Cloth Diapers!

Soo... the big day finally arrived on Saturday - the cloth diapers I ordered were finally delivered! Around the new year, we made the switch to cloth diapers, but I had a hodge-podge collection of different brands and types. The idea was, I'd see what I liked, what fit Julia the best, and what worked best for us, then I'd buy a nice new set of the chosen type.

I finally settled on FuzziBunz Perfect Size (mediums). Rumparooz were a very close second, and I think I would have been happy with either, but the FuzziBunz just seemed to fit Julia a little bit better. I also ended up getting a sized type, rather than an adjustable size, but the FuzziBunz mediums are supposed to fit 15-30 pounds. Julia's around 14 or 15 pounds now, as best I can tell, so I was hoping they'd fit her from now until a long time from now (wouldn't it be nice if she were potty trained by the time she outgrows these!). These were definitely not what I initially thought I liked, so I'm glad I tried a whole bunch first. BumGenius is a brand that's really popular locally (they're somehow affiliated with Cotton Babies, a big cloth diaper store based here), so I was able to pick up several of those, but I just didn't like them as much. The velco closures seemed kind of cheap and I've had a hard time getting them completely clean. I also tried some Haute Pockets, Kangas, and Happy Heinies, but never could get them to fit right. FuzziBunz and Rumparooz both clean really well in the washer, the closures on both those are great (FuzziBunz only comes in snaps, Rumparooz comes with both snaps and velcro, both of which I've tried and liked), and they both contain messes really well. But, like I said, the FuzziBunz seem to fit Julia better so I got a 24-pack of those:

I'm a little disappointed in the colors. I ordered the "gender neutral" pack but I was hoping for a little less... pale green and yellow.... But I'm thrilled with the diapers themselves. They're supersoft, and even though they're pretty big on Julia, they do fit her now. Cloth diapers have proven to be far superior to disposables in containing Julia's big messes. We were having blowouts every time with the disposables, and we've never had one with the cloth. I kind of figured, if I'm going to be washing poopy stuff anyways, I'd rather be washing diapers than changing and washing her clothes several times a day. The only times she gets diaper rash is when we do use disposables (which we keep around for backup and for Gaga's house), and the cloth even keeps her dry overnight better than disposables. We have some hemp inserts which really do a nice job at soaking up moisture, and the inside of the diapers themselves are great at keeping her skin dry. Since we do washable wipes now too, I don't feel like I'm spreading chemicals all over her bum every time I wipe her (I mix a solution of warm water, a big squirt each of Vitamin E oil and pure liquid Aloe Vera, and a drop or two of tea tree oil for her wipes). I've got my washing routine down (I have a HE frontloader and do a cold soak, a cold rinse, and a hot wash with detergent and a cold rinse at the end). I also discovered a clean bleach cycle on my washing machine, so I run that before I run any of our other household laundry and it's all running smoothly and easy as pie at this point. It's almost no extra work now once we got things set up, and since it's also cheaper in the long run, it's a no-brainer for us.

Plus - they're freaking adorable! Robert said he wouldn't mind if I ordered a few pink and purple diapers just to make me happy inside, so I'm looking into that now. So stinking cute I can't help myself.