cloth diapers: the beginning

this might be really boring for anyone except abby but i told her i'd keep her posted on this stuff and here's what we've got before the baby comes.  

we're planning on cloth diapering.  i have no idea exactly how this is going to work out for us yet.  obviously i'd love to do this exclusively but between daycare and traveling i'm sure we'll be mixing some disposables in.  our daycare will use cloth diapers, which is great, i'm just not sure if i'll be able to keep up with all of the laundry while working full time.  the plan right now is to try it and go from there.  although we'll definitely be cloth diapering when at home.  

honestly, i already knew that this was something i wanted to do before we really even talked about it but the current options for cloth diapering were more than a little overwhelming.  the amount of time i spent researching options is actually a little disgusting.  i think of all the meals i could have cooked during this time.  

in the end i decided to try prefolds and covers as opposed to all in ones.  this was a combination of factors but i think it all is a matter of personal preference.  i ordered the small size organic, indian cotton prefolds from green mountain diapers (i figured for $0.33 i can support organic farming).  sizing was another decision, but i decided to skip the newborn size prefolds mostly to save money.  i figured the smalls would last us longer, although watch us have a super small baby.  i'm hoping i don't regret this.  

i ordered 2 dozen prefolds to start.  here they are before 'prepping'.

and here they are after.  fat, fluffy, and much smaller.

as far as covers go we're starting with 6 of the thirsties duos.  

i'm sure that i'll end up ordering both more prefolds and covers but i wanted to start with smaller amounts so we can make sure each of these work for us before ordering a whole bunch.  i picked the thirsties duo because they're adjustable which means we'll only need 2 sizes throughout the whole diapering journey.  

i also liked that with these covers you don't have to use diaper pins or snappis, you can just fold the prefold into the cover and then put the whole thing on like an all in one or a disposable.  i'm hoping that this method works well with leaks, otherwise we'll use diaper pins and and then put the cover on top.  

here are the covers we're starting with.

we'll see how these all work out.  i'm actually pretty excited about using cloth diapers.  it helps that i like doing laundry and don't really have to fold anything.  charlie's pretty skeptical that this is going to save us money in the long run although we've spent a little over $100 at this point and theoretically these supplies could last us about 6 months.  i'm sure we'll end up ordering more and obviously there's the cost of laundry, which is a little tricker to calculate, but i'm being optimistic.