Cloth v. Disposable

After getting lots of advice from some cloth diapering mamas, I have decided to dip my toe in the pool and give it a try! It was something I have always wanted to do but when I read about it when I was pregnant, I felt completely overwhelmed. And honestly, I am not sure I could have handled cloth diapering in those ealy days when you are changing so many diapers with a screaming baby in the middle of the night. So now that things are little more predictable I decided to give it a whirl. There are a few reasosn why I personally wanted to try them out.

1) Cost Savings- The intitial investment in cloth diapers/covers can seem a little much but once you use them they eventually pay for themselves.

2) Environmental Impact- It is no secret that diapers sit in our landfills for a LONG time. So even using these part time would elimate some waste.

3) Longing for the "Good Old Days"- Sometimes I feel like I was born in the wrong time period. I appreciate technology and all it has to offer but I long for simpler times. I really try to apply this principal more than ever now that I have E.

I was given some great recommendations but most of the options are available only on-line. I had a bit of hard time understanding how they worked so I felt it would be
good to go with something I could actually see. The only option other than the basic cloth diapers were the g Diapers which I found at Babies R Us. Target had nothing but plastic pants. So I purchased 2 G Diaper covers for approx. $21 after a 20% off coupon. It also came with 3 pocket liners. Initially I tried using them with the generic flat fold cloth diapers which I folded and placed in the pocket liners...not so great. They are not very absorbent. I had really wanted to get pre-fold cloth diapers but wasn't having much luck finding those at Babies R Us. So I went back to the web and searched for another option. I ordered g Diaper Cloth Inserts ($25 for 6) which are made of fleece and hemp cotton. Again, you line these in the pocket liners. Prior to using you are supposed to wash (w/o detergent)and dry 6 times. Honestly, I washed them twice before using after reading some reviews. This was better but still not perfect. Back to the web/FB I went and it seems that you do need to change cloth diapers on a more strict schedule than disposable no matter which brand you use. After learning this the hard way while out errand running on Saturday, I tried another attempt to make this work. I found Gerber Premium Pre-fold Cloth Diapers ($11 for 6). The pre-folds works great! Just like I had thought. I just fold them up and put them in the pocket. Part of it is slightly doubled over to fit which provided extra absorbency. My other option is using the g Diapers cloth insert with a flat fold (fairly thin) diaper. Of course both of these leave you with a bulkly but but once you have that cute booty in that diaper cover..who really cares? So there it is my adventures in cloth diapering!