CD debate part 2

I feel like I haven't posted enough about our decision to cloth diaper. I get a lot of questions about this whole process in real life so I'm sure there are some people in bloggy land that wonder about it, too. While I'm obviously no expert since I don't even have a baby to cloth diaper yet, I have done enough research to earn a degree in 'certifiably insane about cloth diapering information'. I am not joking when I say I made myself a 9 page Word document full of website links, information, and general knowledge. It's a sickness really:)

Hold onto that thought while I tell you the following story about a husband and a wife...

While said husband and wife were in St. Louis for Christmas, they received $50 as a gift from a loving Memaw:) So they decided to hit up the ever-famous Cotton Babies store to make an official start on their CD supply. The wife felt equipped with an obscene amount of knowledge and research and was ready to make her first purchase. She knew they wanted to go the 'prefold with covers' route in order to save the most money in the long run but wasn't sure which accessories they needed. The husband, who had not done any research but heard his wife babble on about different CD options, was just along for the ride as he observed a look of intense concentration on his wife's face while perusing the cloth diapering mecca of Cotton Babies.

Then all of a sudden the husband announced the following:
"Why don't we just buy a butt load of these 'one size/all in ones' and call it a done deal?" He truly believed that purchasing the most expensive, albeit convenient, BumGenius AIO one size diapers for $25 a pop would be the best option for this couple. Never mind that they would need 24-36 of the bad boys. Never mind that the wife had researched the pros and cons of prefolds instead of all-in-ones. Never mind that it would cost them hundreds of dollars more to go this 'luxurious' route of cloth diapering. And they wouldn't know if the baby would even like this type of system. The husband liked the idea of a simple all-in-one system that would always fit the baby.

The wife was not too happy with the husband for doubting her research powers and decision making skills. Sure, an all-in-one and one-size system would be super easy. But weren't they choosing cloth to save money? How would spending $900 on one kind of diaper save a single dime, especially when it isn't guaranteed to work for their unborn babe?

They had a little talk and the wife won this argument. Well, they compromised actually: they decided to stick with prefolds and covers for the beginning stages of diapering. After all, they already have a ridiculous amount of covers on loan for FREE from a friend. So all they need to purchase is the actual prefold (more on that later). But perhaps considering a luxurious, convenient all-in-one system once the baby gets a little older is an option, too. And so they registered for one AIO/one size diaper and plan to use it as an experiment on baby boy, knowing that they will probably get addicted to it:) No harm done, since the covers cost them nothing and the prefolds always make for awesome burp cloths anyway.

So would you like to see our stash thus far? Let me show you my little lovelies:

1. The prefolds themselves. Along with 3 Snappis to hold them in place. No more diaper pins, ladies!

After much debate, I went with Green Mountain Diapers for our company. There are about a billion places out there to buy prefolds but GMD is a heavy favorite in many chat rooms. Plus, they have the option of Cloth-Eez organic Indian cotton, which is reportedly the 'nicest, softest, most durable cotton' out there. And everyone says that the GMD Cloth-Eez brand fits wonderfully. So we splurged just a bit, buying 36 newborn size prefolds for $92.40 including tax and shipping. But my friends, that is ALL we've spent any of our own money on so far. We will need to buy at least one more size of prefolds when he gets bigger, but maybe not 36 of them so it shouldn't cost more than $75 next time. I'm hoping to get by with the newborn size for quite a while, then maybe skip up to the mediums and be done with purchasing prefolds forever. We shall see.

Please observe these beauties.



Now that would be a 'before' picture because they aren't fully prepped yet. Once I wash them about 5-6 times they will be super fluffy, quilted, and will shrink down in size quite a bit. I fully plan on showing you an 'after' picture, too, don't worry:)


2. Covers. Lots and lots of covers. Borrowed from a fellow tree-hugger who has twins, so really we have more than twice as many as we'll actually need. They suggest 4-6 covers in each size. As you can see we are pretty much set in this aspect. We have 16 'newborn' size covers, 12 'small' size covers, and 2 'medium' sized ones so far. The smalls will take us until he is about 18 pounds so I think we'll be fine for quite a while.

Also, in the above picture you will see the other 'accessories' I decided to buy at Cotton Babies with our Christmas gift money. We got a little printed wet bag to take to daycare, two kinds of cloth wipes, and some hemp liners for nighttime protection. Henry is obviously thrilled:)

3. Other fun stuff:
My fabulous St. Louis shower hostesses all went in on an amazing cloth diapering gift for me, by getting every single thing on a little CD registry I set up. I was just making a wish list, really, full of items that we didn't truly NEED but it sure would be nice to have. And poof---because we are so incredibly blessed by wonderful friends and family we now have a nice stash of 'extras' in our possession.

See that solid blue diaper up there? That is the infamous AIO/one size BumGenius that Nate wanted to purchase in bulk. We also have a Dream-Eze orange diaper that's an all-in-one, and an adorable Blueberry coverall that is a 'one size'. Throw in a few more cloth wipes, more diaper doubles for added nighttime absorbency, an awesome diaper sprayer that attaches to the toilet for those solid poops (no more toilet dunking or scraping!), special cloth diapering-friendly detergent, and a little 'odor spray' for the dirties and we are on our way to being a true cloth diapering household. Oh, and the orange bag up there? That is what you use as a pail liner to hold all of the dirty and wet diapers until laundry day. I plan on buying a cheapie trashcan with lid on it and using that for storage. Then the pail liner can be removed and the whole thing gets carried to the washer. Sounds like fun, doesn't it? (It really does to me, I know I'm crazy).

If we bought all of this on our own it would have been close to $200. So that brings us up to $250 worth of gifted items to us, plus the covers which I'm sure would have cost at least $200 by themselves, and another $50 worth of other accessories from Memaw's Christmas money. So $500 worth of supplies for free and $92.70 spent by us so far. Pretty freaking good, wouldn't you say? Especially when you remember that we can use these supplies for multiple babies and we might not have to spend another cent on diapering at all, until we buy the next size up in prefolds. Sure beats spending close to $20 per week, for at least two years on each child if you use disposables, don't you think? Again, all of the charts I've seen say you can save anywhere from $800 to $2000 if you cloth diaper even just one child.

So what are these cover things I speak about? Only the cutest things in the entire world. This one is a favorite:


And my friend who lent us the covers really liked the Thirsties brand. I am obsessed with the bright orange variety, of course:


I'm thinking I'll use the top three drawers in the changing table as a diapering storage system. We're getting ready, folks!



I have more CD posts waiting in the wings, full of some other research and great informational links. But do any of my readers have specific questions about this whole process? Advice for me? And making a statement like 'You are crazy for doing this' won't win you any brownie points, my friends:)