The (Almost) 1 Month Check-In

We're a month into our "Adventures in Cloth Diapering" and Thor is nowhere in site. Who needs a blond haired red hat and sleeveless shirt wearing dude anyway. He was the best part of the movie! Or maybe the best part was that diamond shaped building in downtown Chicago because every time I go to Chicago and see it, I think of that movie. In any case, I'm torn between that movie and "Don't Tell Mom The Babysitters Dead".

I know what you're thinking, you wanted to know how Cloth Diapering has been going, right? Fine, I guess we won't blog about the best movies from our childhood (this is it, by the way) and I'll get right into my experiences with several different brands and styles of CD (that's right, I've earned the right to use CD instead of typing out cloth diaper - booyah!)

Let's get right into it (if you just ignored the first two paragraphs, that is)! In a previous blog I said that I prefer using snaps over hook and loop (Velcro). I think I'm starting to change my mind a little. It can be pretty difficult to work with snaps when you've gotten up for the 4Th time and it's like 2:30 in the morning. I've found myself reaching for the Velcro more and more. My big problem with Velcro is the fact that poop always seems to get stuck in it. Then, when I go to spray the diapers out, I have to spray the Velcro, then the water ricochets off of the Velcro diaper and into my face, on my cloths and all over the floor. I'm pretty sure at the end of the night, I've got more poop on me that Nathan does with a full diaper. Either I am doing something wrong or......heck, I'm probably doing something wrong.

About cleaning the diapers, I did purchase the Bum Genius Diaper Sprayer. All I can say is that I have a love/hate relationship with it. I love it because it makes fast work of spraying poop off of diapers and getting them ready for the wash. I hate it not only because of the reasons given in the above paragraph, but also because there is really no way to control the flow of the spray. I know what some of you are going to say, and it's not possible unless you have three hands. You see, the sprayer has a trigger on the spray head and there is a lever to control the flow of water where the unit connects to the toilet. So, if I wanted to start the water slow, let it build to a crescendo, then take it back down slowly I would just hold the trigger on the spray head and use my free hand to move the lever. My only problem with this is there is without a third hand, I cannot hold the diaper to spray the poop off of it. So if anyone out there is reading and can fix this problem, please do. I can't be the only one with this issue, can I?????

For now, I'll just keep bothering my neighbors every time I let go of the trigger and the water stops so fast that the pipes rattle. Sorry neighbors!!!!!!!

What are we having the most success with???

Disposables.........ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha .... ha ......... ha .......... ha ............................ ha ............................. ha ........................................... ha .............................................. ha (just kidding)!

I really like using the POCKET and ALL-IN-ONE diapers right now because they are so very convenient. If I had one bad thing to say about them is that they are very bulky and I feel like they get dirty way to fast. Which is why I am also loving using DIAPER COVERS with prefold (yes, I finally bought real prefolds). As long as the mess isn't too big, you can get away with using the covers a few times before putting them in the diaper bag. I also really like using the prefolds because of how easy they are to clean, wash and most importantly fold and put away. If you compared the cleaning and putting away of a Pocket, an All-In-One and a prefold, the prefold wins hands down. I'd rather wash and fold 50 prefolds than 10 Pocket Diapers any day of the week.

We still have yet to use a few other diapers that we have acquired over the past few months, but as soon as we do I will be sure to let you know how that goes.

UPDATE ON MY FLATFOLD DILEMA:

My last blog had to do with my mistake when initially registering for prefolds and ending up getting a whole lot of flatfolds that just don't have the absorbency my little boy needs. I've come up with a solution that will require a sewing machine! Good thing I watched my mom sew for all of those years growing up.

Fuzzi Bunz diapers come with 2 microfiber inserts that can irritate a baby's bottom (they irritate the hell out of my hands so I could only imagine what it does to his you know what)! I've been wanting to use those extra inserts with the diaper covers to see if they would hold more that the prefolds we just got. I just couldn't figure out exactly how to cover them. I tried wrapping the insert in a prefold....way too big. Then I tried wrapping the insert in a flatfold....still too big because I had to fold it over 4 times. Then, I realize that I have a sewing machine (it's actually Lindsey's - I promise). So I have started to make pockets (socks) out of the flatfolds so that they cover the microfiber insert completely and do not take up too much space. Once I finish with the sewing, I'll start using them. Then I'll tell you how well it works....I promise!

That's enough for now, thanks to everyone who read all the way through this one! I'm going to watch a movie with Lindsey now....which means Nate will wake up any second.

Have an awesome Day!

Dan
The Diapering Dad

Day 12 - I have a confession to make

Alright, so a few months back when Lindsey and I were registering for the baby shower I came across some cloth diapers at Babies R Us and thought that I would save some money by registering for my prefolds there. That's not a bad idea, right? Don't answer that just yet.

You see, cloth diapers I actually registered for (and I registered for a lot of them) were the Gerber cloth diapers that they sell at Babies R Us. Here's a picture of what I wanted to register for:
Now, here is what I actually registered for:

See the difference? .........well????? Alright, before I tell you the difference let me first show you what a really great friend did with all of the cloth diapers from our registry after buying them:

Yup, that's all of the cloth diapers along with some Chicago Bears towels, pacifiers, footballs and a sock monkey in a Chicago Bears onesie. Thanks Kevin! This was an awesome gift so we left it put together for several weeks until we had the baby's room setup. Then we pulled the diaper cake apart to start the 6 pre-washes to get the diapers ready for business.

As we unwrapped the cake I was surprised to see the way the diapers looked, they didn't really look like the prefolds my mom used to use, but it's been more than 20 years since I've really seen a true prefold so I went ahead and finished washing them and put them away. I kept telling Lindsey that they remind me of cheesecloth?? hmmmm?

Alright, so now it's 12 days into having baby and about 9 days or so of cloth diapering. We've been using these diapers with Thirsties covers (by the way, I prefer the snaps and Lindsey prefers the Velcro) and the cloth diapers have been working really well except they don't seem to absorb as much pee as I thought. So I did some research and found out that I registered for the wrong cloth diapers.

So let's go back to the pictures above to take a closer look to see what the difference is. Still stumped? The difference is I registered for FLATFOLD diapers! The packaging is almost identical. AND, since I'm a dude and they gave me a scanner to register I got trigger happy and didn't take the time needed to make sure I scanned the right item. Me...the same guy that made fun of Lindsey for double and triple checking everything. An "I told you so" is definitely in order on this one.

Here's what a flatfold diaper is from my point of view: Flatfold diapers are just a very large flat piece of fabric. In order to fit them in Nate's diaper covers we have to tri-fold them, then fold them in half. And even then they don't have the absorbency that Nate needs.

So, with my tail between my legs I need to go back out and purchase some pre-folds. Sorry Kevin! This time, I'll make sure I buy actual pre-folds. So I don't make the same mistake twice, I'm going to open the packs of diapers at the store to make sure that they are what think they are.

Good, now that I have that off my chest and I have humbled myself quite a bit (I started getting a big head about everything I knew about cloth diapers) I can feel good about talking about cloth diapers, how they're working for us, and anything else that comes up.

Thanks for reading & Stay Tuned!

Dan - The Diapering Dad

It's been 4 long months, but....I'm baaaack!

Hi everyone!

Happy Halloween, Happy Thanksgiving, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

The reason why I haven't posted in 4 months is because I've done all the talking I could do about diapers. I felt that without real life experience, I wouldn't really be giving you an honest to goodness opinion about how things are going. So I made you all wait....and for that, I'm sorry!

But the good news is...wait, the great news is...the best news I've ever had is:

On Wednesday January 5th 2011 at 7:45 pm Nathaniel Miles was born weighing in at 8.5 pounds and 20 inches! What a life changer this is!

I love this kid so much , and I don't even know him. The emotions and feelings I've had since his birth have been all over the place, from extreme excitement to extreme fear. If I didn't know any better, I'd say that I have PPD! With all of that being said, I really haven't been happier for myself or Lindsey. This is what we've been talking about for several years now...and we're finally here!

One special note: I'd like to thank Lindsey for EVERYTHING she's been through to get us to this point. You've been through so much physically and emotionally over the past two years as we've tried to get pregnant and hit some pretty big rough patches. Thank you for being the woman you are!

So now that Nathan's here, we get get down to the dirty business of diaper reviews!

Although we asked for no disposables at the showers, we still managed to get a few packs of them which wasn't a bad thing. A conversation I had at Comfy Bummy in Downtown Naperville, IL (a brick and mortar cloth diaper store!) put me at ease about having some disposables because the "tar" poo that infants have can be very difficult to clean off of disposables. So with that in mind, we started to burn through the disposables rather quickly.

But he didn't have the tar poo for to long, so we jumped into cloth the day after we got home, and it was exciting and fun! To be honest, I'm also not used to the whole cloth diapering methods yet and there were a few times in the middle of night where I reached for the disposables because they were easier than putting a prefold in a cover and snapping! Now that I have a few more nights under my belt, there is nothing to it. I can cloth diaper with my eyes closed.

Fear not, we are down to our last 10 disposables and haven't used one in 2 days now and we don't plan on purchasing any more. I love cloth diapers!!!!

Remember when I talked about cloth diapers like they were different makes and models of cars? I can wait while you go back to my previous blog and read through those.............

...... I'm still waiting. No worries, I have time.......

......OK, now that you've read through them I'm going to say something completely crazy. Go ahead and disregard the rankings. I put them in order of features and bells and whistles. While this isn't a bad way to organize them, I found that ease of use may be a better way to organize things. So, as I get another few weeks in I'll let you know my new order to how we're doing things.

THIS IS WHAT WE'RE CURRENTLY USING:

Since Nate is still a newborn, we are sticking mainly with the prefolds and diaper covers. Lindsey likes the Velcro closures better than the snaps. I like the snaps better, I think it's all just personal preference. We did try a few pocket diapers and they worked great, he's just a little to small to make those his daily diapers. I opted for the one size on the pockets, so I knew ahead of time that he may be a little bit too small at first. If we went with the sized pocket diapers, he'd be in them. But to stay frugal we opted for one size on the pockets and supplemented with covers and prefolds until they fit better.

People think we're crazy for using cloth diapers, and they have valid points. It is so much easier to wrap up a cloth diaper and throw it away. It may be easier, but it is more expensive and who knows what chemicals are in cloth diapers that make the pee just disappear? At least with cloth diapers I know I am saving money and I know exactly what is coming in contact with my kids skin. For those two reasons alone I think everyone should use cloth. At our first (of many) doctor visits, the doctor saw that we were using cloth and didn't say a thing.....hmmmm...I guess we're not that crazy after all!

Thanks for reading....send me a message to let me know what you think or what you want to hear me talk about!

Have a great day!