Cloth Nappies

We have decided to go it alone with our nappies. We have been using a service since our bub was born, but have decided we could save a lot of money doing it ourselves. We have been really happy with the nappies we have been using, and the service is moving away from this particular brand which benefits us greatly. We were able to buy a bunch from them at a fraction of the cost of buying them brand new, and we save ourselves the risk of not liking whatever new type we would spend our money on.
While we were in Italy, we brought 20 nappies with us, and found the extra work involved in washing the nappies ourselves was minimal. A few extra moments a day to rinse out the especially gruesome ones, other than that all you're dealing with is an extra load of laundry and really, when you have a baby, one more load makes little difference.

We'll see how this whole thing pans out when a second diaper wearing little enters our world. We have contemplated using the service again for the first couple months of newbies life since things will be pretty hectic, and they do go through about 12 diapers per day. Many, many people have done this before me, so I'm sure I can handle it, and I would like to give it a try. We have bought medium and large size from the service, but I plan to make some for the earlier stage, as are seen in Amanda Blake Soule's book Handmade Home. We'll see how it goes. Adding this to my aggressive list of handmade goals? hmmm... I maybe be overstepping, especially since I seem to have hit a wall of exhaustion this week. Could be just a post-holiday slump...



We have had great success with the MotherEase diaper covers. We have tried several different types, and find that many seem to have a material on the edges that really soak up the moisture thereby soaking through the baby's clothes - Namely Kushies. Bummis were not so bad, and definitely much better than Kushies, but we still had a lot of soak-throughs. I would like to give wool pants a try. My mom had made a pair for Levi but I just never put them on him - maybe because I am so sensitive to wool I was worried they would irritate his skin. I have read of so many people swearing by them, that I will definitely try that pair on the newbie.

Anyway, we quit the service as of our Monday pick-up, so our first load of washed-at-home nappies just came out of the dryer.



Easy peasy. After reading up a bit, we put the nappies through a hot water cycle with an extra rinse. I'm feeling good so far about the whole plan - Less money leaving our pockets, and we're still sticking to our guns on keeping the cloth.
Wish us luck!