When Kayla was little, I obsessed over bottles. Don't ask me why. I just loved trying different bottles and had a massive spending problem. I should take a picture of the two totes worth of bottles we have in the basement sometime just to verify this. And now with this second baby on the way I am already starting to feel the pull of bottle-buying again, even though we hardly need them. I did get replacement nipples for a couple bottles and caved to buy a two pack of Avent, but that's only because I want to try nursing again, and we don't have many wide-neck bottles that would be good for going from breast to bottle. Our Avent bottles were the older ones that had BPA in them, but I remember Kayla liking them. So yes, I already did buy another pack.
This also applied to sippy cups. We have another entire tote of sippies.
As she got older, it became bows and tutus.
Somewhere in the countless files of pictures on this computer, there exists one of her full collection. That's most, but not all of them.
I tried to calm it down a little. I really did. And I think I was successful. My spending habits were under control up until about two weeks ago, when I made my first cloth diaper related purchase for baby Paige. And now I'm once again proving that I can't be trusted with a debit card or Paypal account.
I decided that I wanted to use cloth this time, mostly knowing how much money you can save. I read on some site that the average person spends about 2000-2500 on disposable diapers for two years, assuming you don't buy Pampers and Huggies all the time. Well, we sometimes bought the big names, and Kayla didn't even begin to potty train until almost 3. We are still buying Pull-Ups for sleeping and long trips. I shiver to think what our number would be.
I also realized that we have a washer and dryer now, and I'm a SAHM. Um, no excuse this time, really. I was confused at first- and I can see why people try to read about it and give up. It's ridiculously confusing when trying to figure it out on your own. It took me about 2 or 3 weeks of reading the same material online over and over again before I could wrap my head about the concept of most of this cloth diapering stuff. And with all the options for types of diapers, nevermind the literally COUNTLESS brands and designs- your head could spin right off your shoulders if you don't keep an eye on it.
But I started to get it. After a lot of reading, I decided that I would ultimately like to try and wind up with a stash of mostly one-sized pocket diapers, possibly some AIO diapers, too. They're slightly more expensive than some of the other choices, but I like that they seem to be easy to use. I did, however, decide that we should start with diaper covers and prefolds, because most people agree that newborns don't really fit in most of the one-sized diapers until they're at least few weeks old. Even working out the math as far as money is concerned, investing in NB sized prefolds and covers still works out to be cheaper than buying NB disposables- or at least close to the same amount.
So I searched for some covers and prefolds that seemed good. I decided to just pick a handful of the more popular brands that I've seen online- Thirsties and Bummis. I got 5 NB and Small covers, and need to order the prefolds and snappis still. (Snappis are the modern-day answer to saftey pins). I'll go with the NB-sized prefolds from Green Mountain Diapers when I do order them, but in the process of ordering THOSE, I got distracted by Sunbaby diapers.
Sunbaby is a brand that one of my cloth diapering friends suggested I look into. After lots of reading online, most people who use these diapers seem to just love them. And for about 5 bucks per diaper, they're an amazing price. So I went ahead and caved, and did something that I told myself I wouldn't do. I ordered a 12 pack of these diapers a few days ago. I couldn't resist! I went on the site and started looking through the patterns they are offering now, and I almost literally had no choice. I mean, come on!! Look at some of these!!
!!!!
See? Practically no choice in the matter, really.
And they're exactly the type of diaper I was hoping to really fill my eventual stash with- one sized pockets. So I'm just keeping my fingers crossed that they fit my baby as well as most others seem to claim.
Of course, that doesn't mean I'll stick with Sunbaby. Of course not. Knowing my obsession with bottles and bows, I can't stick with one brand of anything. Not when there are so many options out there, I want to try them all!
Tonight I ordered a large sized Fuzzibunz diaper for Kayla. I'm sick of buying pull ups for her to sleep in, so after debating for a few months, I decided to finally just go ahead and give the cloth diapering a try for when she's sleeping. It'll also give me some practice for when Paige gets here. If the Fuzzibunz Large size fits her and it works, I'll order a few more and stop having to buy pull-ups. Plus, I'll be able to reuse them when Paige gets bigger.
Fuzzibunz also makes a one-sized diaper that I'd be more likely to buy for the rest of the stash. They're also pocket diapers.
I just read a little more about Bumgenius's Freetime all--in-one diapers and I'm now obsessed with the idea of those. While some people favor pocket diapers because you can change what you stuff them with and they dry faster than AIOs, I can't help but be drawn to the idea of a cloth diaper that is as easy as one piece that you pop on a little bum and go. I might find I don't like them as much as the other types, but it's so worth a try to me!
There are several other brand names that I'm interested in, either because of a recommendation from a more experienced cloth-diaperer, or because I'm just in love with the way they look and good reviews. Kawaii Diapers, Blueberry Diapers, smartipants, to name a few.
Well, that's about it for now. Here's some links to some of the stuff I mentioned.
http://www.greenmoutaindiapers.com
http://www.cottonbabies.com/
Cottonbabies offers free shipping all the time! This is where I ordered my diaper covers from. They also sell several different brand names and all different cloth diapering accessories.
http://www.bumgenius.com/freetime.php
http://sunbabydiapers.com/
https://www.smartipants.com/
http://www.blueberrydiapers.com/
http://www.sweetbottomsbaby.com/Kawaii-Green-Baby-One-Size-Bamboo-Pocket--Blue-Label_p_42.html
http://www.blueberrydiapers.com/
Ok, I gotta run. There's obviously a mountain of details I'm skipping out on for now. Maybe another post for another day. I'm also lacking one very important detail to all of this- firsthand experience. I'll probably write about what it's like actually dealing with cloth after Paige gets here, but for now I just had to share my excitement with discovering this entire world that I really didn't even know existed. It's like a subculture all it's own. So fun!!!
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