The Full Force of Cloth Diapering!

I'd just like to take a moment to talk about cloth diapering and help the mothers out there who are thinking of starting on this adventure.

It's messy.
It's confusing.
It's gross.
It's hard work.
And it is the biggest money saver next to breastfeeding.

Daniel and I have spent about $100 on our cloth diapers (plus, we received some very thoughtful gifts) and we honestly do not need to spend another penny on them. What we have will last Luna until she is completely potty trained, and that is a fantastic feeling. No more buying packs and packs of diapers, we're set. We have night time diapers and day time diapers. the day time ones convert into training pants later on and the night time ones can be used as swim diapers. It's all very nifty.

I went into this with the intention of using prefolds (thick cloth rectangles with thicker cloth in the middle to absorb) and waterproof covers.  I was going to fold the prefolds into a diaper shape and use a snappi (where safety pins use to be used, snappis do the same thing with no risk of poking the baby) to hold it together, and then cover the whole thing with a cover. It was working for a while but there is a certain age where small prefolds are too small, and mediums are too big. That's where Luna is now. Another issue with this plan is that the prefold gets SOAKED in 2 hours. That wet diaper is wrapped around her up to her belly button and that is as uncomfortable as hell.

What I've moved to now is folding the prefold so the the not as thick parts are on top of the thick part, making it super absorbent, and just laying it in the cover. The problem with THIS method is poop. Laying the prefold in there, it's squished up by her legs. When she poops, it does get on the prefold, but it also FILLS the cover. It's water proof, so it's held in there, but then you have to really wash the prefolds instead of just wiping them down like all the advertisements say you can do. On THAT matter, you can wipe clean the cover but that won't help with the urine smell after a certain point. I don't advise moms to wash those covers often cause I've noticed it screwing up the elastic around the leg holes. I just hang mine outside to air out for a day. It works.

After a few nights, I realized that Luna was a heavy wetter. She would wake up in the middle of the night completely soaked to the point of leaking out of her diaper and onto her bassinet. After reading reviews, we bought some Pocket Diapers. They have a water proof / leak proof cover and the inside has a pocket made of this material that repels liquid. The inserts that go into the pockets are a micro fiber that is super absorbent. I use both of the inserts at night and Luna sleeps through the night. With these diapers, she has slept through the night since a month old. Beat that. She has only pooped in them once, but for some reason that is beyond me, it did not stain. It's like the poop never happened. Amazing.

That brings me to what to do with a dirty diaper. With most mothers I ask, their diaper routine is pretty predictable. They change the diaper, if there is poop they rinse it off, then the diaper goes into a pail. Laundry is done every other day. Since I'm crazy, I got myself into a routine that I made up myself (before finding out how most people do this). It all stems from me not wanting to do laundry several times a week. It waists money and... I just hate laundry. You cant put a wet diaper into a pail and leave it there for a week. Even my dog wouldn't go near that smelly death bin. So I increase the gross factor to allow myself the luxury of once a week laundry.

Here is my, self-invented, pretty gross, once a week laundry, cloth diapering routine.
Change the diaper. Take cloth diaper into bathroom and rinse thoroughly (cold water for poop to keep away stains, hot water for urine). Wring out diaper. Hang diaper outside to dry. Put dry diaper in laundry bag. Do laundry once a week and use your regular wash cycle. Cold/warm is what I do.

There it is. Yes, it's considerably longer than the average way, but if you're doing cloth diapering to save money, doing laundry every other day is going to be sucking up all that money you didn't spend on disposables.