Cloth Diapers: You've Come A Long Way Baby!

Can I just say that I am a HUGE fan of the blog world. In addition to keeping up with family and friends, I have made several acquaintances and friends by reading the blogs of my friends' friends. Hope I haven't lost you. These new women in my life have answered questions about potty training and home schooling, sent me recipes, suggested books on various topics, sent me to "homemaking" links, and offered me encouragement and prayer support. Most recently, I befriended a friend of friend, because I was curious about modern day cloth diapering. I was beginning the research process, and I remembered that my friend Elizabeth's friend Gwen had just started using cloth diapers with her daughter. So, I e-mailed Elizabeth and asked if she could get Gwen to e-mail me back. I am completely unashamed and even brazen at times, when I want to pick some one's brain. Thankfully, Gwen shares a similar craving for answers and "know how," so she e-mailed me back with more information than I could have ever imagined existed about the modern world of cloth diapering. This brings us to the topic at hand . . . cloth diapers have come a VERY long way. Throw all your pre-conceived notions of huge flat fold diapers and even bigger diaper pins out the window, and allow me to catch you up to speed and share why we have decided to use cloth diapers this time around.

There are SO many different kinds of cloth diapers on the market now. You have pocket diapers (as seen in picture on left), A-I-O (all in one diapers), fitted diapers (to be worn with cover), and the traditional flat-fold or pre-fold diapers. These diapers are amazingly easy and practical. They have adjustable snaps or velcro, and are so soft and trim. If you decide to use traditional diapers, you can use a closure called a SNAPPI--no more pins!!! Or, you can just put the traditional diaper inside of a velcro closure diaper cover and voila--diapered baby! Hannah has recently started sleeping in the Aplix and Snap Pocket Diapers by Swaddlebees, and she loves them. We only have two cloth diapers for her right now, because she rarely wets at night or during nap time.

After weeks of research on my part, and I do mean weeks, we have decided to go the cloth diaper route with baby number two and (God willing) subsequent babies. There are a few reasons we arrived at this decision:

1. I am a stay at home mom, so I have time to deal with a little extra laundry.
2. It is a big investment up front, but it is an investment, and you have the diapers for the next baby, to pass on to someone else, or resell on E-bay (these things have CRAZY resale value!).
3. We will be reducing our consumption of throw away products.
4. We will be saving over $1,000 dollars in the long run with this baby, and subsequent children will be diapered at only the cost of laundry, because we will already own the diapers.
5. It is the first step in potty training (this should be higher up on my list). The disposable diaper manufacturers have Americans brainwashed into thinking that your children should move from diapers to pull-ups, and then potty train somewhere around 3 or 4 years of age. Children are potty training later than we did, because they don't recognize the uncomfortable wet sensation. While these modern day cloth diapers are more absorbent than the diapers of old, children who wear cloth diapers will definitely feel uncomfortable after a while in a wet diaper, as opposed to the disposable diapers that can hold an abundance of urine--comfortably at that. Hannah never once complained (in two years) of being uncomfortable in a wet or soiled diaper. The first time she realized being wet was uncomfortable was when I put her in training panties.

Ok, I am not campaigning for cloth diapers . . . just explaining our decision for those who are interested. Anyway, as I mentioned, cloth diapering is a big investment up front. While we do not plan to have any baby showers this time around, I have set up a registry with Cotton Babies in hopes that family and close friends who desire to purchase a gift for baby girl will aid us in getting started on the path to cloth diapering. This is not a request for gifts, but we have every thing else we could possibly need, so this seemed like the most practical request and answer for those who desire to purchase a gift. You can access our registry by going to the Cotton Babies web site, scrolling down to "Registries," and then looking for "Lori and Jonathan Brooks, Clewiston, FL." I have also set up a direct link in my sidebar (under "General Links"). Anyone who purchases something off our registry should type our name in the comment box when checking out, so that the item can be removed from our registry.