While looking for guest bloggers to help out with March fro Cloth, I had this amazing mom find me!! 

Meet Amanda from "Popping out One Letter at a Time". 

 

 

My Cloth Diaper Journey..

 

I never in my wildest dreams would've thought I'd be a cloth diapering mom. I was in a sense a Pampers 'snob'. My kids rarely wore anything BUT Pampers, and they were the cruisers ones to boot. Then one day a little over a year ago a friend told  me how she was going to look into cloth diapering. I was WAY judgmental and pretty much showed it. I told her in not so many words how dumb I thought it was. I thought that you'd waste more energy washing and drying them, then what it was worth. Then...

 

Then I went to the local 'natural' store with her. It has a great café and play area for kids, so the kiddos played...and I checked out diapers with her. (( I haven't mentioned...at the time three out of my four kids were still in diapers! )) As she looked...so did I. We mainly checked out the prefolds and covers by Bummis. Something hit me as I was looking with her, for the cost of TWO MONTHS of disposables, I could start cloth diapering...and never have to buy more diapers. (( I was naive to how addicting it was at this point. ;0) )) It was then I seriously started changing my mind about this. I decided I should do it. It'd save us SO much money in the long run. So I called my hubby and asked him if we could do it. His only words to me on it were that I had to be sure I wanted to, and it couldn't be something I just was going to try for a month and quit.

 

So it started. I bought the large and small Bummis prefolds kits and a few more covers. Learning to fold the prefolds was my biggest challenge, but I quickly figured out my two favorite folds: the bikini twist and the angel wing fold. I had bought snappis and they were excellent. I had no idea what a wetbag was at that point, and was storing my wet diapers on the go...in a ziplock baggy. We didn't really tell a lot of people what we were doing, and were met with strange looks...and judgmental ones. Which I was prepared for, I was the same way before I found out how nice this was going to be.

 

I soon found an old high school friend who had cloth diapered and wanted to sell her diapers. So that's when the more diapers started...I bought some Fuzzi Bunz from her and LOVED them. My husband liked those better as well...so we used pocket diapers when we were out and about and I used the prefolds on the kiddos when I was home with them. I slowly started to build my stash off of craigslist. I didn’t buy too many diapers brand new, not when you can get such a great deal on them used!!

 

Over the past year I've helped a few other moms 'take the plunge' into cloth and it's been so much fun! I've taught a few cloth diaper classes to show how EASY cloth can be!! I also think it would've been nice for me to have someone show me ALL the options out there before starting. We also have been using cloth wipes most of the time too. and I did eventually (really quickly) buy a wet bag for when we were out and about!

 

Now, a little over a year later..I'm down to only two kids in diapers...but we're blessed to be having another baby in July. So my cloth diapering journey is still going strong. We mainly use pocket or AIO diapers and I've accumulated a TON of them: Bum Genius, Rump-a-rooz, Fuzzi Bunz, Smarti Pants, Gro Baby. I've also been dabbling in fleece soakers with fitteds lately too. It is so much fun to experiment and see what works best. And I'm excited to start cloth diapering a newborn in July. :0) ((we know it's a girl, and I've been buying the cutest little pink diapers.))

 

My biggest challenges through the journey have been figuring out a washing routine. We have a front loader 'energy efficient' washer, so it proved a bit difficult to figure out how to get it to work for us the best. But I've got it 'down'. I do a quick wash on cold. Then do two 'heavy duty' washes on hot. The first one WITH a little detergent and the second one with nothing. That seems to work great for our diapers. and I've gotten minimal staining and no stink. I wash clothes almost every day...so some days there's just an extra load of diapers. I haven't notice it 'add' a lot to our schedule that way.

 

The people who 'judged' us at the beginning for 'using cloth!?!' have calmed down, and now I get more people asking me questions instead of giving me weird looks. That part has been nice. Most of the time people don't know what they're asking when they ask me about cloth...I could go on ALL DAY!!

 

Which is why I'm going to cut my writing 'short' now. After my 'tidbit' of advice...if you're on the fence about cloth...I say 'take the jump'. You won't look back. There is a HUGE support of cloth diapering moms all over the internet...and when you start looking, right in your area. Cloth diapering moms are great for advice and I'd go to them for any help. Check out craigslist (or something similar) for great deals on used cloth. Get the support of others around you too. and then... HAVE FUN!! because to me now, nothing is cuter than a fluffy butt. :0)

 

 

 

 

Thank you Amanda!!! I really appreciate it!