31 Days

31 days.  A full month.  The amount of time we have been 100% disposable diaper free!!

I was never even remotely tempted to cloth diaper the boys.  It was never on my radar when I found out I was pregnant with G.  And the only reason I "considered" it when I was pregnant with H was because my childhood friend {the Converter} was planning to CD her son {4 months older than H} and would send me links.  But there were so many options.  Fitted.  Pockets.  All in Ones.  And since I wasn't really interested, I looked, became overwhelmed, and deleted the emails.

Until a few days after Christmas when she came over to Mom's and brought some samples.  And then it all started making sense.  And wasn't nearly as overwhelming. 

Which leads us to today. 

I've been able to build up a decent stash rather quickly due in part to sales (buy 2, get 1); "Seconds". . .could be from wonky stitching, etc but nothing is visibly wrong; and also from Craigslist.  Why I have no problem buying used diapers but would never dream of buying used underwear makes no sense to me, but I scored almost 20 inserts, 14 pocket diapers {9 of which were in like new condition!}, and 2 wet bags for $100.  Whoo-hoo!  I also have 27 prefolds {a dozen large and 15 small} as well as several small AIOs and pockets for when 3 gets here. 

And the best part?  I've only spent $413. 

Theoretically, other than a few more covers and some more snappies, I won't need anything else.  Ever.  $413 will cover H until he's potty trained, and all the way from birth {or a couple weeks old after he stops pooping 378 times a day} to potty training for #3.  We were never a generic diapering family. . . I never found any that didn't leak.  We were Huggies all the way.  I'm estimating that 3 years of diapering G cost us approximately $2400.  TWENTY FOUR HUNDRED DOLLARS.  How insane is that?!!!

Totally kicking myself for not switching sooner, but, it is what it is.  And, honestly, even knowing what I know now, had I not found these bad boys, I probably still would be using disposables.

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Whomever thought these suckers up was a friggin' genius.  They catch most of the solids, allowing you to flush or just toss it in the trash.  There's no dunking or swishing involved.  Ah-mazing.  Especially for those of us who don't even like to put my hand in the tank.  Not kidding.  The only problem was that H ended up with a BAD rash soon after I started using them.  Mommy was not a happy camper.  Until I discovered if I washed them first {with a load of towels} . . . voila!  No rash! 

Overall, I'm quite thrilled with the experience thus far.  I had originally thought I'd probably change H back to disposables when #3 arrives as to not deal with the hassle, but honestly, I don't know that I will.  It adds 30 minutes to my daily chores on wash day, and since we're doing laundry daily, it's really not a big deal. 

So, there's my 31 day recap of cloth diapering.  I'm no expert yet, still learning how much absorbency I need in different situations, and can totally see how people spend big bucks on their stash, but in a few months when I'm doing it all without even thinking about it, I want to remember how it was in the beginning.  Leaks and all.