Cloth diapering is confusing, to say the least! At least in the beginning. Especially if you were anything like me and you thought to yourself "Cloth whatsitnow?" My mom cloth diapered some of my 10 brothers and sisters when we were little. The problem was her system is outdated. Disposables grew up out of necessity. With the growing rates of moms who worked, and the old school fathers who had no idea how to do much around the house, having been taught in their childhoods to provide for a home where a mother was content to engage her children in the life long process that is childrearing - but I digress... SO I was confused. 6 months pregnant and I love crafty things so I put cloth diapers on my list of desired "necessities" for my abyssmal baby shower.
BUMgenius is what I came across first. Psychology says that the first and the last things we see within a list or slide show or explination are the things we were remember the most profoundly, or something like that. I never got those cloth diapers. I live on a budget, so I could not afford the $300 starter pack. I did receive plenty of disposables... A few months in to parenthood, now a stay at home mom with my abnormally large, abnormally active, abnormally hungry 3 month old, I decided to look into it some more.
What I found was do it yourself patterns for T-shirt diapers. So I made a bunch. Like 20. The problem was the leaking. Oh they leaked everywhere! I kept thinking to myself there is no way people do this. NO WAY! No way does a mother put her adorable, chubby baby in a T-shirt diaper, run to the grocery store and PRAY for a dry baby on the way home. Where was the water-proofing? I found my answer in wool. Wool? I didn't have time for that! Let me go wrangle some sheep for a bit, grab some fibers, and in between running around topless, baby attached, make some felt that is rich in lanolin (the water resistant agent) and stitch together some type of cover that hides the adorable design I strategically placed a pattern over not days ago, to highlight on my son's behind. What crap. I gave up. Screw it, that is way too much. I like the whole earthy theme, but I am not hippie. (Sorry to all my hips out there)
My mother in law looked into it. Wanting to help in my crazy schemes of differentiated parenting. The cloth diapers were outrageous! $18.00 for ONE diaper? WTF? I can't crap out $18.00 right now! That is a lot of money when you live on a budget, and if you are smart like me and invested in a vehicle where $18.00 almost gets you half a tank! My mother in law finds some cloth diaper covers. Actually they were pocket diapers. For $5 a piece... from China. I said ok. Let's go for it. She bought me 5, and although they were almost as crappy as my T-shirt diapers, they got me hooked. I was completely done in for cloth diapers.... My son was 6 months old.
At 8 months, we were walking through Walmart when I literally stumbled upon PUL fabric. When I was searching for cheaper cloth diapers, I found PUL, but it was $14 a yard. I had no idea what I would have gotten myself into. I have more restraint when I 'window shop' online so I never purchased. But here, right in front of my face, was PUL fabric at Walmart! Of all the places. (I have a love hate thing with Wally world, but THAT is another story) So because I am an impulse buyer of the worst kind, I bought a few yards. And a book to boot! And here I am today. I am a half ass student in online college, working a few shifts at a cafe so my husband can't comlpain about my lack of income and I make cloth diapers like crazy! I made 10 this week and shipped them out today, then another 5 for my son just today! and I have his inserts to make up tomorrow. In 40 minutes I did the bare minimum for my schoolwork requirements for the day and made diapers the rest of the day.
So here is my 2 cents that no one asked for: Cloth diaper. It's not hard, it's actually really fun, and any woman who cloth diapers (she will tell you immediately) can tell you it is an absolute addiction. 100% like cocain in an IV addiciton. Don't think to yourself "that is not for me, I don't have time for it" That is complete crap. I promise. Everywhere my son goes, he goes in a cloth diaper. I have taken him to the airport, on an airplane and a car ride (a total of like a 6 hour journey) from North Carolina to New York (where my family lives) and cloth diapered his butt the entire time. The only time I use disposables is when he sleeps at night. He sleeps for 12 hours straight. I am not waking him up to change his butt. HELL NO!
This is what you do. Pick a brand. It doesn't matter, try a few out. Find a co-op, ask some friends. There are plenty of people on facebook whose children are too big for their cloth diapers and they will give you some used ones. Yes used. It won't kill you. Try cloth for 1 day. If you don't like it, feel free to tell me all abour your horrid experience with cloth, you will be among a very small number, and I promise I genuinely don't care how bad it sucks. Cloth is awesome. You will not want to clothe your baby because you will hide the diaper. You will want to move to a warmer climate so your baby's butt will be visible to the WHOLE WORLD. Cloth diapers are like Pringles....
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