It is so nice to be all comfy in our new home. It makes my heart flutter to make a home cooked meal. Hanging strands of sea shells and family pictures just so settles my soul. But let me tell you, to see my little boys backsides wrapped up in their cloth diapers gives me the ultimate sense of normalcy. With all the time in hotels I was not sure of where I would have access to a washing machine, so I opted for the disposable over the last two weeks. Oh the smell. Oh the waste. The money! And even the eczema! My boys are some sensitive and anything triggers this lovely skin condition to re-visit our lives.
While I have discussed the benefits of cloth diapering before, I feel the need to go back to it. Well, it is part of a contest so that would explain a part of it. But also it is to assure anyone reading this that yes, cloth diapers are easy. Truly and utterly simple. We don’t do any origami folding around here, our washer never ever has any mysteries floating around, and our water bill hardly changes at all. Having both my two-year old, as well as my seven-month old needing steady diaper changes (although now here in the sunny south we can spend a bit more time outdoors in the nude) makes me somewhat of a cloth diaper genius. Yes, it is true, never in all my years did I think I would be proud to announce such a thing. But yet, here I am doing just so.
We use pre-folds mostly because of the ease in washing and for their price. I purchased them from a nice comprehensive site called Cotton Babies. They look brand new after two years of use and Rowan is now sitting pretty in those fluffy squares of cotton once worn by his big brother. You just fold them into thirds, fit it into a cover (we use thirsties but have a variety of hand me downs that I no not the name of, but work wonderfully as well) and off they go with their cute little hineys all decked out in shades of yellow, bold stripes, or whatever pattern you can imagine.
While yes, I do spend more time with every mama’s best friend (the washing machine), in all reality don’t we all already do so much laundry what is a few more loads? I do a load of diapers about every other day or sometimes every third. And that is for two boys! Because you flush the enemy down the john there is really much less fumigation needed than disposable diapers. You can either hang them to dry (what is more satisfying than a whole line full of colorful diapers?) or just put the pre-folds in the dryer. Done.
I won’t even bore you with the cost efficiency of cloth diapering. It is clearly the winner. After the initial cost, your days of calculating diapers into the budget are complete. You can also use cloth wipes with no worries whatsoever.
“On the go” cloth diapering is not nearly as daunting as I once assumed it might be. Look, even my husband is reading over my shoulder in complete agreement. We have successfully kept our boys behinds in colorful fabric on airplanes, long distance car rides, camping, and even beach days (such as today).
Although you can’t keep a baby from tearing off his diaper at the beach, even a cute cloth one. Look at that face, pure bliss.
I am certainly not getting any compensation on this post. But, if you comment on it and with the luck of the full moon tomorrow night I may just win and you could win a dozen cloth diapers too!
Hi Mariah!
Great post! I am expecting a little girl in late May and am totally on board with cloth diapering. Good luck with the contest mama!
xo-jessie
congrats jessie! That is wonderful news. Oh a little girl… although i am so happy to have my sweet boys it sure would be nice to have a little lady around the house! I am so happy for you.
I was raised on cloth diapers as well. Many great benefits and cost savings as well. SO glad your little ones are back in the cloth and love the beach bums too.
This is fabulous! It’s definitely something I’ve been thinking of with our little one on the way. Steve’s not quite as convinced and I’d love to be able to show him how they work!! Your posts are awesome, by the way 🙂
love this post.. Forwarding it to Tom, maybe it will help him finally get on board. But then will it be unfair that we cloth diaper Amelia, but poor Lily was stuck in disposables… hmmmm gotta keep it fair.
great post Ri – I need to catch up on all this wonderful reading. And cheers to cloth diapers! Miss you…. xxo
I to love cloth diapers too. Wished we would have known more about them the first time around…didn’t know as many mama friends then. I could go on and on, but you have covered the most important aspects already. The clothes line is one of my favorite parts…Silly I know but we all get outside just a little bit more.
I still remember my thought process when you first told me you were planning to use cloth diapers. To say the least, I was a skeptic. I just couldn’t comprehend how it would work. Well you certainly showed me. I am sold and one day when I have little ones I will definitely use cloth diapers. Anyway to create less waste and be more natural! In fact, I’m going to send this to my sister since she’s expecting in the summer.
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I just loved your pictures!! What a cute boy. I can’t wait to see my boy in cloth at that age just walking around. 🙂 You have a flair for writing, and I loved reading your post. Thank you and good luck to you!!!
I love our cloth diapers. Before my son was born, people weren’t disgusted by it, but I did get asked, “So how long do you think that will last?”
Umm…excuse me? I’m not about to give up because of a load of laundry. They’re easy. They don’t require me to run out and spend money I have set aside for food or bills on something that will just get thrown away!
And now that my son is here, I love my cloth diapers even more!
My mother has repeatedly made comments about how she can buy us disposables… but honestly, after using the ones we got from the hospital, I don’t want to use them ever again! Disposables *stink* – literally. So even if we could afford to throw money away, I wouldn’t use them!
I would just buy more cloth diapers.
Congratulations 312east5th! You are one of the winner’s from JenniferLabit.com’s All I want for Christmas contest. http://jenniferlabit.com/2012/01/16/winners-all-i-want-for-christmas-blogging-contest/ Please email media@cottonbabies.com for more information.