On Cloth Diapers.

I started thinking about cloth diapering sometime in the second trimester of pregnancy. When Tristin's dad was laid off at the beginning of my third trimester, I decided we were definitely cloth diapering, and I went out and bought stacks of prefolds and covers. Wess was hesitant about cloth diapering to say the least, but confronted with the reality of having a baby while he was laid off and I was on maternity leave, coupled with the overwhelming cost savings of cloth diapers, and he was sold on it. "Provided," he added, "that YOU do all the laundry!" (Like that was anything new.)

We kept to the prefolds until Tristin was nearly 4 months old. And, honestly, if he wasn't so HUGE (see end of previous post for his weight gain) we probably would have used them for longer. However, since he outgrew the diaper covers that I had bought by the time he was 3 months old, I decided we needed another approach: one-size diapers. After fairly exhaustive research, I narrowed my choices down to three: Happy Heinys, Knickernappies, and FuzziBunz. (Apologies; I will hotlink to their sites eventually, but I haven't used HTML in a long time and am rusty; for now, you can find them by typing the brand names into Google.) I ordered a sample of each from Heather at Cloth Diaper Outlet (www.clothdiaperoutlet.com) in order to decide which kind would make up the bulk of my stash. I came to the following conclusion:

FuzziBunz are the greatest invention ever.

For those of you unfamiliar with cloth diapering, FuzziBunz is the brand name of the original "Pocket Diaper". Pocket diapers operate on a fairly self-explanatory principle: they are comprised of a waterproof outer layer, with a fleece or microsuede layer next to baby's bottom. At the back of the diaper is an opening between these to layers, into which you can stuff an insert. The fleece acts as a stay-dry layer, since liquids pass through it easily; the insert(s) absorbs these liquids, and any overflow is kept inside by the waterproof outer. All three of the brands mentioned above are pocket diapers; FuzziBunz are by far and away the best of the three. My son's morning diaper is so wet that it weighs well over a pound, but his clothes and skin are dry. And only twice in the five months that we've been using them have we had an issue with a blowout. So I'll say it again:

FuzziBunz are the Greatest. Invention. EVER.