Cloth diapers, the newborn edition *Updated*

The only reason I'm writing this post is because I want to show you this picture:

Okay, I'm done.  

I'm dead from the cuteness.

All right fine, I'm not really done.  I have stuff to talk about, namely how cute is this teeny tiny wittle bitty newborn diaper?!  

I wrote a post when we started to use cloth diapers, and another after a year had passed.

Also, because this...

Is now this.  

I will not cry, I will not cry...

We're two years into our cloth diaper journey and about to add New Baby to the mix so I thought I'd share some things I've learned along the way and hopefully it'll help.

Now, I've said it before and I'll say it again:  cloth diapers are not a big deal.  It's one extra load of laundry every few days and that's it.  I rarely touch poop, I do not put poop in my washer nor do I hold my kid over the washer and let her poop directly in it.  These are actual concerns that people have voiced to me in the past two years.  It's funny really - these are fellow moms, their kids poop too, and I know they get diaper blowouts so I'd wager they're touching poop more than I am.  Besides, my kid has puked on me while in the Ergo so I've had vomit between my boobs.  A little poop doesn't even make me blink anymore.

Now, there is a learning curve with cloth diapers that doesn't exist with disposables.  However, it's not insurmountable and getting the hang of it takes about a week and then you're right in the same boat with people using disposables.  We're all just catching poop, people.

With this being my second baby, I felt all kinds of confident about starting from birth with cloth diapers *and* I've gotten over my hang-up about buying used!  Now, I'm all about stalking Craigslist, Ebay and diaper swapping boards to buy my newborn cloth diapers, because I've also learned that unless you give to birth to a nine pound baby, you're probably better off using diapers especially sized for newborns.

Plus, they look like little softballs and that's just too cute for words.

These will fit much better than the giant BumGenius ones

and I kinda can't wait to take a picture of her in them.

When I started using cloth diapers I knew next to nothing and I still managed to make it two years with no problems.  Unfortunately, a few months ago my diapers started stinking.  They smelled so bad that they would stink *while* they were in the washing machine - you know that's a problem.  I figured it was par for the course, that Sofia's 'big girl pee' was just getting too strong and I took to washing my diapers at night because the ammonia smell was so strong it would burn my eyes.  It seriously didn't occur to me that there was a bigger issue.

I finally couldn't take it and started googling around.  I found a cloth diaper group on Facebook and that's where I learned that my diapers stunk because they weren't really getting clean.  Well DUH you might say, but I was seriously that clueless.  I thought that the detergent I was using was enough to do the trick when it probably never did and it just took that long to build up.  I bought some mainstream detergent (gasp!), I bleached my diapers (whaaat?!), but ever since I made the switch I have no more stink and really that's all I care about.

Another thing I learned is that there is such a thing as cloth diaper addiction - can you believe that?  People will pay hundreds of dollars for a 'hard to find' print.  Betcha can't say that about disposables!  Personally, I find it ludicrous to pay a crazy amount of money for something that's just going to get pooped on, but if you have to be addicted to something, I suppose diapers aren't the worst things in the world.

And I won't even lie, I'm totally jealous of 

all that awesome pretty pink.

I was practical and boring and got all gender neutral diapers in solid colors and since I am most definitely not addicted, I only bought newborn and some smaller sized diapers that should hold me over until she can fit into the BumGenius ones.  With the newborn diapers, I indulged and searched for cute prints and I was even able to snag two pink diapers.  I would love to get more girly designs but you wash diapers every few days, so if you buy more than what will get you through those few days, I feel like you're negating the cost savings.  Besides, it's kind of a drag to have all these cute diapers and have to cover them with clothes.  

So I just live vicariously through the other group members

who have such amazing diapers.  I'm just glad mine don't stink anymore - my

standards are low.

I'm also such a nerd I've also learned how to fold receiving blankets to make diapers.  I got several receiving blankets at my baby shower and they're too small to make a swaddle so I never used them.  But now!  They're gonna be diapers, baby!  I got some covers for those and I'm stupid excited to use them.  Did you know you can even use t-shirts as diapers?  I fully realize that I may be the only one who cares about this sort of thing, but I can't help it.  That's what my life has become; I get excited about diapers.  It's who I am, friends.

There you have it; I'm going to use cloth diapers from birth this time.  Those who already do are yawning with boredom but this is huge for me and I'm excited about it.  And also, one more time, cloth diapers are not that big a deal.  Try it, you might like it.  You can't deny the cuteness factor and the printed disposables don't even come close; they'll never be as cute as actual cloth.

I'm sure there are only about four of you who cloth diaper and read my blog, so to the rest of you who just gave up part of your life reading this post, you have my sincerest thanks.  I don't get excited about much these days and since I'm having another girl, I'm not buying a lot of stuff this time around, so diapers are my outlet.  

Thanks for humoring me!

Hopefully I'll be back soon with a nursery update - stick around!

***Click this link right here to get some great deals from Lauren!  She's blog reader and a fellow mom who is a cloth diaper consultant and she's got some great sales happening now and on Black Friday!  I'm talking $4 BumGenius y'all!  She wrote a blog post about it too - check it out!***