Cloth diapers so far

I love waking up to this every morning

After the first few days of using my new homemade cloth diapers, i want to do a quick review.

At the hospital I received a package of newborn sized Huggies diapers. I decided to wait using cloth until we got home for convenience. Plus, who wants to wash meconium diapers??

Miles is such a chunky baby, that even the smallest messy diaper gave him a blowout. Plus instead of saturating the diaper when peeing, it shot right out the top and soaked his clothes. While I wanted to use up the Huggies after i got home, it only took half of the first night to condemn them and start using the soft cloth diapers.

My first impression was luxury. The materials I used are infinitely softer than disposables. The diapers are fairly large on Miles' relatively small bottom, but the onesies kind of pull it all together and keep the diaper from sagging.

When it comes to cleaning, it really is fairly easy and painless. Instead of throwing the diaper in the trash, it goes straight in the diaper pail when wet, and gets a quick hose-down when poopy. Sterling and Joe installed a homemade diaper sprayer last week for one of Sterling's cubscout requirements.

Pic of sprayer

The pails don't get stinky, because i wash the diapers every day. I currently have 21 diapers which isn't quite enough to last me 2 days, so i wash one morning, the next afternoon, and then get a day off from washing. Once Miles is a little older and we have settled into a routine I'd like to sew a few more so I can wash only every other day. You really don't want to wait any longer than that, or you will start to have stink issues.

Now to the drawbacks. My diaper design has a ton of snaps. They are not that complicated, but there is a little bit of a learning curve for putting them on. This is only an issue for when new people change any diapers, which obviously doesn't happen a lot anyways. I am also having an issue with some of my snaps not snapping well. This is an installation issue, and can be solved by using the snap pliers to tighten the snaps. It's just a matter of sitting down for a few hours and doing it, but who has time for that with a brand new baby?

The biggest problem so far happened last night. I can't remember whether I changed his diaper each feeding, but this morning his onesie was wet. I have to figure out if it's a problem with the fit of the diaper, the amount of inserts, or another cause. Whatever the cause, it needs to be eliminated quick. I will first try to insert 2 soakers at night and make sure the diaper is on tight enough.

The benefits outweigh the negatives by far. We'll get the kinks worked out of the system, and keep enjoying Miles in super cute diapers.