The History

I've had a couple of friends ask me about cloth diapering lately. Both are pregnant and planning to cloth diaper when the baby arrives, and I couldn't be more thrilled. I LOVE that people are asking me about cloth diapers because for every baby in cloth, literally THOUSANDS of disposable diapers (sposies) are saved from landfills. So this right here is proof that one person can make a huge difference. That being said, it's a little funny to be considered an "expert". I have 7 months of experience doing this, and apparently that means I'm an expert. Ha!

Here's a bit about me and my cloth diapering: When I found out I was pregnant, I knew almost immediately that I just wasn't capable of filling an entire landfill with diapers. The thought of it makes me sick. So, I knew I'd have to cloth diaper. We are currently using a combination of a diaper service (which my grandmother offered to pay for, bless her!), and a few pocket diapers, inserts, and a brand new fitted that is currently being tested on my baby's butt for the night. :) The diaper service provides prefolds that I use throughout the day. I wash all the rest myself, and am hoping to buy some prefolds of my own as soon as I gather up the money.

We had a rough start with cloth diapering because I had NO idea what I was doing and I didn't know anyone who I could talk to. I got most of my info via internet searches and YouTube videos. I kid you not. I learned how to fold and Snappi a diaper on YouTube. We started out with gDiapers because, well, they sell them at Babies 'R' Us and they're the ONLY cloth diapering system you can purchase in a big box store. And I didn't know any better. We were folding prefolds in thirds and using them as inserts for the gPants. This worked great for the first few weeks, until the Eskimo got too big and too, ahem, "productive" for it to be effective. But I was lost. I had these prefolds and diaper covers and this thing called a Snappi that the diaper service had provided, but I had no idea what to do with any of them. So, I turned to YouTube. Lo and behold, people have documented this stuff! Go check it out. We used the "jelly roll" technique while the Eskimo was still itty-bitty and exclusively breastfed.

Alright, enough for one evening. Maybe I'll post again tomorrow. :)