Mom Visits and Cloth Diapers

So it was a good but busy few days last weekend. My mom came down to visit (my folks live 3 hours away) and since she is retired she got to stay more than just a short weekend. She got to come with me to both my local ob and my Maternal Fetal Medicine appointment in St. Louis. We had a good time, she got to hear the heartbeat and see the baby on the ultrasound, firsts for her. My mom was pregnant in the late 70s/early 80s so it wasn't stuff she had access to back then.  But there is one thing that she had that we still have and have even improved upon, cloth diapers.

Since it was hot as hell this last weekend we did not spend a lot of time outside of the house doing stuff. Instead it was a lot of discussions about plans for the baby, showing her things on online registries and decluttering the guest room. I mentioned that we were considering cloth diapering. Immediately she said, "Why on earth would you want to do THAT?" Considering that was pretty much all she had with us I understood. So I proceeded to show my mom what I have learned so far... that some things have changed in the last 40 odd years.

Now to be completely honest, I have little experience with cloth diapers. I vaguely remember them being used on my younger brother. I tried to change his diaper when I was three and accidentally got it stuck in the toilet trying to clean it.  Then disposables became available and more affordable and I really didn't see anyone with cloth again until I was in my 20s. At that time it seemed liked it was some hippie, earth mama, old fashioned thing that were ugly and bulky to boot (I was pretty naive and judgy in my youth). As I got older my thoughts still clung to the convenience of disposable diapers, every baby or toddler I babysat or had a hand with used disposables, but more of my friends were starting to cloth diaper. Just none that lived close by me. I was starting to understand the cost effectiveness part of cloth diapers. Disposable diapers are expensive and you're literally throwing that money into the garbage, that irritated me to no end. It also appealed to the greener, more self sufficient life I wanted to lead.

I've found with cloth diapers that things have changed. Yes there are still the flats and prefolds of my infanthood but there's also improvements in the fasteners, the covers and the new types like All In Ones, All in Twos, Pockets, Hybrids, etc. This, this is where my head starts to explode. Sometimes, especially for a person with anxiety, too many choices can be a bad thing. But everyone I talked to, all the groups I joined on Facebook, all the places I looked at online said the same thing: Try a few of each type out to see what will work best for you and the baby. A friend of mine who cloth diapered is giving me what she used. During one of my insomnia attacks I found a local woman who had about 60 prefolds, a mix of sizes, for $10 total. I jumped on it. It's the first thing we have actually bought for the baby! I figured if I didn't use them for cloth diapers or boosters I could use them for burp cloths and cleaning supplies at the very least. I will need to get some covers and some snappi fasteners and learn some folds for what I got. I do want to try a little of everything. Since I'm not working I will have to try to build my diaper stash slowly. With the different sized prefolds score I feel like I may be halfway there. Maybe that's just me being completely naive.  We shall see.