So yes, life is a bit hectic right now. We have been financially strapped and are taking the steps to remedy the situation and give us some breathing room. But we are happy, albeit exhausted from time to time. I am feeling less overwhelmed day-by-day and seem to be feeling more like a professional Mom. My little man is smiling and cooing and somewhat giggling which makes any of the difficult times melt away. I care so much for my son and find myself wanting to make the best and most healthy choices possible for him. This, coupled with the financial issue at-hand has led me to a new obsession: cloth diapering.
I have become hellbent on saving our little family money, and was excited to find an option that is not only budget friendly, but baby friendly and earth friendly as well. I feel a little better knowing I'm making small personal steps to be earth-conscious, especially with things like the BP oil disaster mucking up the environment. Maybe in the end, it will be the little things that count. I'm not trying to preach, I'm simply explaining that I personally feel better strapping a cloth diaper to my kid's bum because it won't sit in a landfill for 500 years... and at the rate Hank goes through diapers I feel this is a REALLY good thing! That kid can fill up a Diaper Genie in NO time!
Which leads me to gDiapers. These are not your parent's cloth diapers. They are a crazy-cool hybrid that utilizes breathable cotton outer shells with breathable vinyl liners (vinyl allows air to permeate but not moisture. Waaaay better than plastic pants! Ick). Then, you use super absorbent cotton/hemp inserts (they kinda look like a maxi-pad. Ha.) for the wee babe to wee on. When the insert is wet, simply toss it in the diaper pail and replace with a fresh one. The vinyl liners can be wiped clean and dry super quick. Leaks are rare, so you can re-use the little cotton shells/pants over and over. And BONUS: there are disposable inserts for use on-the-go... and they break-down in 150 days and are flushable and compostable! So, you have 2 options: cotton/hemp reusable inserts or disposable. Genius! Oh, and they're super cute to butt...um, I mean boot.
We're on day 5 of cloth diapering and it's so easy.... and we don't even have our own washer and dryer! We can go for 2 days, and on the 3rd day I do a load of diaper laundry... which isn't a problem because I usually need to wash something else anyway. The whole setup for diapers, inserts, special detergent has cost somewhere around $200. Since we usually spend over $50 a month on diapers (and he can wear the cloth until he is almost 2 years old!), we will be saving a ton! I also am going the extra step and using cloth bum-wipes with my own tea-tree oil/water/Dr. Bronner's soap solution that I just toss in the pail with the diaper inserts. And it is much nicer on Hank's bottom!
Blake (although not as wierdly excited as I am) has been extremely open to cloth-diapering and has been doing wonderfully! It's usually the hubby's that are grossed-out by the idea... but he doesn't seem phased in the least. We are still using 1 regular disposable at night-time for Hank's long stretch until we figure out how to successfully cloth-diaper and have him stay comfortable since he is, um, quite a wet guy. But 1 disposable a day is better than 12! And did I mention how cute they are?
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