I am so ready for baby to get here.  Like today.  Please. Any time now.  Nothing?

Okay… then I guess I’ll have to move on to today’s topic:

We have decided to cloth diaper!

It all started when we received a box of a few cloth diapering materials as a gift.  Before I got my hands on the soft, adorable goods, cloth diapering was not seriously on my radar.  After all, Gilbert was all disposable and seems no worse for it.  He didn’t have diaper rash and he potty trained pretty early on.  I have no complaints that would push me toward cloth.

Then I got my hands on those soft diaper covers and that was all it really took for me to reconsider.  The realization that I spent $300 on diaper genie refills alone with Gilbert didn’t hurt.

Also, cloth diapers are just cute in a way that disposables are not (or at least not the economical disposables).  I mean they come in plaid:

My reasons for going for it are simple:
1) I already had some gifted stuff to get started and even if I didn’t, cloth is cheaper than disposable in the long run even with the initial chunk of change put in up front.  I could crunch the numbers, but other folks have here and here and here.
2) It keeps crap out of the landfill.
3) Less chemical residue on my baby’s tush is one less thing to worry about.
4) You can reuse them with subsequent kiddos or sell the survivors at the end.
5) The cute factor… a diaper has no business being this cute:

Of course the usual deterent came up while decision making: POOP.  Fortunately, Gilbert has already cured me of any concerns about baby poop.  By the time Gil was a week old, I had been pooped on, peed on, and spit up on.  For the first time in my life, I thought well, it wasn’t that much pee he got on me.  I can wear this shirt to the store, right?

Fast forward 3 1/2 years and I now have dogs, chickens, a duck, and bunnies.  Poop is pretty much a day to day fact of life.  I will get poop on my hands sometimes.  It just can’t be avoided.  Disposable or cloth will not change that.

But still I almost turned back.  Why? SO MANY CHOICES.  OVERWHELMING CHOICES.

After reading in the middle of the night (pregnancy insomnia put to good use), I was starting to stress out… pocket diapers, all in ones, pod systems, liners, prefolds, covers, snappis, aplix.

My mind was swimming with brand names like Fuzzibums, Bumgenius, Rumparooz, Kawaii baby, Thirsties, Kissaluvs, Bummis, G diapers, Simply Baby.  Who names these things anyway?

Do I get hemp, cotton, fleece, or microfiber inserts?  How many do I need?

So many questions, so many opinions, no definitive answers.

Just when I was about to turn back, I got a nice dose of deus ex machina.  An old friend actually owns a cloth diapering business.  (Hallelujah.  Somebody who knows what they are doing.  Help me please!)

The wonderful Susan from Buckwheat Bottoms jumped in.  She sorted through the options with me and then set me up with a diaper “stash”.  Between the lovely diapers from Buckwheat Bottoms, the hand me down diapers I already had, and a few I may have impulse bought on ebay (come on… the diaper cover has robots on it.  Robots cannot be resisted), I now have a complete stash.

A nice touch with the stash from BB was the card with washing instructions that I taped up in my laundry room.  Now my husband or anybody who comes over to help out with baby will know what to do.

Here’s the starting line up:

6 Bumgenius newborn all in one Velcro
18 OsoCozy newborn Prefolds
Snappis – 3 count, Size 1
12 Bumgenius elementals onesize, cotton, all in ones
3 Softbums Velcro, onesize, with the snap in inserts, 6 newborn/onesize inserts
3 Bummies onesize covers
1 Rumparooz newborn cover
1 small Thirsties (velcro closure)
4 small fuzzibunz (snap closure)
6 gerber prefolds
2 SimplyCloth (justsimplybaby.com) one size
4 bumgenius one size pocket diapers (with velcro closure)
6 small gpants
12 small gpouches
1 medium gpant
6 medium gpouches
12 M/L/XL gdiaper cloth inserts
40 pack gdiaper disposable small/newborn inserts
32 M/L/XL gdiaper disposable inserts
1 travel wet bag
1 hanging Fuzzibums diaper pail
1 extra diaper pail liner

I’m planning to share my personal impressions and give an up close look at each type of diaper in future blog posts.  I’ll share what worked, what didn’t, and any tips I learn along the way.

Who knows?  Maybe I’ll provide a useful tip that will keep the poo off your hands and pee off your shirt.  You’re welcome in advance.