are things complicated yet?

Cloth Diapers at 10 months

Dudes, my baby is ten months old now. She started walking! The last time I talked about cloth diapers was in October, when she was about 5-months-old.

A lot has happened since then.

The Inventory

I still have my original purchase of 24 Bum Genius 3.0 snaps and I still love them. I know a lot of people like patterns but I really LOVE my solid colors and would totally do the same color choices all over again. They look great under her clothes and photograph well. 

Here, look at this shot of her at 3 months. That's a damn pretty diaper. (And, it's not distracting! It's still a picture of a baby, not a picture of a cartoony diaper.)

(Photo by Simple Treasures Photography, HIGHLY RECOMMEND to local DFW people.)

Some of the brighter colors have faded a bit, but it's really not that noticeable. They're still bright and saturated. All of the snaps are still on and the elastic seems to be holding up well. I'm still really impressed with these diapers. I haven't bought any extras (still just 24!), but I was VERY TEMPTED to get an aqua and that deep purple when the new colors came out. I didn't, because we don't need more diapers and buying more kind of defeats the point of the cost experiment.

(I have a mix of Blossom, Bubble, Grasshopper, Ribbit, White and Zinnia, with the mix heavy on Blossom/Zinnia because I really like pink.)

I also really like the snaps. They're holding up well and feel really secure. I've seen some reviews where people say they get a better fit with velcro but I have no problem keeping a diaper on my kid with snaps. They definitely take a little longer on a wiggly baby but that doesn't bother me. I've heard the velcro wears poorly over time (gets curly, less "sticky") so I'm really glad I got snaps to start with.

Laundry

Still use Charlie's. Still love it. I bleach the microfiber liners every now and then and sometimes stick it all in the sunshine to whiten, but really, the laundry part is the easiest part. I don't mind diaper laundry. I wash about every third day. I've never had a problem with stinky diapers or repelling diapers or any other laundry issues. I think it's dumb luck that my water, detergent, and machine work well together.

Diaper laundry goes like this: cold wash, hot wash, rinse. Line dry the covers, tumble dry the liners. Dump it all back in a basket on the changing table. I have a line in the back yard to hang them and I've used it occasionally, but if there is any humidity in the air whatsoever, they come in smelling slightly of mildew. This is so annoying because line-drying is faster and uses less energy, but mildew-y smelly diapers are kind of yucky.

Solid Food

This is the part where cloth diaper posts usually get a little graphic with descriptions and I have no intention of doing that. The gist is that I do not enjoy putting solids in the toilet and I enjoy even less SPRAYING any sticky or goopy solids into the toilet. But, I do it anyway and it's not too bad and it takes all of four seconds so...whatever. I don't think anyone LIKES this part of cloth diapering but I'll bet nobody likes taking a plastic bag of used disposable diapers out to the trash can either. There are unpleasant chores involved in each method. Pick your poison.

We have the Bum Genius diaper sprayer and that sucker can put out some serious water pressure. Like, the first time I used it I turned it on full blast, sprayed the diaper and....I will let you imagine what happened next. (A lot of Clorox cleaning product, that's what.) There's definitely some technique involved, but it's easily learned.

Leaky Diapers

We have had SOME. Not a lot. All overnight and none were a big deal or anything, her pajamas were just a little wet in the morning. We ended up stuffing the diapers with an extra liner and it seemed to solve the problem. 

The Money

In October I had spent $503.43 on the whole setup. Since then I think I've bought one more bottle of California Baby Diaper Spray, for probably $10. So, we'll say that I've spent $513.43 so far. (I haven't included the cost of water or energy to wash the diapers because...well, that sounds very complicated.)

We are at Week 44 of cloth diapering, so if I guess we would have spent $20/week on disposables/wipes/etc, that's...$880 we would have spent so far. 

That's about $350 more than what I've spent so far, and we have more than a year in diapers to go.

Ah-ha. Here we are. We're pretty much operating on FREEEEEEEEEEE at this point. We reached a break-even point some time last winter. I love that we are diapering for (very close to) free with more than a year to go. That feels awesome. If my diapers paid me I could go get myself a very nice purse with that much money. (Sadly, my diapers do not actually pay me.)

Hippie high-five!

So, YES, I would totally recommend this to anyone. It's not gross, it's not weird, it's not smelly. It's a super simple way to save enough money over two years to run away to Mexico for the weekend and eat nachos on the beach.

And, let's be serious. WHO SAYS NO TO NACHOS? 

Previous posts about cloth diapers: 4 months, 1 month and everyone's awesome advice.

Cloth Diaper Update: 4 Months Later

We've been doing the cloth diaper thing since late May, so about 4 months. In that time I've been really pleased with them. We've had zero blowouts and only a handful of leaky diapers (most of which were a result of user error and were not the diaper's fault). Charlotte has had only a very small diaper rash, a very few number of times. They're cute, they're highly functional, they make me feel like a hippie. But, are we saving money?

Here's what I've spent so far:

$395 = Twenty-four Bum Genius 3.0 cloth diapers with snaps

$12 = Two 10 packs of baby washcloths, for use as wipes.

$7.99 = Wet bag that I bought. Sarah gifted me a way better wet bag than this one though and I use it all the time and it's my first choice. 

$10 = Diaper Pail. Really, it's a flip top lidded plastic kitchen trash can. I got it at Target.

$30 = Two Diaper Pail Liners that Maggie told me to buy and they are AWESOME. 

$2 = Spray Bottle. I got it at Walmart. It's just an empty spray bottle from the cleaning products aisle.

$11.49 = California Baby Diaper Area Wash. I can dilute this to make about six spray bottles worth. I just bought so I'm not sure what I think of it. Before, I was just using water with some Cetaphil in it.

$34.95 = Bum Genius Diaper Sprayer. It's really $44.95 but for first-time customers at Diapers.com you get $10 off. I just bought this since she's only started solids in the past week.

TOTAL CLOTH DIAPER INVESTMENT: $503.43

I figure we would have spent about $20/week on disposable diapers and wipes, maybe a little bit less. This is about what we spent on Claire. I know I can probably get them cheaper if I price shop and do that crazy coupon thing but I seriously do not have that in me. I know myself and I know I would buy it all at Walmart.

After 21 weeks of cloth diapering (where we're at now) we would have spent about $420 in the diaper aisle in the same period of time. We're pretty close to breaking even (though I haven't factored in the cost of water/energy to wash them) and she'll be wearing these for another year, probably more. If I stop buying diapers here and don't invest any more in STUFF, we'll totally come out ahead. WAAAAAAY ahead. Even if I have to buy another wet bag or pail liner or whatever we'll win the financial game by a long stretch. (Two years of disposables at $20/week is a little more than $2,000. I spent less on Claire's diapering towards the end but...lazy math. Just take it at face value.)

I am kind of surprised that I haven't bought any more diapers than my original stash of 24. There are SO MANY kinds and colors and patterns, but honestly I've been really happy with the ones we have and, well, if it ain't broke don't fix it. There are other things I'd rather spend my money on.

I get a lot of comments and questions about them from my friends and relatives. My relatives (mostly people with grown children) are kind of surprised to see how far cloth diapers have come in 20 or 30 years. They remember using prefolds and plastic pants and pins. My friends are shocked that they don't smell or I don't find the laundry disgusting. But, really, it's a cinch. I have zero complaints. They wash easily (one cold cycle, one hot cycle, extra rinse), they aren't a pain to keep up with, they don't smell. They are easy to change on the go and on weekends away and they're just kind of invisible to me at this point, which is how I know they're a good fit for our lifestyle. It's one of those things where I can't believe everyone doesn't do this. I mean, do people KNOW how awesome they are? Why is this a secret!?

Charlotte started eating solid food last week so we're entering a new phase for cloth diapers: the part where I have to rinse off solid poops before washing (breastfed baby stool is water soluble and I just put the whole diaper in the washing machine, no rinsing). I bought a diaper sprayer and everyone assures me that's key to making it easier/less yucky. But, for serious, I have two kids. I have touched poop. I will probably touch more poop before they grow up and become financially independent adults. I don't LIKE it, but...it's just one of those things a parent has to do sometimes. It remains to be seen how easy/painless this continues to be, but I have no reason to think it will get awful to the point that I will quit cloth diapers.

So, that's it. We like them. 

A short update on the cloth diaper experiment, which will be of no interest if you are not already the kind of person that is interested in cloth diapering

Remember when I asked you to tell me everything you know about cloth diapers? And then you did? And then I bought some cloth diapers and I stacked them up very neatly and all folded up and took a picture and said how cuuuuuuute cloth diapers were? Yes? It was several months ago, so I don't blame you if this relatively minor event in someone else's life has skipped your mind.

I am finally using said cloth diapers with Charlotte and I love them. For me, this totally falls into the category of "Why isn't everyone doing this?"

We paper diapered Charlotte at first because I didn't want to deal with laundry the first few days and I was also skeptical that my stash of Bum Genius 4.0's would fit my 7 pound, 3 ounce baby (her weight 2 days after birth). I bought one box of Pampers Newborn Swaddlers and a week later I accidentally bought a box of Size 1's thinking they were newborn sized. (I was so pissed.) (But then Charlotte put on weight like it was her job and measured 8 pounds, 13 ounces at 13 days old and I was really glad I had some Size 1 diapers around Day 8.)

Anyhoodle, yesterday I got the cloth diapers out and I told Chris that we were going to use them for a day and see how it went. If they leaked or something else went awry that indicated she was still a bit small for them, we'd put them away for a week or so and try again later.

I was really surprised to find that they actually DID fit her. I mean, she's almost nine pounds and the diapers are supposed to fit a baby from 7+, but they just looked enormous compared to the wee Size 1 Pampers, so I don't think my raised eyebrow was totally unwarranted.

But they did fit and they were snug and they were cute and that all added up to awesome in my book. With the paper dipes I found that Charlotte's bottom was pretty red for the first two weeks. It wasn't a rash, exactly, it was just kind of...red. I'm not sure I blamed it on anything, but with the first cloth diaper change? Her bottom wasn't red. Like, AT ALL. I was amazed. It wasn't even a problem I knew I had and it was already solved for me.

We went through about ten diapers that first day and I put them in the wash on Sunday morning. My washing machine doesn't have an option for just a rinse cycle, so I washed them once on cold and again on hot with 1/4 scoop of Charlie's Soap Powder. I probably could have tricked my washing machine somehow if I babysat the cycle but I don't have time for that. (I'll probably try to experiment a little on what works best with my 11-year-old  Whirlpool.) My method seemed to work though: they came out pure and white and smelling like clean laundry.

(Nobody was more surprised than I was.)

I put the covers and liners in the dryer on low and the covers were dry in about ten minutes. The liners took a bit longer on high after I removed the covers, but not too long. I stuffed them and put them back on the changing table and the whole thing was done and ready for the next day.

I know it sounds like it can't be true, but they're really no more trouble than disposable diapers. The laundry takes a little bit of time, sure, but it's a passive activity. Everyone was right about how it's easy laundry: no sorting, no folding. Just dump it in the washing machine and turn it on. The trade in savings and lack of rashes make it totally worth it to me.

We have 14 dipes and I might like a handful more, but I would really like to get by on as few as possible since I know she'll need fewer per day as time goes on. I might wait a week or so and see how we're able to get by before I think about another purchase.

But, yeah. Simple. Just like you told me it would be. (IMAGINE THAT.)

(Also, isn't that diaper up there so cute and appropriate it makes you want to scream? My friend Lorraine sent it to me.)