Accidentally Crunchy: Cloth Diaper Edition Part 1

A fleeting idea. That's all it was in the beginning. "Hey- what if we did cloth diapers?" 

Well, fast forward a few weeks and you'd see hubs and I sitting on the couch, iPhones in hand, researching cloth diapers. The different brands, the different types, the lingo that goes with them, the various washing methods, and the list goes on and on. 

It was overwhelming to say the least. We were still on the fence about it when we walked into Buy Buy Baby to start our registry. But by the time we walked out {just 3 hours later} we were committed. Cloth was the answer for us. 

 

 

It seemed that conversations with people thereafter went something like this: 

 

"I saw you didn't have normal diapers on your registry."

"Yeah we're doing cloth- they're on the registry."

"Gross." 

"Yeah well...it's what we are doing"

 

*or*

 

"You're going to use CLOTH DIAPERS?! Are you insane??"

"Yeah we are going to use cloth...I don't think our diapers will be much different than disposables."

"Yeah well, you'll never keep up with it! You'll have him in regular diapers in a month."

 

The way so many people felt it was totally cool to tell me how gross my parenting choice was was kind of upsetting. I was an emotional, pregnant woman with family and friends basically telling me I was going to fail at this- one of the first parenting decisions we made! 

 

So....that is where the stubbornness piece of the pie comes in. Instead of putting diapers on my kid being nothing more than putting diapers in my kid, it became this challenge. I had to show all the naysayers that it could be done {by full time working parents} and it wasn't that big of a deal. Most importantly that they were wrong and I was right. 

Is this a great reason? No. Is it the truth? 'Fraid so. 

 

**{I should mention that there were plenty of people who were supportive and plenty more who totally thought it was gross but didn't tell me all about how gross it was or how they thought we were going to fail}** 

 

Onward to actual legit reasons we cloth diaper.

 

The environmental/earthy/crunchy reason definitely factors in. But honestly, it was more of a happy little byproduct of our decision to cloth diaper rather than part of the decision making. Nope, in all honesty the #1 reason we cloth diaper is that it saves us money. 

Yes, we run the washer more, but I haven't noticed a spike in our bill at all. Admittedly our water bill is auto-pay and I don't pay it much attention. So it could very well be a few dollars more; I just don't notice. 

 

Yes, we had a much larger upfront cost compared to disposables. But it wasn't really that bad. We didn't go to the store and drop $800 on a full stash of our Bum Genius 4.0 pockets. We used coupons at Buy Buy Baby {Buy Buy Baby coupons and Bed Bath and Beyond coupons all via mail, email, and text} and bought them little by little while I was still pregnant. It was no big deal to spend $40 here and there and I think it was a great way to go about building our stash of about 27 diapers. 

 

Lastly, they are stinking adorable. A fluffy butt on a baby is pretty hard to beat cuteness-wise. {Maybe a naked little baby butt. Or a kitten.}

 

 

Stay tuned for Part Two of my cloth diaper post with a run-down of our routine!