Thursday, May 21, 2009

Adventures in Cloth Diapering

From before we were ever pregnant I always assumed that I would cloth diaper my kids someday. My Mom cloth diapered all of us, as did various other relatives. I was comfortable with cloth. I also liked the benefit to the environment (yes, I'm a tree hugger ... most of the time).

When I was pregnant I looked into cloth diapers more seriously and was sold even more by the fact that we would not only be saving the environment, but also our wallet (that is the part that sold Nathan). I also LOVED all the SUPER CUTE diapers. These were not the boring old white prefolds with pins and plastic pants that my Mom had used. There were so many options and they were all so darn CUTE. They were also so darn EXPENSIVE.

My Mom bought us a month of cloth diaper service and that was a WONDERFUL gift. I really enjoyed being able to throw the diapers in a pail and someone else did the dirty work. However, after 2 months we decided it was a little pricey to keep up so we bought some diapers. Unfortunately, the only thing in our budget was prefolds and some not super cute covers. I was very bummed, but still committed to cloth diapering and really didn't mind the laundry as much as I thought.

Recently, I started working at the Orpheum occasionally. This has been nice for a variety of reasons, but one being that it has provided a little extra spending money. So what did I do with that extra cash? I went straight to diaperswappers.com, of course. I watched like a hawk until I came upon 2 deals, which I decided I couldn't turn down. I was in search of a couple of diapers that Nathan could use more easily when I was not home.
One of the results of working once in awhile is that Nathan is home alone with the baby more. Whereas he was somewhat comfortable with the prefolds and snappi in Fiona's early months, as she has become more and more mobile she has become more difficult to diaper. This has led to Nathan refusing to attempt the prefolds and using disposables when I'm not around (not that I'm complaining too much, at least he was changing her diaper).


So there I was, in search of an easier to use cloth diaper. The first one I found was a Toilebudz. They were cheap, cute, and I had seen some decent reviews of them. I got 3 for dirt cheap, so I thought we would give them a whirl. I really wanted these diapers to work for us. They were so CUTE. However, after using all 3 twice I am about to re-list them. Sadly, they leaked. It looked like they fit pretty well, but after 2 hours Fiona's clothes were soggy. The first attempt was when I was away, so I thought it might be user error. I gave them one more shot while I was home with the same results ... leakage. So sad.


The second deal I got was on 2 Bum Genius one size diapers. I am more cautiously optimistic about these. They are cute, not as cute as the others. The down side of the deal was that they are green and blue, which are not girly colors. I can easily get over that if they work. They are in the process of being tested. I am really keeping my fingers crossed that these work. I will have to update you all when a verdict has been arrived at.

Now, I am in search of another deal. I want something easy for the hubby, that works well with minimal leakage, cute and girly is a plus, and of course it has to be within our budget.

I entered about a million blog giveaways hoping to win some diapers to try out, but alas none have panned out. So if you have some diapers laying around that you want to donate to the cause, I will gladly take those off your hands. Or if someone wants to send me some diapers to review that would also be acceptable. Also any suggestions on good diapers to try out for the princess would also be welcomed.

2 comments:

Jessica said...

if you want more kids and have a boy, i am sure he will not mind "cute and girly" diapers :) and he will be VERY thankful for those green and blue ones.
good luck.

Megan R. said...

I have two toilebudz diapers. She sold them as AIO's with a hidden layer of PUL. They may have a hidden layer of PUL but they are NOT AIOs. But, I use my 2 as fitteds with a cover over them, and they work great for that.