Wednesday, February 6, 2008

What We Said We'd Do

We are cloth diapering and have been a few weeks.

When we first brought C home I was too overwhelmed to cloth diaper. I was pumping. I was feeling blue. I was exhausted. Plus, little C did not fit into the cloth diapers we have. She had to grow into them - bless her.

I didn't really do my cloth diaper research and didn't know that there were so many hi-tech cloth diapers out there. We bought ours toward the end of my pregnancy at the local big-ish department store. They were made in Canada and they were higher tech than the ones we wore as kids.

Problem is they get wet right through so quickly that we are changing diapers all day. And she doesn't sleep in them - disposables for night time. Disposables for going out time too.

But cloth diapering is no longer overwhelming.

Here is the thing I've noticed about things not quite going to plan (i.e.: the birth), I have been so close to giving up on the other things I wanted to do. I think it is a psychological thing. The birth didn't go to plan so nothing else is or will. I was so close to giving up on breastfeeding - I think partly because of this (faulty) line of thinking.

I remember right after the birth feeling so sad - and partner A said to me, let's do the things we said we'd do. She meant take tiny C for a stroll in the park (I didn't even want to do that).

Cloth diapering happens to be one of the things we said we'd do. So doing it is a sign to me that all is well in the land of PPD and new mamahood.

We happen to already own several diapers in the next size up - I am going to trade those diapers in for more high tech, sleep through the night, go out and about in diapers. I am open to recommendations.

2 comments:

bleu said...

I had cloth diaper service for the first year. It was actually cheaper than paper and I just never felt ok with the chemicals in the paper. When I began using my own cloth I already had diaper covers so that made most sense for me. I got some great organic sherpa and took 4 pieces and sewed a rectangle with my serger. I took like 2 minutes each seriously. I use Happy Heiny's mostly because for my kid they fit well. That was another thing, what some friend recommended would only work if her kid had my kids shape. Bliss has got back, and the HH's worked.
I would use 2 inserts often at a time, and depending on the amount of mess sometimes only one was dirty and I would just add one more.
Bliss was a big pee'er though and the big change came when I took some other organic fleece and made little pillow cases, for lack of a better word, to fit the inserts in. It really helped keep the wetness at bay.
Anyhow just what worked for us. Congrats on the change. I can say after the newborn new skin stage was over Bliss never had another diaper rash except one time I was stuck out of town and had to put a normal disposable on him for 2 hours, and it was so ick how fast the rash came with that.
Lastly the toilet shower sprayer you can get online at diaper stores is a life saver too for spraying off the poopies into the toilet.
Take care.

Jen said...

my recommendation would be the mother-ease line (http://www.mother-ease.com/) which is what we used once D grew into them at about 8 weeks. we have the one-size kind which are adjustable with a series of snaps. they'll easily fit her (and probably baby #2) until she's potty trained.

we bought one of their kits that came with a bunch of one-size diapers, inserts, covers and i think that's it. since we're hoping to use them for two kids, we went with the biggest set they have (36 diapers) so that we wouldn't have to wash them as often, hopefully lengthening their life. right now, we're only doing one extra load of laundry a week so, if you were willing to wash diapers twice a week, you could go with a smaller amount.

the diapers themselves hold a bunch but there are also snap-in inserts for heavy wetters. now that i think about it, i think there's actually a diaper in their line specifically FOR heavy wetters too. we have the liners but haven't used them thus far. i wonder if we will, once she's having juice and water in addition to milk?

the covers are are sized S, M, L but at 7 months, D is still in a small cover. i think we're going to buy some mediums soon but only because she's just now on the last snap of the small covers. they're also totally wetproof and come in cute prints or plain white.

we still do the disposables for road trips when we know we're going to have multiple changes. if it's just a short trip out, we still go with cloth. i think in the past 6 months, we maybe had one or two poop blowouts with cloth but honestly, they hold SOOOO much more than disposables. in fact, we used to use disposables for short trips and quit because we kept having blowouts and poop on the carseat is just no fun.

email me if you have other questions about their stuff. i've been really happy with our purchase...oh and they also have most of their products in organic cotton too!