Cloth Diapering: Pre-folds (and other random stuff)

I promised to post pictures of 'before' and 'after' for prepping my cloth diapering prefolds. It's a pretty incredible transformation, actually. Here are my 36 newborn size diapers before: stiff, starchy, and pretty darn thin:


And here are the bad boys after 5 wash/dry cycles: fat, fluffy, and incredibly soft. I seriously think they tripled in size. Just look at that stack now!


They became nice and quilted, ready to absorb poo and pee from our little man!

So a little more information on prefolds in general for you:

There are Chinese and Indian prefolds, which can be either bleached or unbleached. For the record, I chose Indian unbleached organic prefolds:)

Chinese versus Indian: what's the difference?

-Indian prefolds are softer, more absorbent, and made of gauze cotton. They might wear out faster than Chinese pf, but a couple of sites I visited have begun only listing Indian prefolds because they are top of the line. They are a little more expensive than Chinese pfs.

-Chinese prefolds have heavy duty stitching, are made of twill, and would probably stay nicer longer than Indian pfs. However, they may pill more and are much rougher than Indians although they cost a little bit less.

Bleached versus Unbleached: what's the difference?

-bleached prefolds are bright white, from an actual bleaching process of the fibers or perhaps through a more 'natural' peroxide wash. They have been 'degummed' as well and are somewhat cheaper than unbleached. You'll need to wash these about 3-4 cycles before using them.

-unbleached prefolds are light tan in color and have not been processed to make them white. They need to be 'degummed' because they still have some oils in their fibers, so you'll need to do at least 5 washes on them before using.


Then here is a copy from my nine page document on where to buy prefolds. Again, we went with Green Mountain but there are numerous other places out there, too. I just like comparing shipping costs and actual costs before making decisions:)

1. Storkwearhouse (free ship > $75)
⁃ cloth-eez chinese bleached: dozen=$28.80 plus ship ($3 each)

2. Wallypop (will wash for $10 extra first)
⁃ chinese DSQ bleached 'infant': dozen=$20.50 plus ship
⁃ chinese DSQ bleached 'premium': dozen=$24.50 plus ship

3. A Diaper Change (free ship >$50)
⁃ chinese bleached 'infant': dozen=20.50 plus 3 ship
⁃ Chinese bleached 'premium': dozen=28.50
⁃ Indian unbleached 'infant': dozen=21.50
⁃ Indian unbleached 'premium': dozen=29.50

4. Little Lions (free ship > $90, $6.95 flat rate otherwise) **cheapest**
⁃ indian bleached 'infant': dozen=$16.15
⁃ indian unbleached 'infant': dozen=$16.15 (seconds=$13.00)
⁃ indian bleached 'premium': dozen=$18
⁃ indian unbleached 'premium': dozen =$18

5. Cotton Babies (free ship >$75, in STL)
⁃ doesn't do it by the dozen. Chinese 1.50-2.00 each, Indian 1.00-2.00 each

6. Cloth Diaper Outlet (free ship >$50)
⁃ chinese bleached 'infant' dozen=$1.90 each, $22.80
⁃ chinese bleached 'premium' dozen=$2.65 each, $31.80
⁃ indians unbleached 'infant' dozen=$2.15 each, $25.80
⁃ indians unbleached 'premium' dozen=$2.90 each, $34.80

7. Green Mountain
⁃ cloth-eez white/chlorine-free (already degummed) OR unbleached Indian 'newborn orange' $1.75 each, $21.00 dozen. For the 'organic' dozen is $25.
⁃ cloth-eez white/chlorine-free(already degummed) OR unbleached Indian 'medium red' $2.25 each, $27.00 dozen. For the 'organic' dozen is $35

8. Abby's Lane (free shipping!)
⁃ Indian unbleached infant dozen=$27.99
⁃ Indian unbleached premium dozen=$36.50

9. Ebay: Granite Smith (free shipping on covers if > 2 or more dozen prefolds)
-Indian unbleached newborn $18.99 per dozen (ship for 2 doz is $11.99)


Are you absorbing all of this CD information? :)
Onto more fun baby things: the nursery is coming right along! I've been meaning to hang the picture frames in baby's room for a long time now. When I went on my nesting rampage last weekend I broke out the electric drill and attempted to hang a few shelves before Nate returned from his trip. Wouldn't you know it, but I tried to use a dry wall screw anchor for our plaster walls and sure enough--the thing split in two and shot across the room while I tried to secure it into my lovely aqua walls. I could not pull the sucker out and had to wait until my manly husband returned home so he could bail me out. Of course, it took him about two minutes to announce that I was using the wrong type of anchors (who knew?) and he successfully removed the broken one and hung both shelves without problems. Having a man around is pretty handy sometimes:)

And because I have some VERY curious readers out there (ahem, Mom and my family, mostly) I had to be diligent and blur out two of the frames plus the wall letter I painted for the room. But you still get the idea, I'm sure.


I painted that big fatty polka dotted frame myself, using an old one that was pretty plain and boring. The big vertical blue frame will hold one of those nifty 'birth annoucement' type pieces, with his name, weight, birthday, length, etc all crunched together in cool font. And I still have a few other frames to fill but I'm not too worried about it:)

Also, please note baby Carlos' giraffe collection. We do love us some giraffes around here!

And finally, would you look at these two hams?

I just walked into the living room one night to this sight and had to capture it's cuteness on camera.

This weekend my mom is flying in for her last visit with us before baby arrives. We have some fun projects planned but mostly I just want to lounge around with her and have girl time. It's very odd to think that the next time I see my mom will be when they make the 8 hour drive to see us at the hospital. I'm supposed to call when I go into labor and they are going to hop in the car and make the trip up here, meeting us in the hospital. Just thinking about that gives me chills. I seriously cannot wait!