Overdue

I apologize for not writing in so long. I plan on blogging more in 2012 and have some goals I would like to share with you in a future post. But this post is an overdue post about why I personally chose cloth diapering and how I (we) came to this decision.

Somewhere around 2008 I became increasingly aware that I was not so environmentally friendly. I claimed to love the earth and want to take care of it but I wasn't putting my words into action. I began reading books and doing some researching. During this time I learned the horrible, stinking truth about disposable diapers. I stated at this time that whenever I had children I wanted to use cloth diapers.

The fact about disposables (aka sposies) that got me was that it takes 500 years for them to decompose. A recent article stated that it takes between 250-500 years but still, 250 years. 250, 300, 400, 500....that's forever! So for those of us who were put in sposies as a baby, our poop is in the landfills for at least another 220-470 years! That's craziness! (I do a more detailed list of environmental reasons to cloth diaper at a later date!)

So once we found out we were pregnant, immediately I started looking for cloth diapers. I researched and researched and researched. There are sooooooooooooooooo many brands and types of cloth diapers. I felt like my head was spinning every time I looked up cloth diapers. I read countless reviews and price checked a million sites. I finally felt like I needed to see some in person to help me decide. I started looking for cloth diaper stores in Nashville. For some reason, although there are a couple near Nashville, I never found them. It was nearing the holidays so I started searching for cloth diaper stores near our families. This lead me to Elemeno Pee.

(I feel the need to give credit where credit is due so this is why I am giving you information about another cloth diaper store.)

I contacted Kira at Elemeno Pee in Lafayette, LA. I had found her through the FuzziBunz website. We set up a date to meet during my family visit. I was so excited to finally be able to touch and feel the cloth diapers!!! She took time to teach me about them and explain how they work. I knew we would use cloth at that moment! I bought two FuzziBunz that day, a pink and brown one, and was so excited to show my family. Before this moment, they had looked at us like we were crazy when we talked about cloth diapering. They were still envisioning the squares they used or attempted to use with us.

We waited to order our full supply until closer time for our daughters arrival. She helped me choose the correct number of diapers and the types that she thought would help encourage us to keep cloth diapering. She was awesome and I'm so thankful that she was there!

We waited to start using cloth until her umbilical cord fell off. We figured this would ensure the meconium stools were finished and that we didn't take a chance of infection with the umbilical cord. Our daughter was a good 2 weeks old before her umbilical cord fell off. She still had this strange diaper rash that she had developed while in the hospital. I blamed it on their brand of diapers. But she kept it with the sposies we were using. I didn't want to start off our cloth diapering with a rash so we kept using sposies until it was gone. Well, that was the plan. We ended up using 3 different brands of paste before it went away but it kept coming back. I decided to just try and see if it got worse with cloth and low and behold, it went completely away once we started using cloth full time!!

We probably didn't use cloth full time until Abigail was 2 months old. This worked for us. As a first time mother I felt like I was constantly drowning and struggling. Cloth diapers didn't make things more difficult at all but in my head I was panicked! I was so nervous about the extra laundry. But I'm here to tell you it wasn't bad at all!

I am here to help give you advice and tips to make your cloth diapering journey as easy and fun as possible. I will share honest stories with you and let you know what worked or didn't work for us. The important thing to remember is that everyone is different and needs to find their own groove!

Happy Diapering!!