Tuesday, October 27, 2009

How we found cloth diapers

This post is part of the Cloth Diapering Bloggers and Dirty Diaper Laundry hosted Cloth Diaper Carnival that is held every month. Many bloggers get together and write about the same topic. This month is “Where did you first hear about/ see cloth diapers?”

I was a cloth diaper baby.

So was the older of my two younger brothers.

The other, my baby brother, was cloth diapered at first, but his super sensitive skin, combined with daycare, eventually resulted in switching to 'sposies for everyone's sanity.

Back in the day, your choices were prefolds or flats, and horrible vinyl shorts...and I remember them always smelling.

And yet...When I started thinking about having babies, I wanted cloth for my kids.

My husband was reasonably ok with the idea - he'd babysat for cloth babies before. And the idea of not buying diapers was a strong motivator - we were already trying to reduce our waste: recycling is a way of life at our house.

So when I got pregnant, I went looking for diapers and diaper services...and found the wonders of pockets and fitteds and AIOs and cute prints...and no vinyl anywhere. We registered for diapers.

And then, the unthinkable: an overnight stay in the hospital to adjust my blood pressure meds became an emergency delivery at 27 weeks (and nearly a stay in the ICU for me).

We expected to bring home a 4 pound baby three months later, so we started buying diapers anyway  - tie dyed prefolds (because they're so easy to wash), a few AIOs for daycare....we found a daycare that had no issues with cloth, and asked if we knew of any diaper services.

And that three months turned into 9 months....and all those diapers were outgrown....and still, our little Acorn lingered in the NICU, with a lingering diaper rash even after a change in formulas.

Cloth diapering mamas here kept me going. They cheered every step closer to home, and mourned every set-back. They helped me research diaper rash solutions, and even helped me prepare an argument for switching to cloth, if things didn't clear up. They were far more supportive than my family, and became the only mama group here locally that I fit in with.

When Acorn came home at 9 1/2 months and almost 17 pounds, we had diaper stash number 2 waiting...and have been rash free since, other than a few trips back to the hospital, where 'sposies always seem to bring the rash back.

All of our nurses at home who care for Acorn had to get over the cloth diapers, and use them, because we don't keep 'sposies. They're in love with the BG 3.0 for night time, because Acorn sleeps through more soundly when he's really dry. The staff at all the doctors' offices are amazed by the cuteness. And a lot of the parents on the special needs boards I frequent are awed that we manage the extra laundry.

Powered by MckLinky

Click here to enter your link and view the entire list of entered links…

4 comments:

  1. Hi! Visiting from the carnival. I like your blog, and great post :)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hey! Stopping by for the carnival - that is an amazing story!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Hey! Stopping by for the carnival - that is an amazing story!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Hi! Visiting from the carnival. I like your blog, and great post :)

    ReplyDelete