A day in the laundry of the new mommy

Here's what I typically pull out of the washer (actual stats collected Sunday, December 2, 2007):

2 Fuzzibunz
2 Motherease Air-Flow covers
2 Happy Heiny's
7 microterry inserts
2 stay-dry liners
1 change pad
12 cotton prefolds

If I can get the pictures to load, you will see Edmund modeling most of these. I'm SO into real diapers. They're really just as easy as disposables, without the added nusence of being one-third of the content in landfills or staying around for approximately 500 years (no one knows for sure how long they take to biodegrade). And we won't have to buy more when baby #2 arrives at some distant point in time. We'll have to upgrade another size for sure once Frodo puts on enough weight/girth (he's already graduated from newborn size to small), but even so, we're saving tons of money. In fact, three of our pocket-diapers are one-size; they snap down to fit him now but can expand until he's potty-trained. Not a bad deal, eh? And the surprising good news we found out is we don't even have to rinse out the dirty diapers as long as he's exclusively breastfed--the poo is all water-soluble. Cool, eh? That's what we thought, even though the first week that we rinsed everything wasn't that onerous.


Here we are modeling the Bummi's Super Whisper Wrap in a newborn size--this was last week just before we upgraded sizes. This is worn over a cotton pre-fold diaper. These were WAY too small by the time we got back to the cloth diaper store to buy new stuff--but our midwife appointment a week before had been cancelled due to the midwife being at a birth (if you can believe that!). This was also his Halloween costume--given to me by a girl at work.....if you can't read it, the onesie says "Mummy loves me." He's actually too big now for 0-3 month-sized things, and we just switched out all of his clothes in the dresser for 3-6 months. He's only six weeks old! He already weighs 12 pounds, and the midwife said this may be the best weight gain she's seen.


Edmund yesterday in a Fuzzibunz pocket-diaper. Note the round, round belly. Cute, eh? Anyway, this is a small size, which is where he is at the moment. A pocket diaper has an impermeable outside, a microfleece inside/liner, and a microterry insert. So his little bum gets cuddled by fleece, which feels dry against his skin and brings all the moisture to the insert. The microterry gets soaked, and when I change him, I take out the insert and wash the two separately. The diaper itself dries very fast--even if I just pull it out of the washer it's dry in about ten or twenty minutes without my doing anything. The insert takes longer to dry, and I've never tried drying them outside the dryer.

The other distinct advantage of real diapers over disposibles is the amount of chemicals that are in contact with his skin: almost none. We got a special detergent that actually rinses entirely out, and only requires a tablespoon for a whole load. I never realized before how addicted we are to scents....that things smell 'clean' when they smell like laundry detergent. But what if all the detergent actually rinsed out and things smelled clean by smelling like nothing at all? Come over sometime and sniff our clean diapers. It might just blow your mind. I can't wait for the summer when we can dry the diapers outside in the sun. I need a clothesline! I can have one now that we have our own home....maybe I'll ask Santa for one for Christmas.

Here's a note on Santa.......I was watching Elf last night (probably Will Ferrell's best work), and realized that if Edmund crawled into Santa's bag, he'd have a decidedly disappointing name....we don't have "Little Buddy" diapers........he'd end up named "Fuzzibunz" or "Happy" or "Motherease". Stay away from that big red bag!