You're Using WHAT???

They say the third time's the charm. I guess in our case, this is true. When we found out we were pregnant with Aiden, I immediately began researching cloth diapers. I had looked into briefly when pregnant with Colten and then abandoned the idea thinking that there were just too many to choose from and not completely sure I wanted to mess with "that mess."

This time around, the idea of not having to buy diapers all the time, saving money, decreasing landfill trash and it being better for our babies' bottoms had me seriously thinking about it. Well, it's moved on from thinking about it to actually doing it!

Yep, we're using cloth diapers!!!

I knew we needed an easy to use diaper. Brian had already nixed the idea of prefolds and covers (the cheapest way to cloth diaper) and when we lived in Arkansas, we had a great natural parenting store that stocked all kinds of diapers. So, I headed down there one day to look into a couple of diapers I had my eye on and then fell in love with a completely different diaper. I forced Brian to come back with me so he could see the diapers and we decided to go with FuzziBunz One Size diaper (FBOS from now on in this post).

I think THIS post on Styleberry Blog is an awesome way to learn more. She uses the same FBOS (but in the cute girly colors!) and describes the diapers in a MUCH better way than I could ever try to do. :-) She also has THIS tutorial on the nitty gritty of the "dirty diaper." Since that's usually the biggest reason people think using Cloth is gross, I figured it would be beneficial to show you that it's not really that bad. Ummm, yes, there is actual poo in the diaper she uses, so if you're sensitive to those types of images, then you might want to not watch it (but seriously, we all do it, so what's the big deal???).

We ordered our "stash" of FBOS a couple of weeks ago from an online store that was offering a free one-size diaper with a $25 order. I split my purchase up into two orders and ended up getting two Tweedle Bugs (TBs) diapers for free. These use the traditional "snap down" sytem to resize them, but I figured they would be perfect for Colten to use right now. They seem similar to the FBOS in terms of what materials are used.

I have to say that while they were freebies, the TBs worked awesome! He wore one for 3 hours with just one of the inserts in and didn't leak at all. He even loved wearing them. As soon as I put them on, he smiled and pointed to them and then started running around like a crazy person! I'm hoping he likes the FBOS just as much.

I still need to get a few things to round out my system. I need to figure out how I want to store the dirty/wet diapers at the house in between washings. I would like to buy some disposable liners (for easier poo removal), and I need to order a wet back for my diaper bag so I can store the wet/dirty diapers while we are out and about.

While I have just started putting Colten in them, we will take a break from them right after I have Aiden. It's for a couple of reasons...c-section recovery is hard enough when you don't have to worry about laundry, so I don't want to add on the task of another load everyday. The umbilical cord needs special care and I don't want the diaper to rub against it and hinder that healing (I'm not exactly sure how the FBOS will fit him since he's not here yet!). I also don't want to mess with meconium diapers or lots of vaseline (which is a no-no with cloth) that we'll probably have to use for his circumcision (yes, we circ...no, I don't need your opinion). So, we have a pack of Pampers for the first days at home and when I feel like we're ready to start with the cloth, we'll do it.

I know that some friends and family probably had questions about this decision, so I figured I would write a post on it. While Brian is a typical male and doesn't really get excited over things like this, I am super excited about it and was just disappointed by one thing...that I didn't get two of the colors I wanted because the company was out of stock. I'll probably buy a couple more from another site (or from a store near Cary, NC that stocks them) just so I can have the red color. Razorback game days require it! :-)