My Big Fat Cloth Diapering Post I

Okay-- So I have had so many friends asking all of those questions about cloth diapering-- and there are alot-- which brands do you use, how expensive, what is your wash routine?... etc. I hope that this post is super useful to you all and hope that it will save you some time/effort as you wade through the internet trying to find out whether or not to embark on this journey.

Let me start by saying I LOVE CLOTH diapering... and I am not lying.  I am not "Super Mommy" and I am not trying to put on an act that I have it all together and on top of that I love cloth diapering... I DO NOT have it all together but I really truly do love it. If you are thinking about doing it DO IT! You can do it, and hopefully this post will ease some of those fears.

Brands I Use and Why I Love Them: (Click the brand to take you to a link where they are sold)

• Happy Heinys AIO (All in One): These are AIO's-- which means you can change the size by adjusting the snaps (they range from 8-35lbs) and will take you from birth (unless you have a small baby) until potty training. You stuff these with inserts (that come with the diaper) and you can buy extra's. I registered for (and got) a pack of hemp* inserts (hemp is ULTRA absorbant and holds a ton of urine)--- I add a hemp insert when stuffing a diaper to use at night-- when you need the extra absorbancy. The owner of Happy Heinys recently sold their store-- you can still buy these on Amazon but I don't know if the same product will be available for much longer. If they stop making them Danny and I plan to buy Rumparooz AIO's if we need more pocket diapers. They are pretty expensive (around $20/apiece) BUT again, this is an upfront cost and cloth diapering saves so much in the long run (consumer reports says $1500 through the diapering life of your child, and up to $4000 if you use the same cloth diapers for 2 children). 

• Cotton Babies Flip Diapering System or FLIP: These are a MUST. They are simply GENIUS. You can buy enough diapers to get you through 2-3 days for around $150. AMAZING. You could get by with just these diapers if you had to-- I enjoy having some AIO's because I can stuff them to make them more absorbant for car rides and nighttime, etc. BUT if you want to cloth diaper and only have a couple hundred dollars to get started THIS is the way to go. Basically you buy a few "One Size Diaper Covers" (we have 4) and then buy a TON of "stay dry inserts" (We have 25 I think). Here is the BEAUTY of Flip Diapers:
• 1. You lay an insert in the Flip Cover- put on Baby.
• 2. Baby pees.
• 3. You take diaper off, throw insert into diaper bin and lay cover out to dry.
• 4. Take a new cover with new insert- put on baby.
• 5. Baby pees.
• 6. You take diaper off, throw insert into diaper  bin and lay cover out to dry THEN grab OLD diaper cover and put NEW insert in it and put on baby.
• You can use the same 2 covers ALL day long (unless your baby poops in one-- because usually -- at least as far as Charlie is concerned-- it will go everywhere and underneath the insert too). But Charlie is pooping about once every 36 hours now and so we use a lot of flip inserts before the flip cover gets destroyed and has to go into the diaper bin too. :) I would say 4 covers and 25 inserts are equivalent to having 15-20 AIO's (and 15-20 AIO's at $20 a pop would be $300-$400). So they are VERY economical and we LOVE them.

*Hemp has to be prepped differently than your other cloth diapers. I will talk about this later when I discuss prepping/washing cloth diapers.

My Routine: 

From start to finish here you go.

1. Pull diapers out of dryer.
2. Sort inserts. Then stuff AIO's with inserts.
3. Put in baskets located on changing table in the nursery.
4. Charlie need's a diaper change!!
5. Take his diaper off -- OH NO IT's POOPY!!
6. Take it off and lay it on top of the diaper bin to get it out of the way.
7. Clean Charlie up (currently using disposable wipes- getting ready to transition to cloth wipes THIS WEEK- will update later).
8. Put new diaper on Charlie.
9. When time permits (i.e. Daddy has Charlie, Charlie's content in his swing, etc. I go back to deal with poopy diaper)-- and I will give credit where credit is due-- if Danny get's home from work I often haven't cleaned the poopy diaper yet, and he does it for me) :)
10. I take the diaper to the bathroom- I use toilet paper to scrape off as much poop out as I can and throw the toilet paper into the toilet. When breastfeeding I then tossed the diaper into the diaper bin because breastmilk poops are water soluble. Now that Charlie is on formula I rinse them in the bathtub and use my bare hands (sorry if that grosses you out) to rub the poop off. Then I put the diaper/inserts etc. into the diaper bin and WASH MY HANDS! Ha!
11. When diaper bin (we use a cheap step open trash can from Target) is full I take the the diaper pail liner out (we bought two so that we could put a new one in while the other was being washed) this one by KangaCare and this one by PlanetWise-- we love both of them equally.
12. I take the diaper pail liner full of dirty diapers to the washer and put the open end of the liner into our machine (we have a front loader) and push all the diapers into it without actually touching them because I am using the bottom of the liner to push them all in. Then I put the liner in the washer to be washed with the diapers.
13. I then wash the diapers... but that is a different post altogether :).

Will continue to update later! Charlie's hungry!!