Cloth Diapering - Initial Thoughts

Because I received two cloth diapers at my baby shower, and because a friend was willing to lend me some additional fluff, we've decided to give cloth diapering a shot this week. What follows is the record of our experiences. Stay tuned to find out whether we have the stamina to stick with it!

Day 1

Jamie arrived yesterday with two all-in-ones, four (or 6, I can't remember at the moment) pockets with extra inserts and three covers with a stack of prefolds and a snappy clasp. Add that to our original two pockets, and you have a recipe for a cloth diapering trial. She also showed us how to put them on, and demonstrated some cleaning techniques. Amelia got to see her first baby - Lydia, who is just a few weeks younger than her - and it became clear that she inherited her mommy's need for attention as a young child. ;)

Anyway, it's only been a day, but here are a few of my observations so far:

The Good

• Cloth diapers are hella cute! I find I actually look forward to diaper changes (how gross is that) half the time, so I can pick out her next cutest diaper. 
• They seem to do better (so far) with containing breastmilk poopsplosions, and as many up-the-backers as we've had lately with Huggies, we really needed that.
• I feel better about putting them on my baby, because they are soft and comfy. The only disposables I feel that way about are Pampers swaddlers, and they are hella pricey!
• Washing them isn't nearly as gross as I thought and I actually look forward to laundry. Weird!

The Bad

• I tried a prefold with waterproof cover on her last night (bc I'm not doing that to my dad during the day), and she only slept 5 hours (she had been sleeping 7-8 consecutively at night for the last week or so). When she did wake up, the prefold was SOAKED in pee. I read that prefolds are better than pockets for overnight pee, so maybe I did something wrong. If not, so far I find cloth to be inferior to disposables at night.
• I experienced a little bit of staining during the first wash. I'm going to invest in some Tide powder, which I think will help.
• My parents and my husband are hesitant about the change, so I'm not getting a lot of support thus far. Today is my dad's first trial with them so we'll see how he does. I already know the velcro ones are going to work best for him because he doesn't have a lot of feeling in his fingers and has a hard time with the buttons on her onesies.
• As cute as these diapers are, I'm not liking the bulkier ones as much thus far. I am finding it hard to squish her into clothes that previously looked so cute on her. :(

Even though it looks like the bad list is larger than the good so far, my overall feeling is a positive one. I am going to stick with it for a week or two and see how we feel. If I continue liking them and can get my husband and dad on board (since we are his primary caretakers), we might just do this for real.

Bonus Observation

• Poop and pee totally don't bother me, but when she starts vomiting up more than breastmilk, she will be her father's responsibility ;)

More to come as we get further in.

Spoiler: Her daily morning up-the-backer at Grandpa's was successfully contained by a cloth diaper. This is a good start, and saves Grandpa from a lot of laundry.