Why I LOVE cloth diapering.

I know what you're thinking, "The blog title here says things that make your life easier, and your first post is about reusable diapers. Are you NUTS?!"

If you had asked me a year ago if I was going to use cloth diapers, I would have made a face at you that looked something like this:

I then would have proceeded to tell you about the HORROR that I had to endure as the oldest in a family of FOUR cloth diapered babies. "My mom was a HIPPIE" I would have scoffed. My entire cloth diaper experience up until that point consisted of trying not to stab a pin sized hole in the leg of my baby brother or sister, dutifully carrying the poop-filled diaper to the bathroom, sticking my hand in the toilet to wash it off, then opening the stink-of-all-stinks: the diaper pail. A bucket somewhat reminiscent of the Bog of Eternal Stench from Labyrinth. If you touch the water in the diaper pail, you will smell like poop FOREVER! Nobody will ever like you again!!! Plus, there were the ever so charming vinyl pants that basically caught all the pee that the diaper would soak up at its leisure. No, I would have told you I would NEVER use cloth diapers, ever ever ever. Then I had my Josie. We battled diaper rashes off and on from the time she was about four months old. We tried different brands of disposables, but none seemed to take the rash away completely. One made it so bad that it bled a little. I went through several woe-as-me sessions lamenting my eternal stench-- I mean selfishness and fear of stench that prevented me from even considering using the dreaded cloth diapers. Honestly, there are probably some disposables out there that would have worked. I am not one of those that says "Disposables are AWFUL!" In fact, it was really off-putting, during my search for a gentler disposable diaper, I found a lot of cloth diaper websites that cited research about parts of disposables that are CANCER CAUSING. It reminded me of the scene in Mean Girls where the P.E. teacher is talking to the students about sex. "Don't use disposable diapers, your baby will get cancer and DIE!!" It just doesn't make sense to me, and guilt is not the best way to get me to do something. Of course, when Josie's diaper rash was so raw, it was bleeding a little in three places, the guilt came crashing down on me. I felt like I was extremely selfish for not wanting to do the cloth diapers, even with the stinky pail and the plastic pants if need be. Luckily, I didn't need to find any vinyl pants. Cloth diapers nowadays are super simple, and they come in all sorts of cute colors and patterns! Who knew??! To the left is a picture of Josie playing with her blocks, wearing my absolute FAVORITE kind of diaper, the Tiny Tush Elite. It's an adorable bright blue color, and I have never had a leak with one of these. Tons of great things about these diapers, I just wish they came in adorable patterns. Unfortunately, I invested in far too many diapers with velcro, because Josie can now take off her diaper. I walked into her room this morning after taking a shower, and she was completely naked in her crib with her un-velcro'd diaper beside her. She can undo disposables too, but not snaps yet! I think all future diaper purchases will be snaps! I never realized that I felt bad at all putting disposables on her. I shouldn't say that, because I never did. I just didn't realize how much BETTER I would feel putting cloth on her. They're so soft, and they feel so comfy. Especially the Bumboo diapers I got off babysteals.com! They're made of Bamboo viscose and silk!! Soo amazing, who wouldn't want that stuff on their tushy? Jeff said, "That seems like something a king would wear." Josie seems to agree.

I'm sure you will be reading a lot more about my diaper journey in the future, but that's all for now!