For those who asked about cloth diapering...

Let me begin by saying I am no expert.  I am just a beginner.  But now that I've started, I love it!  And when I love something, I love sharing that something. 

Lots of people have asked me in recent days about cloth diapers.  Personally, when I was pregnant I thought briefly about it, but when Marshall said "No way!" I didn't argue, thinking I didn't want to mess with pins and poop anyway.  I didn't really look much into it, and didn't think anyone really did cloth diapering anymore anyway.  It was pushed out of my mind.  The end.  Little did I know that even with disposables I'd have to touch and deal with baby poop anyway!

After Jilly was born, a friend of mine (hi, Krystal!) started talking to me a bit about cloth diapering.  I saw pictures of her sons wearing cloth diapers and thought, "Wow, those are really cute!  Is that what cloth diapering is?"  Krystal sent me a diaper to inspect and try, and I was super surprised how cute and easy to use it was.  So I started asking her a million questions, and started doing some research on my own.  She gave me some great links to sites that sell diapers, and I saw that I could make it as expensive or affordable and I wanted.  And it wasn't too expensive to start either.  So I started buying diapers, detergent, pail liners, wet/dry bags, and became so excited to start.

Lots of people have asked me in recent days how this works.  So, I made a little tutorial of pictures to post here.  This will show you all what they look like and how to use them.  I think you'll be surprised.  I know I was.

There's a few different types of cloth diapers, but what I settled on are pocket diapers.  These come in two components: the cover and the insert.


On left, the cover.  On right, the insert.

 Pocket diapers are so called because the diaper is a pocket that you stuff th insert into.  As if you couldn't figure that out for yourselves, hee hee.


The pocket

 While they do sell cloth in sizes, the most economical option is the one size cloth diaper.  The one size diaper contains a row of snaps to adjust the length of the diaper.


The vertical rows of snaps are to adjust the length.

 The snaps on our Sunbaby diapers give you three settings for length.  Unsapped is large, snapped to the top row is medium, and snapped to the bottom is a small.  Jilly wears a medium right now, so I snapped the diaper to the top row.


Super easy!

 After adjusting the diaper to the correct size if needed, you slip the insert into the pocket.

Your whole hand can easily fit into the pocket, so slipping in the insert is quick and easy.

The stuffed diaiper (and hi, Lisa feet!)

I put the diaper on Jilly's favortie stuffed animal for viewing purposes.  Putting on the diaper is really easy.  They go on just like a disposable.  There's a row of snaps for a hip adjustment and a row for the width adjustment.

The many snaps let you get the diaper as tight around as you need, and the hip snaps help keep in the poo.

The tab of the diaper contains three snaps, one for the hip, and two for extra hold around the waist.

And voila!  You have a fully diapered baby (err...stuffed giraffe).

George Girraffe is super confy in his fluffy butt

When the diaper is dirty, you just take it off (duh), and separate the insert from the cover before throwing it in your diaper pail.  I like to just untuck the insert a little bit and shake it into the pail, that way I don't have to really touch it too much.  I give it a quick spritz of a water and baking soda solution before throwing it in there, too, just to help keep smells to a minimum.  I've run across a few tricks like that on the internet.  I don't get any more dirty than I do changing a disposable.

Slightly untucked so I can shake it right out

I put the dirties right into my hanging wet bag.  Once I get my big trash can for in here, this will line the can.  I bought bags made out of the same material as the diapers, so when it's time to wash them I can carry this whole thing downstairs, empty it into the washer, and throw my bag right in there with the diapers and wash it all at once.  I bought two bags, so I can swap them out with the dirties.  Super convenient and easy!

After they're clean, I go ahead and set them to the right size and stuff them.  Then I throw them back in the laundry basket and and just the basket of clean diapers by her changing station.

Clean fluff!

I grab as I need them.  Super easy-peasy!  It's exciting to give her a new cute look every two hours or so.  Today she's wearing an Indians T-shirt from Auntie Bre-Bre and whatever diapers I fancy.  Every diaper change she gets a super cute butt.  I love it!

Hope this answers some of your questions.  Gotta go feed by Jillybean now. She's starting to wake up from her nap!