Pink Holidaze

It's been a long time since I last wrote about cloth diapering .  Just got finished bleaching ours (for the first time...1/4 cup in the hot wash - worked very well), so I thought I'd give a little update. Since PA school started, we've gone off and on using cloth.  At first because it was a bit hard to keep up at times with school and washing, and sometimes just because we only used them during the day on certain days.  Even so, even a few times a week add up.  But, flash forward to this semester.  As I said earlier, Eloise started in daycare.  We spoke to the office about using cloth diapers and they told us it would be fine.  But I felt so bad about actually bringing them.  The teachers were already working so hard, would I be inconveniencing them too much?  Well, after another family started using cloth, we brought ours in.  And you know what?  It hasn't been a problem.  At all.  Like, zilch-o problemos.  ...

Now that we've been using cloth diapers consistently for a couple of months, I'm here to write a detailed update!  Overall, our experience has been really positive.  When we were traveling recently, we used disposables and I really missed the cloth.  I actually  prefer them now.  It kind of surprises me.  I needed to ask a whole lot of questions and read a lot of information before making the switch (as well as testing them out), so hopefully this post can help someone else make the best decision for them, too!  I didn't feel like we had to make the decision right away because I'd heard from many people that they typically keep their newborn in disposables until they're eight pounds or more (or until their legs are chubby enough so they don't leak).  They do sell newborn cloth diapers, but I don't see us using those next time either.  We are still using disposables at night...currently working on different way to diaper her in cloth at nig...

We received our order from Cotton Babies yesterday and our diapers are already washed and being used.  All is well so far!  I'm going to write a more detailed post once we've had a few days or weeks under our belt! p.s.  Look at how chubby her belly is getting!!

( Image source ) After much deliberation...asking loads of questions (thanks, friends) and doing a trial run this week, we are switching over to cloth diapers!  I can't wait for our order to arrive so we can really get started.  We've gone back and forth about it ( as you might know ) quite a bit.  Before she was born, I was pretty sure about them, or at least that we'd switch back and forth.  But the past few months, the disposables have been so...well, easy.  And most have indicator lines (which is, let's be honest, really nice).  So a friend let us borrow a few and we have one of our own, all of which I've been using the past few days.  I've been pretty amazed by how easy it is.  And with an intense amount of school expenses coming up, it should help us out financially.  We won't be asking anyone who watches her to use them if they're not comfortable with it (or if they just don't care to) and we'll still use disposables when we travel, ...

The Itzy Ritzy Wet Happened? Wet Bag .  I originally wanted to get a wet bag because we've gone back and forth about cloth diapers (still deciding), but then I realized it might be nice to have one anyways for dirty clothes, burp cloths, etc.  It's great to have something sturdy and reusable rather than just throwing away plastic bags time after time.  I'm SO glad we got one.  This past week Eloise has soiled her clothes quite a bit, and it's been great to just throw them in, not worrying if they will leak through or smell up the diaper bag.  And the lining is thick enough that you don't actually have to wash it every single time.  Also, I love, love all the cute patterns they offer.  So worth it! { Itzy Ritzy Wet Bag in Central Park West from Diapers.com }

You know how I was talking about how the incredible  cuteness of cloth diapers ?  Here, I give you example number two: the Bum Genius Artist Series .  I'm so tempted to order some.

So, I'm still not sure whether we'll end up using cloth diapers or disposables for Eloise.  At this moment, my plan is to switch off at the beginning to see how we handle the cloth ones (and only all-in-ones, at that).  Can I be brutally honest, though...one of my most favorite parts about cloth diapers is not the fact that they save money or help keep down the landfills (all really, really good), but the fact that they are just SO. DARN. CUTE.  These are the ones we registered for... BumGenius 3.0 and 4.0 from Land of Nod .  I mean, really...so cute.