Brace yourselves...

After much debate, deliberation (and too many Wal-mart runs) we've officially gone cloth. As in Cloth diapers.

Keep breathing.

A lot of factors played into this decision. Way back in pregnancy days Jeremy had come across a spreadsheet indicating cost saving benefits of cloth diapers. At the time my only experience with cloth was what I saw in Honduras. It was highly ineffective and quite frankly a mess. I wasn't so interested in joining that club anytime soon. I saw a few modern, American versions on the internet sometime thereafter and was appeased that it didn't have to be the pre-folded, safety-pinned version... but I still didn't give it much thought.

Then Raymond arrived. And in about 2 weeks our supply of gifted disposable diapers was quickly coming to an end. We made our first Wal-mart run for diapers. The pack of 92 lasted no more than two weeks. I started taking the idea of cloth seriously. Honestly, who can afford roughly $40 a month in diapers? Who wants to?

I started doing some serious research. Most of my early searching started from this blog: theclothdiaperreport.com. She gives a lot of basic information about different types of cloth diapers, brands, etc. Since I was completely novice, I started at the beginning.

There are a wide variety of cloth diapers out there: prefolds, pocket, all-in-ones, one size... the list goes on. That is not to mention brands. Wow. Who knew? I spent seriously a full week doing internet searches and trying to figure out what would work best for us.

In the end, we have purchased Fuzzibunz sized diapers. They are pocket diapers--meaning there is an insert that I stuff inside the diaper before use. The beautiful thing about Fuzzibunz is that I do not have to de-stuff the diaper before washing. I simply throw it in the washer and the rest is history.

Oh wait... that's the part about this whole thing that grosses most people out: the washing. So far, I must say it's pretty easy. I do not need to rinse or soak these bad boys. Like I said, I simply throw them in. Someday when Raymond has more solid bowel movements I will need to dump it in the toilet before stowing the diaper in my diaper bin awaiting wash. But that's all. From there I do a cold pre-rinse, and a regular wash cycle. And I only use 1/4-1/2 the detergent. Since we've bought the lower end of the recommended number to have on hand, I plan on washing about every other day. Not so bad.

They seem to do ok with leeks so far. They do need the recommended initial 5-6 washings to be the most leak proof... but they still only leak about as much as the disposables.

And the best part? Besides saving the land fills from billions of diapers... there will be no more Wal-mart runs in the near future.