Oh, goodie goodie goodie!

For 11 days I have been anxiously awaiting the arrival of a package. I tracked it online through UPS and saw it would be arriving yesterday. I was giddy with anticipation. I opened the door every hour or so to look for packages on the doorstep. When I had nothing to do I longingly stared out the front window like my little girl waiting for her daddy to come home. I checked the computer again: out for delivery, Idaho Falls, ID. I checked the doorstep again. I nearly fainted when a FedEx truck appeared at the house across the street, but then I remembered that mine was UPS. At 5:30 I went out to dinner (the only time I'd left the house all day) and when I got back, THERE IT WAS!A flat, medium-sized white box, shining in all its corrugated glory. I brought it in the house, and Annalee immediately climbed on top of it, celebrating her victory.I guess my actions had given away that something valuable was inside, because when I tried to take it to open it she offered to Sumo Wrestle me for it.Luckily, I had a slight weight advantage, so I retrieved my beloved box and opened it, carefully arranging the precious contents on the floor in front of me.At last . . . sigh . . . my cloth diapers.
Cloth diapers?!! you ask. What can she be thinking? Has she gone insane? Oh, possibly. But after doing a lot of research, reading reviews online and talking to friends that cloth diaper, I decided that we could do it. I'm not really bothered by statistics of how many disposable diapers Americans throw away every year and how many centuries it will take for them to decompose. My mom used disposables on me, and they haven't come back to haunt me yet. My whole motivation, of course, is financial. For what these diapers cost, I will break even with what I would have spent in disposables in 5 months. Annalee will be in diapers for probably another year, so it's worth it. However, it will be even more worth it when I use these on the next kid (and the next and the next). For newborns you recoup your money even faster, since they go through so many diapers.

These are not your mother's cloth diapers. Cloth diapers have come a long way in the last couple decades. There are no plastic pants to put on over a soggy safety-pinned mess. Instead, the whole diaper is sewn all together, with soft fleece inside and a colorful waterproof material outside. They have velcro or snaps that allow you to get the right fit. The brand I love, Fuzzi Bunz, is a pocket diaper, which means that you insert reusable fleece absorbent pads that can be removed when laundering so the whole thing dries faster.
Of course, laundering is the real issue, isn't it? Basically, when I change a diaper I put it in a diaper pail (not filled with water). If there are solids in the diaper I knock them into the toilet first. I don't worry about runny messes or small pieces because they will come out in the wash. Every other day or so, I run a small load in the washer, first cold, and then another one hot with detergent. (You have to get certain kinds of detergent, like Allen's or 7th Generation so that the detergent doesn't build up on the diapers and make them less absorbent. So I can't use my homemade stuff, but with all the money my homemade stuff saves me, I can afford to buy detergent for diapers.) Then you just air dry or toss in the dryer. You don't use any fabric softener, because that would make the diapers less absorbent. What's really great is that we aren't charged for how much water we use here!
I am so excited! These diapers are cute and comfortable. Nathan is intimidated by them right now, but I know that once he starts using them he will love them too. It was actually a friend's husband's endorsement of cloth that finally decided me! If you decide to go for it, talk to me and I'll show you where I got the diapers for $16.10 each instead of $17 or $18. (I don't want to type it all out now.) The great thing is, you can try out cloth diapers, and if you decide not to go with it, the resell value is really high.