Cushy Tushy

Did you know how much diapers cost? It's insane, really. Jon and I figured up that we'll be spending almost $2,000 just to protect ourselves from baby poo for the next two years. Being the cheap people we are, that really hurt. It caused us to consider something we never had before: cloth diapers. Realizing that an initial investment of less than $250 would get us set for two years of diapering really caused us to think. Then we'd say, "Yeah, but baby poo...I don't want to deal with that." And just looking at cloth diapers made my head swim--there were so many options!

Well then our friend, Stacey, made the switch with her one-year-old. She blogged about and answered many of my questions. Suddenly cloth diapers didn't seem so weird. She found two great things.

One, the diapers. BumGenius 3.0 diapers are adjustable to fit babies from 8lbs until they potty train, so one purchase of diapers will last two years...and will fit two different-sized kiddos if we have another baby while Caleb is still in diapers. Then the same diapers will last through the second kid. That's awesome.

Two, the diaper liner. This is kind of like a dryer sheet, and it can be washed up to three times. But if it gets poo on it, you just take it out of the diaper and flush it. It's biodegradable so perfectly fine to go in the toilet. So no dealing with poo! Actually, it's better than disposables, because the poo is flushed away instead of sitting in the Diaper Genie until trash day.

As we watched our stash of diapers that we'd collected over 9 months dwindle away, and as we considered that our income might be much smaller in the future, we decided to take the plunge. I did minimal research, mostly trusting Stacey's choices. Everyone I asked who used cloth, or every forum I found, rated BumGenius as the best. We bought 12 diapers for about $225. Sure, it sounds like a lot, but we had asked for money for Christmas, plus $200 for diapers that would last through all our children? You're looking at a 90% savings for one kid, and it just gets better with every child. So it was worth the investment.

And yesterday we started cloth diapering!

I've been a little skeptical. I mean, disposables have double elastics around each leg. With just one elastic, I figured we were doomed to leakage. However, Jon reminded me that Caleb leaks through the disposables and we just change his clothes and move on, no big deal, and it would be the same with cloth. Well, we put his first diaper on, took a picture...


...and then I camped out in my usual work spot at my desk with Caleb on my lap, with a lap pad under his bum, because I just didn't trust these crazy diapers. And of course he pooped. Didn't wanna give mama an easy first diaper, evidently. But no leaks!

So now what do I do? With a disposable, you roll and fold and close it all in on itself so it's a tiny ball, then dump it in the Diaper Genie. With this, I was going to have to wash it, so I didn't want to roll it up into a ball. So I folded it as cleanly as I could and put it in the bag for washing. On to the next diaper.

I put him in a disposable last night, since I don't know how much absorbency he needs at night. And today he's had a full day of cloth. I can't tell when it's wet, yet, but I guess that's just something I'll learn. And really, for all the money we're saving, he's got the cushiest tushy around! So far I'm a fan!

Aw, mom, don't take a picture! I'm in my undies!