A New Bum

I briefly mentioned a couple of weeks ago that I took the plunge and switched Morenna over to cloth diapers. I may appear the Queen of Green by doing such a thing, but really the change was influenced by a little emergency preparedness chat my hubby and I had.

Water? Check.
Food? Check.
Battery radio? Check... What else would we possibly need?
Ooo, diapers. What'll we do about that?

So I looked into cloth diapering. I had briefly considered the option when I found out I was pregnant with Morenna, but it held little appeal to me. I know my mom had cloth diapered, but it seemed like a lot of work, albeit she had a diaper service. Besides, I scored cheap diapers at CVS, so the expense for disposables seemed minimal to me.

Yeah, minimal.

Come to find out, paying less than $5 a pack can still add up week after week. Who knew?

My first tour of the world of cloth (the new and improved world of cloth, that is) left my head spinning. After one evening of research, I promptly informed Matt there was no way, no how, I was going to be able to do it. Ah, but I love a challenge.

Once I faced my fear of all the unknown lingo, the choices, the very opinionated mommies... I found a company that offered a trial pack of several well-known, well-liked diapers for only $10. That certainly made things a bit more doable, so I gave it a try.

After just a couple days my thoughts mirrored those of many others I had read: Why in the world didn't I do this from the beginning?

It's true, the front-end dishing out of cash seems like a lot. And the concept of washing poopy diapers each day can sound ridiculous and pricey in resources. But really, it is cheap(er). And the extra work? Well, I haven't really noticed it, other than that one extra trip I have to force my pregnant body take down the stairs to the washer each night.

Cons? Swirling a poop-stained diaper in the toilet isn't my idea of a party. But the biodegradable liners you can put in your diapers pretty much take care of all the dirty work. And I have my eye on this handy-dandy little do-dad that would help out a bit, too.

My favorite pro? Simply put: cloth doesn't stink. Consequently, my trash can doesn't always smell and I don't have nasty, stinky, diapers piling up to be thrown out. Morenna's room always smells fresh, even though the pail of dirty cloth diapers sits there. Very cool. And we're now two months into this. Another pro? Not feeling guilty for buying a pack of diapers because I accidentally ran out. I don't run out. Sweet!

We still sometimes use a disposable diaper at night. Morenna is such a heavy-wetter that the cloth diaper I have to make for nighttime use makes her look like a freakin' grasshopper. One night alone she soaked through 4, yes FOUR, inserts in her diaper and I still ended up putting her in a disposable by night's end. There are lots of other options I could try, but I'm lazy. And honest. :-)

Our daytime diapers of choice have been BumGenius and Fuzzibunz with a few old-fashioned prefolds thrown in. The BumGenius are an easy and cost effective route in my opinion, because they have the ease of disposables and are one-size-fits-all. Once Baby Roo arrives, I won't be forced to sort through a pile of diapers to find which one belongs to who. Both girls will be able to use them!

Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to go hang up some diapers. :-)