Cloth Diapers!

You are officially warned.  Baby boy is due two months from today, and my blog will probably be mostly baby for some time to come.  Why?  Um, probably because I'm a total bum these days, so I don't have much else to talk about.  Haha.  I will say that I am *so* glad that I am on a leave of absence from school right now, it's a true blessing to be able to rest up and not stress over my final classes when I'd much rather be planning for this precious little guy.

Anyway - - this post is supposed to be about cloth diapers.  So, here goes.

When I tell people I'm going to be using cloth diapers, some think it's great, some think it's crazy.  I'll be honest, I decided to go with cloth before we were even pregnant.  And the very first "yay I'm pregnant" present that I bought for the baby was a cloth diaper.  (Or, a handful of dipes, since there was a sale that I wanted to take advantage of.)  Over the past few months I've waited for sales and checked out any bargains I could find, and I am happy to say that I think I have a pretty good set of diapers that should fit this little guy from the time he comes home from the hospital until he is about 35 pounds.  (Which isn't to say that I'm done looking for diapers, and I still need wipes, a sprayer, wet bags, and things like that.  But, I'm happy about all the deals I scored so far!!)

And no, these aren't your momma's or your grandmomma's diapers.  These are fun, modern, easy to use diapers that function very much like disposables.  Yes, they have to be washed.  But I'll never have to drive to the store at midnight because I ran out of diapers, and they are more than cute enough to totally warrant letting the little guy run around in nothing but a diaper from time to time.  And I can use them on more than one child, so if we are ever blessed with another baby, I can reuse these.  Or, I can sell them and recoup a good portion of what I paid, since cloth diapers hold their value if they are well cared for.  Bonus!

For those of you who know nothing about modern cloth diapers, here are a few pics of mine.  Please note that I don't have a huge variety of styles, because I wanted to support local business and some of the most popular cloth diapers in the country are made by a locally-owned company, http://www.cottonbabies.com/.  As a result, almost all of my "stash" is comprised of brands made by Cotton Babies, like bumGenious, Flip, and Econobum.  And I tried to stick with mostly gender-neutral colors, just in case we do have another baby some day and it's a girl.  :)

This is the bumGenious 4.0, which is a pocket diaper.  It's a one-size diaper, which means it is designed to fit the baby from around 8 to 35 pounds, depending on how you have the snaps set.  This pic is at the tiniest size:

And this is at the largest size, same diaper:

It's a pocket diaper because it's not all one piece.  There is an insert (they come with two, you can use either or both at a time, depending on how big the baby is and how heavy of a wetter he is) that goes inside the pocket.  This makes them easier to wash and dry, since it's not all one piece.  But, of course, you have to stuff the insert back in before you use it, so what you save in drying time, might be used up some in stuffing time.  :)

This is the Flip System, which is a cover with a stay-dry insert.  They actually make two other kinds of inserts, one of which is disposable.  (Nice for vacations, so you don't have to bring home all the dirty diapers or do laundry on the road, but it's not 100% disposable so you aren't creating as much trash.)  Or, you can use a prefold diaper, which we'll get to below.  It's also a one size diaper, with the various snaps to make it fit different size babies.

This is an Econobum, which is the less spendy kind of diaper, as the name suggests.  It's a waterproof cover, like the Flip cover, and inside you use a prefold diaper.  This is more like your momma's or your grandmomma's diaper, where you fold it in thirds and either lay it into the diaper, or use diaper pins or something called a snappi.  (I don't have any snappis yet, so you'll have to rely on google for a pic!)  With any covers, you don't have to wash the cover every time you change the diaper, not unless it gets poo on it.  That makes them a lot cheaper than pocket diapers, because you only need one cover for every 4-6 inserts or prefolds.  But, not quite as convenient for putting on the baby.

Finally, here are some of the newborn-sized diapers that I got.  The one size diapers don't always fit in the first month or two, depending on how big the baby is at birth.

bumGenious newborn size (these are all-in-one diapers, or AIO, because there is no pocket or insert, it's just all a single piece of fabric):

Various covers from Thirsties and Bummis with a newborn size prefold:

Thirsties size 1 AIO and Fuzzibunz XS pocket diapers:

So, that's my not-so-little tutorial on modern cloth diapers.  I know that diapers aren't the kind of things that most people get excited about, but don't you think my little guy is going to look absolutely adorable with all this cute fluff??  :)

Random musings on infertility, religion, medical intervention, and being overly sensitive.

You know how sometimes people say things that are unintentionally insulting?  And sometimes, we are just way too sensitive to a certain issue, so we take umbrage with innocuous comments that were never meant to be insulting and wouldn't be insulting to the vast majority of people?

Yep.  I'm that person right now.  Finding insult where none was intended.

Some completely random woman on a pregnancy discussion board just announced her pregnancy, and posted this:  "My doctor told me I would not be able to get pregnant without medical help. Well, we believe God has children planned for us and we refused to listen to the doctor."


And me, in my excessively-sensitive way, automatically leapt to the conclusion that she must think that God doesn't have children planned for anyone who does require medical help.  Now, I know that's not what she said.  I also suspect that she would never have meant for it to sound like that.  But, for some reason, I have a hypersensitivity to this type of comment.  To me, it's tantamount to telling a cancer patient that he or she should forego medical treatment because God doesn't have a longer life on earth planned for that person.

I am so, so very happy to be pregnant.  I cannot wait to meet this charming little boy who is kicking up a storm as I type.  Only 12 more weeks!!!  But I have a feeling that it will be a long time, if ever, that I can move past all the emotions tied into infertility.  Someone else I know initiated a discussion this past week about whether having a baby "cures" the emotional aspects of infertility.  I suppose it might for some people, but I don't see how it can for everyone.  Having this baby doesn't change the fact that we will need to do IVF if we ever hope to have another child.  And, although I'm not always the most religious person, I really cannot buy into the notion that God doesn't "want" us to have kids.

I don't dwell on infertility.  But comments like the one above will probably always trigger a heightened, overly sensitive response from me, whether or not it should.