Cloth-tastic.

Aaah. Why yes, this is a post about cloth diapers! (Who gets excited about diapering?! I do, of course. Especially when diapering involves cuteness, softness, and saving money. Yes please.)

I first read about cloth diapers on younghouselove.com, where I was basically intrigued by the idea. I loved how cute they were, and overall, how much money I had the chance to save. And also, the whole 'hooray I'm not throwing away mounds of nastiness every day' was nice as well. (I know there are studies about how the creation/repeat washing of cloth diapers are just as bad for the environment... who knows. For now I'll just keep some extra poundage out of the landfill.)

And from my interest, came advice. It ranged from "oh, neat" to "holycrappleasedon't do that." In fact, Bryan's boss even bought us a month's worth of diaper service to deter me from my quest (which turned out to be really sweet, I spent the second month of Norah's life letting someone else do the washing-- thanks Judi!) What I learned? I'm not a huge fan of prefolds. Lots of steps. Pretty messy. Very bulky. Seemed to leak a lot, despite efforts of calling the service/asking advice/researching YouTube videos to help me out. And at $80 a month, I still figured I could do better and cheaper.

So starting out, I decided I was going to follow the footsteps of John and Sherry (from younghouselove), and go for the BumGenius Elementals. All in ones? Sounded like a great idea. Possibly even husband-friendly. But $25 each seemed a little steep. So I went about searching on the internet.

Holy crap (literally). SO MUCH INFORMATION ABOUT THESE THINGS ONLINE. Who would have know so many people obsessed over cloth diapers. I quickly became overwhelmed by the possibilities. Brands! Styles! Colors! Price! I decided to just go for one brand and stick with it. I took the advice of a friend, and ordered two styles-- the uber-expensive Elementals, and also the classic BumGenius 4.0's. 

(Elementals on the left, 4.0 on the right)

The verdict? I am totally sold on the 4.0's, but I'm happy with my choice. I ended up getting six Elementals, and 12 4.0's. Here's the breakdown:

BumGenius Elementals
Pros?

• One step
• One-size fits all (newborn/toddler)
• A little less bulky than 4.0's
• Can throw them in the dryer (I'm sure this isn't the best, but they would take three days to dry otherwise)
• No stuffing
• They are made with organic cotton, which feels nice

Cons?

• When they are on a smaller size, you have to fold them over in the back. The cotton is soft, but hard when you fold it up like that-- it makes a hard 'bar' on the back of her tush.
• Poo seems to fly right out of the absorbent area-- we've had a few blowouts.
• From what I've read, the old version was better-- more cloth by the PUL so you wouldn't get so much 'overflow.'

BumGenius 4.0's

Pros?

• Holds EVERYTHING. A few tinkles. Massive, earth-shaking poos. (Nice blog post, eh?) Overnight flooding. You name it.
• Covers dry overnight on their own, so I feel like they will last longer
• Super-ultra-mega-soft 
• Can stuff with whatever you like (Comes with one large microfiber stuffing-- which folds over with a snap, for my lady you can put the fold in the back, which gets the blunt end of the soaking-- and a small newborn stuffing, which I add at night)

Cons?

• A bit bulky, although still pretty adorable
• Have to take a few extra minutes to stuff them
• You have to 'unstuff' them after they've been used-- which doesn't bother me any, you wash your hands anyway after you change baby-- nothing crazy in my opinion.

Overall, I am super happy with my choice. Although I prefer the 4.0's, I love that my Elementals go in the dryer. Makes my life a bit easier. I love having a choice between the two. And for a few hundred bucks (roughly the cost of four months of disposables), I'm set for this baby, and the next. WOO. And I know this is a long post already, but here's the rundown on my routine:

• I wash every other day with Nellie's Laundry Soda. I love it. Considering switching all of my laundry to this. And, the tin is adorable. Not like that has anything to do with cleaning, but anything that makes laundry more adorable is alright by me. 
• I air-dry my 4.0 covers, and dry everything else. Takes about 1.5 rounds in the dryer to keep everything dry. I would recommend using Dryer Balls (Hedgehog edition!), as the seem to cut down on drying time a bit.
• I was everything in hot water, on the heavy setting (I have a simple washer, I'm sure you could do fancier things with another type-- but I work with what I have)
• I made cloth wipes-- and love them. $4 for a flannel sheet at the thrift store=30 or so wipes. I sewed two squares together, flipped them inside out, and sewed an 'x' in the middle so they wouldn't puff up in the wash. I love them. They go in the wash with everything else. I use a solution of water/a squirt of baby oil/baby soap in a squirt bottle, works great!

• I love my Wetbags from PlanetWise. I have a large one for the nursery, and a medium one for the diaper bag. More durable than the other wetbag I've used; seems like they will hold up over the long haul. 
• I invested in a diaper sprayer, which helps with staining now (breastfed poo is pretty water soluble, but pretty orange-- and figured it wouldn't be a bad thing to have for future messy-poos.)

I am oh-so-happy with my choice to cloth diaper. Seriously. I had some major concerns at first (will laundry take over my life? How hard is this going to be? What about being the road? Isn't having a newborn trouble enough?) but I'm super happy to announce that this is way easier than I thought. And, talk to me next month when I've made up the cost, but I'm already happy we don't have to run to the store to buy diapers last minute. I'm surprised more people don't do this. EASY. Do it. And ask me if you have any questions, I really do enjoy this stuff :)