Wednesday, March 21, 2012

Baby Teeth & Cloth Diapers


Our little Liberty is almost 5 months old!

What?! When...where...woah.

(You can see her 2 month and 4 month pictures at this amazing photographer's website)

Liberty is joyful.
Adventurous.
Content.

She is a truly wonderful baby and we have been SO blessed.
Right now I'm watching her jump up and down in a borrowed jumperoo.
She thinks she is hot stuff being able to kick up and down without me holding her.

She got her two bottom teeth this month, within just a week of each other and honestly, did very well.  She still slept through the night....just grumpy and clingy the rest of the time. I can handle that.


A lot of people have asked me how cloth diapering has been.
I'm sure they're curious as to why anyone in their right mind would choose to mess with cloth diapers.
I'm sure they're curious as to whether or not I've become a green freak hippie.
I'm sure they're considering I've lost my mind.

But let me tell you,

It's pretty much one of the smartest decisions I've ever made.

Yah...you heard right.

I'm really really really REALLY glad we decided to do it.
It hasn't been difficult at all.  It takes some transitioning when you're not used to doing a load of cloth diapers every other day, but we found our groove pretty easily.

The reason I decided to cloth diaper?
plain and simple.
money.

I couldn't see throwing a handful of twenty dollar bills out the window every month.
I'm not a hippie, I don't use cloth napkins and natural toothpaste and shampoo.

I simply want to save money.
These cloth diapers in particular grow with a newborn all the way through potty-training.
They're also built to last through more than one kid.

So how much am I saving? About $1500 dollars for the first 20 months.

Really, I never dreamed I'd do cloth diapers.  But they've been a snap (literally).


This is a modern cloth diaper.  Those long things on the left are called inserts. They're made of microfiber which is highly absorbent and are "stuffed" into the diaper on the right through the pocket you see at the top.  They lay flat inside that pocket so they only thing against the baby's skin is a really soft suede-like layer that wicks moisture away from the bum.

They're pretty awesome.  And I know everyone is like yah yah...but what about the POO!?

I generally run into one messy diaper a day, usually when she wakes up.  I take the diaper off, set it aside while I change her into a clean one.  Then let her play while I rinse the diaper in our toilet using a sprayer (much like the one on your kitchen sink) that Noah hooked up for me.  It then goes into a wetbag with every other diaper she's gone through since I last did wash.

Easy.


So wash times come around and all the diapers and inserts get thrown in and put through 2 cycles. An initial cold wash. Then a warm/warm with an extra rinse.

I know there are a lot of people curious about our choice of cloth diapers.
Some think we're crazy.
ok...most think we're crazy.

But they don't realize cloth diapers have REALLY evolved since the little napkin your gramma used.
I've become a cloth diaper fan.  I think everyone should do it. Because its just that easy.
I won't make fun of you if you want to waste $50-$75 a month on paper diapers though.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Wow, she is truly beautiful! Hard to believe she is 5 months old already. As far as 2 teeth...all mine cut 2 at a time and started at 4 months! The cloth diapers, truly wonderful. When Karen was born I wanted to do cloth diapers so my parents got me a service, it was nice but then they went out of business but yet I continued to use cloth diapers, had the pins and everything!!! Only stuck myself a few hundred times, but never stuck Karen :) I wish they had the new kind out back then and I would have used them for all of the kids....yes saving money is great and as long as you run small loads in the washer the water cost wont be terrible either. Good for you Jeni!!! Kristi

Susan said...

You have a precious baby girl.

We cloth diaper our 2nd little girl and recently bought cloth training pants that are larger than the diapers for our oldest. I'm very happy with them.

L ~ S said...

I was all ambitious to cloth diaper and have a bunch, but I have a problem with leaking...that really makes me not motivated. When he is awake it is no problem, but during naps he wets through. I am a fair-weather cloth diaperer. I do it 2-3 days a week.

Jeni said...

Have you tried stuffing more inserts into your diapers? We double stuff at night and the diapers will last about 10-12 hours that way.

Bee said...

cute diapers..lol wow I can't believe you would spend that much on diapers...hmmm..mabye I'll try cloth diapers when I'm a mom.