They All Call Me Mom

let’s talk diapers

Aiden is now three and a half months old.  Being that he’s our tenth,  you could say that I’m pretty well versed with mothering an infant….

To me, infants are the easiest stage in a child’s developmental years. They sleep a lot.  They aren’t very mobile yet, so for the most part you can put them down and there they stay.  And the best part for me is that they only want their mommy.  I am Aiden’s comfort and his food supply.  He knows me best and he always wants me.  I love that!

Me and Aiden trying for a “selfie” while lying on our backs on the bed
I love his expression here.  He’s like, “Whaaaaa?”

One of my favorite things to do with Aiden is to change his diaper.  I know.  But it’s true!  When I am changing his diaper, I am making him clean and comfortable, and that’s a good feeling for me.  When I am changing his diaper, I am talking to him and singing to him, and he stares up at me with his big blue eyes.  When I am changing his diaper, I make him giggle by grabbing his toes or blowing raspberries on his sweet little belly. I take this time to really interact with him.  Changing my babies’ diapers has always been something that I’ve enjoyed, and the feeling hasn’t changed with this baby.

But you know what has changed?   I’ve gone old school in regards to diapering this baby.  I am no longer using disposable diapers, but instead I’m using cloth!  That’s right: cloth diapers!  Just like how our grandmothers did it, and for some of us even our own mothers.  I’m dating myself now, but who cares. Yes, I was a cloth diapered baby!

This is some of my “fluff” as they call it in the cloth diapering world.  Oh yeah, there’s a whole world out there with mamas who cloth diaper.  Who knew!!?!  I’m even on a Facebook cloth diapering support group.  There’s a cloth diapering “community” that I never knew existed, and now I’m a part of that club. Neat!  Because I’m always looking to belong to cool clubs.
There are SO many different kinds of cloth diapers.  Again, who knew!!?!  I had no idea there was such a variety, and to be honest it was very overwhelming when I started purchasing my “stash” (as they call it in the cloth diapering world: your “stash” is your entire collection of cloth diapers)  because until now, whenever I thought of cloth diapers I envisioned that flat cloth diaper that I remember my mother putting on my baby sister way back in the 70’s.  I also remember the pins and the rubber pants.

the diapers of my time 

Well, things have change.  There are fitted cloth diapers and All In One’s and colorful covers and inserts that snap into the covers and I could just go on and on with all the choices you have these days.  I ended up buying almost every kind of cloth diaper so that I could see which ones I like the best.  Turns out I like the prefolds the best – and guess which kind those are?  That’s right.  I ended up liking the very kind my mom used on my little sister (and me).  How crazy is that?  With all the cute and modern stuff they have these days!  Ah well.  So I like the prefolds, and I like the fitted cloth diapers, which is just like a prefold except the diaper is cut to fit and it looks the shape of a disposable diaper.  It also has elastic around the legs.

Here is my little guy in one of my favorite fitted cloth diapers.
This one has snaps that are used to close the diaper, but I even have a few without the snap closures and for those I use a Snappi, which is this rubber band  type thingy that has 3 points to it and it catches the cloth of the diaper and holds it into place.  The Snappi is very, very cool.  At least I think it is.  Because of the Snappi, there is no need for pins.  And that’s a good thing, because pins are scary!
Here is a photo of a blue Snappi.
And then there are the covers.  Oh my good lord, the variety of the covers!  Too many to choose from. These covers replace the old style “rubber pants” — and they come in so many fun prints and colors!  And they have adjustable snaps that adjust to fit any size baby, so there’s no need to buy a different size as baby gets older.  Genius!

Here is one of my favorite covers on Aiden.

So why the switch to cloth? You must be thinking I’m crazy, making more work for myself with the mess of cloth diapers (they are not messy!) and all the laundry that it creates (it’s really just one more load each day, not a big deal at all) when I could so easily use disposables (spending $ over and over) and just toss them into the trash (filling up our landfills) so I must have a good reason, right?  You know, there are plenty of reasons why cloth is a great choice, but to tell you the truth the only reason I wanted to cloth diaper Aiden is because I have never done it before!  And with this last baby, I want to be sure I do and experience everything.  So cloth it is.
But here’s the thing that surprised me.  I actually LIKE using cloth diapers!  I even like washing the diapers and folding them night after night.  There’s something about it that makes me all happy inside.  I think it’s just one more way of taking care of my baby, and maybe that’s why I enjoy it so much.   And when I put those soft diapers on him each day, they look and feel so cozy, and that makes me feel good, too.
Aiden’s says, “I don’t know what all the fuss is about, mom.  
Poop is poop no matter how you wrap it up.”
When I had my first baby back in 1993, my mom suggested that I use cloth diapers and I thought she was crazy.  “I’d never wear plastic on my butt, so why should my baby?” is what she always said about why she used cloth on me and my sister instead of disposables.  But I thought, cloth diapers in this day and age?  when we have the convenience of disposables? No way!!  
Now I wish I would have cloth diapered all of my babies.  Hmm.  I should have listen to my mom!   Oh well, better late than never!
sharing over at  Really? Are You Serious?

Comments

  1. I’m way late to this post, just catching up after coming over from Sandi’s 😉 – I hadn’t been here to read since you had this babe eeek! I like the new design of the blog!

    I CDd my last 3 of 5 and I, too, enjoyed almost every moment of it. When I had the 3rd baby in 4 yrs and a bit of a time keeping up my DH convinced me to go back to sposies and I missed my stash LOL That last baby just turned TEN (OMG where does the time GO?) and I *still* love watching the CD stashes and seeing them evolve even further!

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  3. I didn’t cloth diaper my daughters but I have a sweet opportunity to try again! Expecting my first granddaughter in November that I am blessed to be able to babysit and yes!, I’m cloth diapering. Good info and I’m even more convinced it’s the right choice. Stopping by from Friendship Friday @ Create with Joy.

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  4. I have 7 kids and started cloth diapering with #7 and I love it too! I too wish I had done it sooner! Oh well, I think experience and time teaches us a lot.

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  5. I am a M.O.M. (mom of many) who also loved cloth diapering – my last baby, I completely understand. Though I did use cloth about half the time with my first and second, by the time #3 arrived, I was just too busy (I thought) and I would forget to wash them. Of course, this was the still the rubber pants and pins style.
    When #6 was expected almost 16 years later I thought I would give the new CD ones a try – but as he ended up with a colostomy bag from 3 days – 6 months old, I just never did it.
    Forward to our gift of #7 (which we did not know with #6 we would have) – and I decided to go for it. Ordered a ‘try-it kit from Cotton Babies with prefolds, whisper covers and a snappi.and a few kisaluvs AIO and dug out my ‘old’ prefolds from the past. Well, I loved it! and even the older kids didn’t mind changing him, as the snappi and new covers were so easy. And using a dry diaper pail was sooooo much better than the way I had ‘old schooled’ it with a wet one in the past.
    Between the diapers, and finally discovering the Moby Wrap carrier I almost convinced myself I needed another baby just to be able to use them again :) Sure wish I had discovered all that with baby #1. For now, I will just enjoy looking at such cute pictures of your sweet boy in those cute CD.

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  8. We had a diaper service in the 70’s. Had to rinse out the diapers in the toilet then save them in a bag for the service. We swapped out for new clean cloth diapers every week. Disgusting at first, soon became routine. I don’t remember what the service cost, but it must have been reasonable as we had barely a pot to pee in. Big pins were scary, but never jabbed myself or baby. I still have a couple of those old cloth diapers left, they make the very best rags for polishing!!

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