Tuesday Tells All

Oh oh oh cloth diapering how my enemy became my friend! I  had no idea what I was doing when we first started!
    
My beautiful daughter Johanna was born July 21st 2008 6 lb 0 ounces 16 inches tall. And she was the most beautiful baby I had seen in my life.  She was in preemie pampers for two months just because her little frame, she was 5 lb when we brought her home from the hospital. 
 
When Johanna was three months old, byrons church he grew up in threw us a baby/wedding shower and when his grandmother asked if there was anything we wanted I said “cloth diapers” I didn’t say what kind.
 
At the shower on the gift table there were two gifts wrapped in Gerber pre folds, I thought it was the best gift I had ever been given. Inside  each package were two packs of prefolds and plastic diaper covers, and three packs of sharp scary safety pins! When I used them they were awful they leaked like the heavens.  I was terrified that I was going to stab my tiny girl every time I changed her wiggly self! 
    
This is what people think of when they hear the words cloth diapers come out of some ones mouth.
 
Our parents cloth diapers but this is not how it has to be now a days there have been such advances made in the cloth diapering world. but  I digress. Needless to say I gave up on cloth diapering at that point. I figured sposies are just as good and are easy. Something that helped me make that decision, was about a week after that shower I found out I was expecting yet another baby. Whom I was told was a girl, but was born with more parts than any girl iv ever met had. He was a boy! But that Is a whole another blog. He was also born 6 weeks early and was not breathing. They rushed him out of the room and put him on oxygen  he was so little and was fighting so hard to live. I was aloud to see him a couple hours later before they took him by ambulance to another hospital to a hospital with a  NICU where he spent the next three weeks of his life.
 
Keep in mind im doing this all with my husband being at tech school for the air force. Having to split myself between wanting to be there for my son and wanting to be there for my now 11 month old Johanna. Was heat wrenching, but we got through it. While he was in the hospital I was looking for diapers that would fit him the pampers they were using at the hospital were huge swallowed his little body whole. And I came across a web sight called momsmilkboutique.com and I found these diapers that were pretty much like a disposable in shape but were cloth diapers. But the seemed so expensive to me at the time not realizing how much money in turn we would save by getting them then instead of shelling out 20 bucks for sposies every two weeks. 
 
I talked to my husband and asked him if he minded if we did it, and he said it sounded like a lot of work and told me to think on it.
   
We tried more eco friendly disposable but they are not worth the money and leaked almost as bad as the Gerber diapers. So we went back to pampers. We moved to Maryland when Luke was 2 and a half months old. And were at Andrews air force base.
 
We went to a church we were referred to through some friends we had in Louisiana, who introduced us to Cheri, who had a three year old and a daughter the same age of Johanna at the time 13 months, and the youngest was in cloth diapers. This peeked my interest she had the kind I had seen online! We went to dinner at there house and she let Luke where one of there diapers, that she told me were called bum genius, she explained to me how the same diaper that would fit my 7 lb baby would fit my one year old, and could even fit her 3 year old if she were still in diapers. I was confused how could this be. 

She then showed me how the diaper has buttons down the front to adjust the sizes and there was a pocket so you could put as much stuffing or as little as you want in it for how much baby pees.I asked her what you do with the pooh, and what do you do with the diapers when your out and about and they get soiled.  She told me that you just drop the pooh in the toilet and flush and that she had something called a wet bag that she kept in her diaper bag for when she is out this bag had the same material as the diapers and closed up tight so the smell would not leak. She told me I would probably want about 24 to begin with being I had two babies. And referred me to a web sight called cotton babies.com I love that web sight. She was hyped up about  something new coming out from the makers of the bum genius diapers called flip diapers and econobums.
 
She told me the flip diapers you wouldn’t have to change the cover every time just change out the insert, and that she would need less diaper covers in her bag which would save a lot of room and a lot of hassle.  And not only did she clothe diaper but she used cloth wipes! The wipes she had were so soft and the wipe spray smelled nice 
    
When we were leaving there house in the car I told my husband that we had to get some cloth diapers I liked the idea of them. And he nodded and said ok.
 
Well a few days later we were shopping at babies r us and came across a sell on something called G diapers which were a cover with flushable inserts and I read on the package that you could get cloth inserts from the website. Oooh oooh I have to buy these so I did. And I later found they leek and chances are the cloth cover will get wet and you have to change the whole diaper instead of just the insert. They were a disappointment , and not only did they leek every time the baby grows you have to buy a new set of diapers. I ordered some bum genius diapers.
   
I only ordered 12 diapers at the time because that is what we could afford. But it was enough. When I got them I called Cheri and asked her what kind of detergent I would need I remembered her telling me you cant just wash them in any old thing. She then sent me another website and then we went together to the commissary and bought some country save . She then intern helped me wash my diapers you have to wash them and hang dry them five times before first use to insure leakage protection.  
    
And oh my goodness were my kiddos cuties in cloth booties? They sure were.
I wanted to exspand my stash though with my two kids in diapers I was washing them every other to every day. I needed more. I also ordered some cloth wipes, and wipe spray As a mom my first instinct is to shove a dirty wipe inside the diaper, wrap it up and toss the whole thing in the pail. When you use cloth wipes, you put the wipe and the cloth diaper together in the pail and, when you do laundry, you have clean wipes AND clean diapers. I ordered the thirsties fab wipes and diapers potion lotion.
 
So I went online and I had subscribed to the bum genius newsletter and there was a message about seconds econobums  which basically means that there might have been a stitch missed or a spot some where on the diaper and well that really did not bother me because I got them for 7 bucks a diaper, I mean how could I pass that up! When they got to me I found out they did not have inserts…oooh that’s why they were so cheep. My pal Cheri steps in yet again and saves the day! She went to the store and got some micro fiber towels from Wal-marts car washing department. And took my old prefolds from the beginning of my journey  and sowed tubes to put the towels in and made inserts with them. And they work just as well as the store bought ones!
    
A couple months later Cheri Gave me about 12 diaper covers called prowrap classics which are a lot like the econobums except they do not grow with baby…but hey they were free so I don’t complain.
 
I was doing research for a friend who is now pregnant with her second baby and came across something called baby lands diapers on Ebay  10 diapers for 44 dollars! With the inserts that came to about 5 dollars and some cents a diaper. I got those in the mail two days ago and so far I like them bright colors and snaps instead of Velcro. My daughter 18 months now and trying to potty train can undo the Velcro ones.
   
I am now looking at cloth diapers made by work from home mommas iv seen some with really cute patterns on them, and they are not bad prices about 10 dollars a diaper. I’m always keeping my eye out for a good deal, im saving up for a diaper sprayer which is a sprayer you attach to the toilet to get more of the fecal matter off before putting it in the diaper pale.
    
I must warn to any one who is looking in to cloth diapering it became a hobby for me as much as a way to save money and keep my kids healthy. And it is Addictive. I enjoy washing the diapers and putting them back together. But another grate thing about the cloth diapers is even though Johanna is potty training now my husband and I are planning on having more kids, and unless we want to we don’t have to buy more diapers. 

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