Cloth Diapering with Two

I started writing this post back in July but for some reason it never got published. I figured I’d publish it now and I’ll do a follow up next month.

So I was just reading Char’s update and her pros and cons of cloth diapering and felt inspired/reminded that I really should do an update on our situation over here. Well come to find out I haven’t done a cloth diapering update since April 2013…..yeah over a year ago and things have certainly changed since then.

So over the past 24 months our stash of diapers has really changed. There are some diapers that we have just loved, many we simply just like and then there are those that are our “backups”. While we have not tried all the cloth diapers out there we have tried a huge variety and have really settled on a few favorites but I’ll get to those later.

Here is our stash based on our last update at 9 months:

• 1- FuzziBunz size small
• 2- Charlie Banana  size small and medium
• 1- Applecheeks Cloth Diaper size 1
• 1- Applecheeks Swim Diaper
• 3- Tots Bots Easy Fit
• 6- gDiapers
• plus newborn diapers that we kept but weren’t using

Since then we have also had:

• 1- Buttons Diaper
• 1- Lil’ Helpers
• 5- Applecheeks size 2
• 3- Fuzzibuns size medium
• 3- Thirsties AIO
• 3- Happy Heiny
• 1- GroVia
• 4- Sustainablishbaby
• 2- (more) Tots Bots Easy Fit
• 3- Bumgenius Elemental

Finally what we currently have for Edith and baby #2:

• 8- Bum Genius all-in-one newborn (6) and elemental (2)
• 1- Omaiki Cloth Diaper
• 2- Charlie Bananas size small and medium
• 9- Green Mountain Diapers Newborn Workhorse + 4 Thirsties Duo Covers
• 4- FuzziBunz size x-small (1), small (1), & medium (3)
• 1- Applecheeks Cloth Diaper size 1
• 1- Applecheeks swim diaper size 1
• 3- Happy Heiny
• 1- GroVia
• 4- Sustainablishbaby
• 5- Tots Bots Easy Fit

Current total: 23 newborn, xsmall, small or medium (for baby #2) and 19 for Edith. 

That being said the Sustainablishbaby ones require covers and we have wool covers that I just hate/don’t make time to clean since they need special care. Edith wears these ones just at home and I have to check her regularly to make sure she isn’t wet so they are not ideal. Also for baby #2 we have mostly newborn sizes which they will eventually grow out of depending on how big they are.

Edith was tiny and she ended up wearing her newborn diapers until close to 3 months but that might not be the case this time around. So our stash for #2 will quickly go from 23 to 7.  While most of the diapers that E can wear will be able to be made smaller for #2 we will still need more diapers for them to share. Edith is getting bigger and growing out of her FuzziBunz and Sustainablishbaby diapers so those can be saved for #2 but we are going to need to replace those ones for E’s size. I know some of your are probably wondering about potty learning and right now we are taking a relaxed approach to it so I am not sure how long E will be in diapers for and I’ll take time to blog specifically about this at a later date.

So honestly now that we have had prefolds, fitteds, AIO’s, AI2’s, hybrids and pockets I have to say that we prefer AIO’s or AI2’s over any other type and are specifically huge fans of Tots Bots Easy Fit. Also I prefer snaps over hook and loop for fastening however Neil prefers hook and loop. The thing about hook and loop is 1. more wear and tear and 2. you may have a husband like me (or wife) that 9.5/10 times does not fold down the velcro before tossing in the dirty bin which just drives me nuts when it comes wash time.

So what happened to all of those other diapers we had? Well I ended up selling almost all of them and a few ended up getting left in a dirty bag for far too long and so Neil and I ended up tossing them (I know not ideal but it’s the reality of the situation). The Applecheeks size 2 just didn’t work out for E and her petite body. We could never get them tight enough around the leg so they wouldn’t leak and there is nothing worse then a leaky diaper. The gDiapers were ones that we actually really liked at first but ultimately found overtime that they also were prone to leaking at times especially when using the cloth inserts v. the disposable.  We used them for awhile and liked them for traveling but because we were more interested in sticking to cloth we chose to sell them and buy something else. The Thirsties AIO were okay at first but just SO thick that they never seemed to fully dry even when tossed in the dryer and so again we sold these.

What about disposables? We use disposables at night now because we have had issues with ammonia build up in Edith’s diapers specifically after a night of wearing them.  We actually were using cloth 90% of the time from August 2013 through January 2014 but then we faced the ammonia issue and E experience ammonia burns so we switched to disposables at night. Neil did a ton of research into what might be causing the build up and things to do and will have a post up soon with more specifics regarding this.

One thing I am not proud of is how often we turn to disposables now during the day. I think a big part of this is having them in the house more because of night time use and also because sometimes I am just lazy. Also pregnancy + poopy diapers = wonky stomach <– negative side effect of pregnancy and a big reason why I sometimes use disposables during the day until Edith has had a bowel movement.

I know this post ends sort of abruptly but I’ll fill you in on what we are using now three months into having two kids and our plans for future diapering.