Baby You've Come A Long Way (or Wow! Cloth Diapering Has Changed!!)

I had been thinking a lot about cloth diapering in the last few months. I cloth diapered the oldest three, but when I was expecting Little Toddler Man I had no interest in the extra laundry or rinsing dirty diapers, so he used disposables. I started thinking about cloth diapering Baby Boy, but I felt I was a little busy to add any other household chores into my life. But, I kept thinking about it, and then the cost of diapers started going up, and Baby Boy can only use one type of diapers or he suffers terrible diaper rashes.

One day I mentioned to my Mama's group that the next baby will be cloth diapered (oh, hang on. No that wasn't an announcement. We're still waiting and hoping for that next one). Someone mentioned why wait? And then I thought about it. Why wait indeed! Baby Boy is going to be in diapers a while yet. So I made some tentative steps forward to making the switch.

Wow! Things have really changed. People were tossing around terms like AIO, AI2, PUL. Cloth diapering my oldest three meant about three dozen squares of white flannel, about a half dozen plastic pants and a couple sets of diaper pins. A diaper pail with water and vinegar to soak the diapers in between washing. Not much to think about, no choices to decide on.

Oh how diapers have changed! My friend, Melissa over at Monster Pants was super encouraging, as were my other mama friends. They educated me on what the scoop was, gave me awesome links to patterns and tutorials, explained the washing of these new style diapers.

I made two diapers. What a learning curve! The first one I made I used the Little Comet Tail's Tighty Whitey Hipsters. I made them as AIO using the monkey PUL from the Babyville Boutique line. I also used Velcro. I didn't like the fit on Baby Boy, but have since switched it to snaps and now for some reason it fits great! The second one I made was from Ottobre. I used the owls from Babyville Boutique and modified the pattern to make it an AIO as well. For whatever reason the Velcro is fine on this one.

A friend sent me a dozen and a half Bum Genius Diapers she no longer needed, so we've made the switch! I'm still putting him in disposables at night - I just can't seem to get a stay dry solution down pat yet, and he still uses them when we go on day trips to the city, but for the most part he's a cloth diapered tot now. And he likes it. If given an option he always picks cloth. Best part, so far no diaper rashes! (and rinsing isn't so bad and if I'd remember to ever use that roll of disposable liners I keep forgetting about it might be even easier!)