My journey to cloth

I am the proud mama of three beautiful babes. I had my first when I was 21 years old. We were newly weds and I was not working. My husband would work double shifts and off days to support his family. We had a rough hard start to our married life.

We had discussed about waiting a few years before we had kids, but faith had something else in store for us. Unknown to us we were already pregnant, conceived on our honeymoon. Talking about making decisions. Anyway, I was ready to try and breastfeed and to combine cloth diapering with disposables. I had to at least try it, mostly to try and save on a tight budget.

So after my baby girl was born I tried to diaper her with cloth. I had the "old" style cloth diapers. The ones you had to learn how to fold and pin together to get a good fit. I was so out of my element with this type of cloth diapering.

I dedicated quit a bit of time to researching the "proper" way to use. I talked to my dad and mom who had used cloth diapers with me. But that was no help to me, I just couldn't get it correct. I mean I would fold them very good and to the proper size but when it came to put it on my daughter something would always go wrong. I mean it would pin but when I lifted her up it would slowly slide down her legs! I knew I was doing something different or wrong than what I had learned.

After a few more try's I gave up on this method. We transitioned into full time disposables, not what I had wanted from the beginning but it would have to do.

So after our second child was born I didn't think about revisiting the cloth idea at all! I was not going down that road again. Too much trial and error for me to feel at ease to try again. So we used only disposables with our new little boy. Thankfully he potty trained easily and fast at just over a year old. So the days of diapers came fast to an end with my two babies all grown up and potty trained both during day time and night time.
I was free of diapers forever!!! ............ Or so I thought!

We became pregnant, again, unplanned, for the third time when my son was 3.5 years old and our little girl was just 5.5 years old. We didn't expect it and wasn't looking for it, but it happened; we were pregnant.

I knew from the get go that breastfeeding was *the* only option for us. We did it with the first two, full term breast feeding, and we were going to offer the same for out new little surprise.

After some difficulties I was out of a job, so to try and save again I revisited the idea of cloth diapers. This time it was different. I had already seen adds for cloth diapers when I was pregnant and knew that times and styles had changed. I was lazily thinking how will I handle all that extra laundry but knew I had to do something to save us money. So I got hubby on board and convinced him it was the only way.

Now I was going in, ready to invest into cloth diapers. But I had very little cash on hand to get them, but knew that disposables would become unaffordable very fast. There are a lot of brands out there. And the prices range from just a few bucks to into the twenties and thirties of dollars! Most of the "brands" I fell in love with I so could not afford. With the help of my cousin I found one I could, but it is not the most popular or best known brand. I didn't care, they were cloth and would do the same function as the others. I made the move and got them!

They arrived at my door a few short weeks after. I was the proud owner and soon to be user of cloth diapers: BabyLand AIO (all in one) pocket Diapers. I got 4 each of 5 different colors, so I totaled 20 for all time use. We have red, orange, yellow, green and blue monkey prints. Below is a picture I took after we opened the delivery box. We received an extra insert with our order.

I pre-washed that afternoon all the diapers before use.

I must say that they are easy to use and in my opinion quite absorbent. He can stay sometimes up to 5 hours with one on before it becomes too full to absorb  any more fluid. Not that we usually stay this long before changing him :-). They are easy to clean and don't take that much effort to wash. I wash them all together in one load once a week, see easy. The poopies get washed by hand right away. Here below I have pictures of my surprise modeling his diapers and saving mommy and daddy a lot of $.

These diapers have been in constant use since the day of their arrival to our home. It will be 4 straight months of tough use so far. He crawls all over the yard with these on and they don't stay stained or get scuffed, ripped or teared. They look just as new as the day they arrived. I still inspect them monthly for any signs of wear and tear but am always glad not to find any. We use 1 disposable diaper per night as I am too lazy to wake up in the middle of the night to change a diaper to prevent leeks on our bed. He has started to sleep from 8:30 until 6, waking maybe 3-4 times a night to feed. Well maybe not waking more like blind sleep induced looking, latching and drinking. I pre assemble my diaper stash and fold them neatly. Hoping that someday soon hubby will feel confident enough to give diapering with cloth diapers a try! He is fabulous and fast with disposables, I have to say. But has not yet felt comfortable with the snaps and choices of size that the cloth diapers have to offer.

I am an attachment parent by nature. And now I have joined the cloth diapering world and am loving every moment of it! I say YAY for cloth and saving $ and the environment all in one neat and easy diaper.