The Cloth Diaper Decision

I've had several requests to post about cloth diapering, so here goes just a little bit about how my decision to use cloth came about.

I didn't cloth diaper until my 3rd baby, born in 2009.

I DID think about them with my first born... but back then (well, ALL the way back to 2002, ha ha) I thought all they were was Gerber prefolds, pins and plastic pants from Wal-Mart. In my defense, we tried those. Not for long, that's for sure. They didn't work at all (for us, I've heard of people making it work) so disposables it was! Those Gerber prefolds made GREAT burp cloths! :) And sometimes I used plastic pants over those disposables to hold in blow outs!

I don't want to play the young card, but I was very young when I had my first baby, and VERY naive, I admit that openly. I was overwhelmed and couldn't handle "one more thing" on my plate than I already had. Internet then, at least for me, was not what it is now. Anytime anyone has a question now, you just pop it into Google. I barely used email back in '02.

When I became pregnant with my 3rd baby, somehow I got to looking into cloth diapers. My sister (in law... but is it necessary to clarify that?) used them on my nephew who was born back in 2007 which I'm sure planted the "bug" in my mind about them. I thought she was crazy when I heard she was going to use them, then I saw what they were now-a-days and how awesome they were!

My SIL graciously offered her diapers for our use and I was so excited about that! I got into really researching cloth... it got exciting. They were so cute! There were so many different kinds! And then I found the informative articles that really made me think - even if cloth diapers are HARD (which they aren't) we HAVE to use them. What is in disposables make me sick to my stomach and I honestly worry about what they possibly have done to my other two children for being in them all the time for 2-3 years. Then throw on top of that how long disposables take to decompose (500 years)... and the thought that any disposable that's ever been used still hasn't decomposed yet... gross. I already was going "greener" using reusable shopping bags, recycling everything possible, using mostly unpaper towels (except for contaminating items like chicken goo...), so why wouldn't I make probably the biggest leap I could by using cloth diapers??

My husband was a little hesitant at first when I said I wanted to use cloth diapers, but he came around easily when I started showing him everything (and him knowing we were getting a lot of them free to use from my SIL).

The next thing for me was the feeling of being overwhelmed. There were so many choices, so many different styles, so many different websites... what to pick and then, what if I didn't like it?

I found a cloth diapering board on Babycenter.com and oh my goodness - it was a lifesaver. There were other expectant moms with millions of questions like me, asking questions I couldn't think of how to put into words... I saw someone recommend a "try it for $10 program" and was so intrigued... I found it at Jillian's Drawers (.com). I was so anxious to cloth diaper I went ahead and ordered it even though I was so early in the pregnancy I didn't even know if I was having a boy or girl. I just couldn't wait to have my hands on some fluffy mail! I asked my goddaughter's mom if I could borrow (aka babysit) her baby and try out cloth diapers on her, and she was okay with it. It was pretty funny - I didn't have a clue what I was doing - I put a Thirsties Fab Fitted on without a cover for a nap. That was a MESS. :) But I was hooked already, in those 4 cloth diaper changes in just a matter of one day.

That was the beginning of my cloth diaper addiction. :)