We took the big step to cloth diapers for Johnny yesterday. Crazy Cousin Molly gave us a bumGenius pocket diaper and a couple inserts at our shower last summer and Dave and I have been looking at it with curiosity for the last 7 weeks. Will it fit him? Will it hold everything in? Will we be able to keep up with the laundry? I lugged out the overly full garbage bag loaded with used disposables to the trash the other night and announced that we were doing it, even if it meant a leaky diaper now and then. Besides, Pampers and Huggies can't keep up with his poop much of the time, anyway. The dang things aren't cheap, but I calculated we'd easily have them paid off by the end of the year with what we'd be saving by not buying disposables.
Cloth diapers are not easy to find in the metro unless you are willing to order them online and can follow the "easy" step-by-step instructions for putting them together and then on your wiggling baby - I needed someone to show me. So I drove 3/4 of the way across the metro down to Hopkins to what I discovered was a most dangerous store: Baby Grand. Got what I was looking for, some advice and more: a pair of peace sign Robeez that had fallen in the 20% off box (which they honored) and Rockabye Baby! Led Zeppelin (I just realized that they have a Pixies record and would LOVE to get my hands on that). Luckily, John started getting fussy so I didn't get sucked into the clothes, which were wicked cute (even more so if you have a little girl)! Maybe for his 6 month birthday, I'll wander back there and get him a little something-something.
I got home and tossed them into the wash to remove any residue remaining from production that would impede optimal pee/poop absorption. I swung by Target and picked up some biodegradable diapers to get us through the pre-washing (as usual, we waited until our supply was exhausted and procuring a diaper became an emergency situation) and I braced myself for what was next: calling daycare to present my case for cloth.
It pretty much went as I expected - she immediately said no. She did not have the time to rinse off poop with all the kids she has and she can't get poop on her hands (wtf - she wears rubber gloves when changing diapers and believes this is why she never gets sick). Besides, she's heard horror stories in her continuing education classes about cloth (I would like to know where she takes her classes and have a word with them). I asked if she'd seen cloth diapers lately and explained that they were like a disposable that gets washed (i.e. not your mother's old squares). I assured her that she wouldn't even have to remove any of the poop - we would bring them each morning, all put together, and she would just toss the dirties in a wet tote and we'd take care of the rest. I know it will get messier once he's on solid food, but I'm willing to work a little harder to clean them if she's willing to work with us. By the end of the conversation, I got her to agree to take a look at them, which, honestly, was the most I was hoping to get out of the phone call, so I'm calling it a success at this point. Getting her to go from a steadfast "no" to stepping out of her box just a bit is a herculean task and I'm patting myself on the back right now. Of course, she wanted to know why we were using cloth, asked using the tone of "why on earth would you want to do such a thing?", which, naturally, caused me to respond using the tone of "duh!" I explained the 2 tons of diapers a baby can put into our landfills, the biohazard of untreated human waste leaching into our water supply and the economic benefits. Nothing. Just a "huh". I hate being a slave to daycare. Technically, she works for us, but, due to demand for good care, they have you by the proverbial balls. If she decides to refuse, we're sticking with the biodegradable diapers and part of me hopes they leak baby shit all over her. I'd like to see her try to tell us what kind of disposables we have to buy.
I'd finished washing and was putting them together when Dave and Henry got home. Johnny promptly pooped and Dave took him upstairs to change him. I sent Henry chasing after him with one of the new diapers ("But it's not a real diaper, Mom"). Everything went fine until we were eating dinner and I got leaked on (pee only). Ok, not a good start. He pooped in the next diaper and it held it in. Dave put a new one on right before bed at 10:30 and, while I was nursing, he peed and it leaked again. Dad decided it was operator error and tried again. He stayed dry all night with one changing at 3:00 and up at 6:15. Dave said the key was to cinch them up tight, with the tabs almost touching. I nursed him when he got up and changed him when we were done. He loves being naked so I left him in just his diaper and put him in his bassinet while I took pictures of his cuteness. He peed and I watched it leak out the top. A second key is to aim his little bits down. I think we found that out with Henry, but we're discovering that many of the things we learned with Henry have fallen from memory. So far so good ever since!
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