe someone would gift them to us. that would have been great, but i was afraid of falling in love and not being able to afford to keep up on the service. not sure if there was even one that would service us up in the mountains! it would have been nice though!

jackie said...

great post, shel!

Nicolasa @ {My}Perspective said...

Very cool to read. Thanks for sharing!

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