I have strayed from puking for a couple of days, and I felt well enough to actually clean an entire room today. I don't know if I'm fighting for energy or motivation or both. Now that I can finally eat something, I find myself at the fridge "needing" a snack every 10 minutes or so.
It's such a beautiful day today. I have the windows open, and I've been watching Saved by the Bell non-stop since this morning. I'm trying to talk myself into tidying the kitchen and tackling the two overflowing baskets of clean laundry, but it seemed more practical to hop on the computer and search for discount cloth diapers.
We got our first two diapers in the mail today, and I think Paris was more eager to open them than I was. They are so cute, and I got them for $8 and $9, which is a pretty good deal compared to $20. The inserts and diapers themselves are way more plush and soft than what I'd imagined. We just need to buy about 15 or so more, and we should apparently be set. I'm still trying to figure out the fine details of cloth diapering, and I've driven a couple of my friends batty, I'm sure, with all of my questions. I may end up tagging a few people at the end of this post, so beware. Here are some questions that still leave me a little clueless:
*On average, about how many times will I be changing the inserts? It seems to me that I will need like 10 inserts per day! That is probably drastic, but I don't want our baby sitting around in a wet diaper just to salvage inserts. Which leads me to question two:
*How many inserts, per diaper, do I need? I plan to buy the one-size diapers, which come with one insert and can be used until the baby is practically a toddler. I read that there is a certain type of diaper that has a pocket (so I'm guessing the "pocket diaper") that you just slip the insert (or even a small hand towel, can you believe that??) into the pocket as an insert.
*Does the baby need an insert at all times? As you can see, these insert things are wearing me out a little bit. But it just doesn't seem practical to change the actual diaper during every change. I might as well use the disposable ones, right?? haha.
*Is it ok if I don't buy any prefolds/ flats? I'm thinking, if it's even possible, that we will just stick with the one size or pocket diapers (the ones with the outer shell). When I think of prefolds/flats, I think of my mother chasing me around as a baby (not that I remember this at all) with diaper pins larger than my head and a huge surrender flag. If I've got the entire idea of prefolds and flats completely wrong, PLEASE set me straight. They just seem a lot more time consuming and difficult. I need quick and easy or I will just jump right into the disposable boat. (Now that's an invention! A disposable boat...ya know, one time use only. Just fish for a couple of hours, then toss it in the trash. Why just own one boat when you can own hundreds!? Wow, my brain is literally that yucky stuff inside an exploding disposable diaper...moving on...)
*I'm on ebay, which is a challenge to me in itself, and I searched "new cloth diapers." The cheapest ones seem to be Nappy brand, and there are a lot of them. I googled the brand and it seems legitimate, but I would like some personal feedback. Have any of you used/heard good or bad things about this brand?
*Speaking of ebay, can you really get a new brand name diaper for $2? This may be a more ebay-related question, but it just seems unreal. These are definitely active auctions or whatever, which may be a problem for me. It just seems addictive! HA!
Ok. Enough questions, although I truly have tons more. I'm going a little baby nutso, and it's not safe. I am just so clueless, for real. And when it comes to routine or anything that involves instructions, I tend to have a difficult time grasping. I know our baby isn't going to melt or anything if we do something wrong or weird with the cloth diapers. I just want to prepare myself the best I can with the things that make my brain turn to mush the most. Breastfeeding is an entirely different post! And let me just add this, if it wasn't for Beth Regland and her obvious success and firm stance on breastfeeding, I think I'd be quaking in my boots right now. Babies are so tiny and sweet, but they scare the hello out of me. Fer realz.
Yesterday, Derick took me to Babies R Us and Target to check We found a lot of stuff we like, of course. While we were at lunch (yes I went OUT for lunch!), my niece, DeAnna, called. I told her that we went window shopping for baby stuff and found a lot of things we wanted. DeAnna, who just in the third grade, is a pretty straight forward chick. I need to do a post about her because she cracks me up. After I told her that we saw so much cute stuff, she just said, "how do you know what you want to buy if you don't even know if it's a boy or girl?" She's full of excellent questions like that.
Derick and I are both so ready to find out what (or, "who") we are having. I didn't know he was so eager, but he told me yesterday that he couldn't wait. He said, "you know how I am with surprises?" Yes, I do. He breaks our family rules and shakes all of his Christmas gifts the day they go under the tree. He can't stand not knowing what's in the box. He hates that he can't shake my every-growing belly and get an answer. Next week, I go in for a weight check because the sickness held me back a little. I will be 15 weeks, and I am going to beg those nurses to just TRY. I may even slide them a couple hundred under the table, hush hush. Just kidding. Don't report me to TriCare.
Kelsey comes back from the north tonight, and I had a dream last night that she came back with a southern accent. I doubt that happens. If anything, I'm going to have to hire a translator so that Chase and I can understand her. She's been around the Yanks too long.
Ok, I've wasted an hour sitting here. I need to be productive. Fighting with the pickle jar that refuses to open does not really qualify me as a good and decent housewife. Someday, I promise I will knock off the baby talk long enough to discuss something else. Ok, I don't promise, but I will try.
Personally, I'd be a little scared of ordering diapers from ebay. I have heard good and bad things, but I'd hate to get something you couldn't give back if they were awful, ya know?
ReplyDeleteAs far as inserts, one size diapers tend to be 'pocket' diapers w/ inserts and they almost always come with the inserts you need. The only ones I've ever seen without inserts were some in a clearance section. You might try diaperswappers.com because sometimes people sell new or like new diapers on there that they just didn't end up needing or something (but again, I'd make sure they were a really good brand--no offense to work at home moms, but I've only had ONE cover that actually worked from a WAHM). I was able to get several covers on DS for cheap that were new or very close to it.
With a pocket diaper, you change the whole diaper after each wet, not just the insert (the inserts are *inside* the pocket so the lining gets soiled too).
I hope that helps!
Oh, and the flats aren't that complicated. I primarily used those with Ez and will again at first w/ Ellie. The thing w/ One Size ones is that they don't *really* fit newborns at first.
ReplyDeleteAll I did with my flats was fold them into small rectangles (you end up with a ton of layers to absorb, which is good). Then I laid baby on the rectangle, folded the front up, and put the coler around that. No pins, no fuss. I didn't even use Snappis. I had one and found it was too much trouble. You only really need them to hold those different folds in place (origami, etc.) and like I said, easier to just make a rectangle. :)
Oh, and flats work for any size baby/toddler and prefolds are sized. Flats were def. the cheapest way to go and I really didn't find them difficult at all. I did try a prefold once (a bamboo velour one, even, lol!) and I thought it was silly. It seemed thicker and bulkier and didn't seem to absorb any more than a flat. I gave it to Katherine because she used prefolds with Ethan. :)
ReplyDelete