Adventures in Cloth Diapering: Part 6 - The Good, the good and the...well good!

I really have to say that I love cloth diapers. A lot. I didn't think I would love cloth quite this much. If you had told me say a year ago that I would start cloth diapering not only out of a desire to save money but also because I LOVED it and preferred it over disposables then I would have told you that you were a bit crazy.

But it's true. I do prefer cloth diapers over disposables any day. Getting our washing routine worked out properly was hard and there were a few times there that we almost switched back, but I was not about to give up without a very good try. I couldn't bear to let the diapers that we've spent good money on go to waste. After I was told to start using more detergent all my stinky issues changed drastically. Add to that switching to Rockin Green's detergent that is formulated specifically for soft water and our washing is now going so well. I still have to add water to my washer for the wash cycle but I've gotten used to it and it only takes me an extra 5 minutes. Now that we're using the Soft Rock formula I also don't have to do a bizillion rinses to get all the detergent out of the diapers and my wash time has gone down a lot.

Now that the stinkies are (hopefully!) gone, I've had time to just enjoy the diapers themselves! I've discovered better overnight options for both kids. My favorite by far is our new Softbums diaper - it is their new Omni system (the other Softbums diapers we have are their Echo system). It's like a pocket diaper + an AI2 diaper. For nighttime on Gabe I stuff it with a doubler and then snap in an insert and we are good to go. In fact he was doing so well with it (the doubler was hardly even damp) I've started experimenting with putting him in just a regular Softbums diaper at night with no doubler. It's worked great the two nights we've tried it.

For Elena we recently got a few FuzziBunz pocket diapers. They are not a one-size diaper, they are in medium size. An online friend didn't like the fit on her daughter so she sold them to me. They fit Elena great and if they are double stuffed they will last her all night. They are great daytime diapers too. I'm sad that they are sized diapers, though. She should still fit in them for awhile but when she does grow out of them I will be sorry to see them go.

I've been snapping some pictures of the kids in cloth diapers and had to show off the cuteness:







This is a diaper that I found on etsy. Like the Softbums diapers the insert snaps into the cover. It's not really the greatest fit - okay I can barely get it around her waist - but the insert is very absorbent and it's so cute I keep putting it on her anyway.



Snapping pictures of Gabe is near impossible these days but I did manage to grab a few. This is him in a BumGenius 4.0 one size diaper I picked up for half off at a big second's sale they were having. Apparently there is something wrong with this diaper that made it unacceptable to sell for full price, but whatever it is I can't figure it out. It's been working great.



Gabe in a pocket diaper we bought a set of off ebay. These pocket diapers work pretty well for only being $5 each.



And the two of them together. Gabe in the BumGenius and Elena in a Softbums. My chunky monkey baby and my skinny mini toddler. :) I love em!



And just for fun, Elena showing off her mad standing skills. About half a second after I snapped this picture she fell over backward but she did manage to stand for a good 5 seconds all on her own. :D