Saturday, August 14, 2010

Cloth Diapers.... A Smorstad Adventure

Cloth Diapers.... the discussion about cloth came up in our household when Ivy was a little over a year old. Greg had read something about the amount of time a diaper takes to dispose of in a landfill and then it made him feel sick when he thought about the number of sausage like tubes filled with diapers (you know what I am talking about if you have genie) that he had thrown directly in the trash. Listening to him, I heard him out, we did some reading and found that this was a HUGE expense this far down Ivy's diapering journey with both parents working part time while Greg was in school.

So the cloth diaper door was shut! And we vowed we would do cloth the next time around.

Look how cute they all are!!!

Then my friend, Cameron, discovered she was pregnant and started a mommy blog. I loved reading her blog as she had some similar parenting ideas to mine and some totally different- like natural birth!!! I am still blown away by Isis' birth story. :) But I remember when Cameron posted this and I was so excited for her but felt like the chance to do cloth myself was gone since I started working full time and just feeling too busy to add one more thing to my plate (like the "hassle of cloth"). I continued to drool over all the precious pics of her little girl in the cloth dipes but knew it wasn't going to work for me.

I knew it would be too much.
Too much cleaning.
Too much washing.
Too much for our sitter.
Too much.
Too much.
Too much.

Until Cameron posted this and we followed up with a million emails. I was changing my mind and the research began. Greg was pumped since about 3 months ago, he asked about cloth and I quickly reminded him that I work, do grad school, and have Ivy to take care of. So the research continued and let me just say, Cameron obviously did hers because I could find nothing that I felt more sure of than the products that she had already recommended and I really thought doing cloth like this would work for us!

I found the Cloth Diaper Whisperer and this video about Gro-via to be super helpful in encouraging me that we could take on this adventure!

This shows the shell and the snap in insert.

So here is what I know about our up coming adventure....
The negative first:
1. There are many skeptics, but that is okay. This is our decision and we have to live with it.

2. Poop is still poop- no matter how cute, soft, and cuddly the shell holding it is!

3. We will probably have some instances where disposables are necessary and we will not feel bad about that. (I know the church nursery doesn't do cloth and I am still not sure how I feel about being out running errands and having a dirty diaper in my bag.... we will see!)

4. I will have 2 extra loads of laundry a week.

5. There will be times diapering questions will come up and will require some research on my part.... but I know first I will just email Cameron!! haha - hope you are ready!!!

Now onto the happy notes:
6. Tula will have a big ol diaper booty- that is oh so cute!

7. Cloth diapers so stinking cute :) Colors, patterns, etc!

8. We will save quite a few dollars in this process.... just think about the cost of diapers and diaper genie refills over a 2 year period!

Here are the three sizes (just by adjusting a button)... in bright purple!

9. As Greg says- we will lessen our footprint on our planet!

10. You will enjoy lots of pics of Tula sporting her bright colored dipes!