My Cloth Diaper Routine

Ahh the cloth diaper post I've been so anxious to write :)

I want to preface by saying that I was super excited when I made the decision to cloth diaper our baby. It was even more exciting when Matt became thrilled about the idea.

Fast forward 7 or 8 months. Right  when we came home we were using disposables. I had previously bought one pack of newborn diapers, 40 pack to be precise. I promised myslef that once those 40 were gone I wouldn't buy another one. My plan was to use the disposables only until she passed that black, sticky poop phase (which didn't last longer than 1 day). Well, the first pack lasted maybe 2 or three days, not to mention the ones I had left over from the hospital. We were changing diapers like CAAA-RAAY-ZEEE (duh)! I tried to put one of the newborn bumgenius diapers on her and I was so afraid of hurting her (they are a little more 'stiff' than disposables). That fear quickly faded and we started using them alongside her 2nd and 3rd pack of disposables. I used the cloth during the day and the disposable at night. I kept thinking that I would be happy to continue this cycle, I even once thought about completely giving up on cloth. The strange thing is that I didn't even have a reason for not wanting to continue using her cloth. I guess I was afraid of the work that would come along with all-day, everyday cloth diapering.

However...
after the 4th pack of newborn pampers swaddlers we were completely 100% committed to her cloth diapers and we are so happy :)
I will admit that I used disposables for Thanksgiving since we were staying at Matt's parents and I didn't want to have to worry about them. Once again, totally ridiculous since she ended up with a major diaper rash. Needless to say that we took cloth and only cloth to their house for Christmas and it was NO.BIG.DEAL. Like, at all.

 So here's our routine:
When we change her diaper we use regular ol wipes.
{I intially wanted to use cloth wipes but they were super expensive with some really unimpressive reviews. So I made my own, as a summer project. But then I started reading about people having creppy crawly things growing in thier wipes. Ewww!} So we stuck with disposable wipes when we stopped using the sposie diapers. When we're done with her wipes, we just throw them in her dirty diaper. I just throw them in the washer with her dipes when it's time. This makes it sooo easy, rather than having to have an extra "dumping area".

We wash her diapers every other day. With a homemade concoction. I do 1 cold "speed wash" without detergent and then 1 hot wash (whites setting) with detergent with an extra rinse.  I use the following ingredients for my detergent: 2 parts Tide powder with one part Borax, Oxiclean, Nellies, & Washing Soda. I mix it all up and use 2 Tbsp. I didn't originally plan to use this insane recipe, but through trial and error it's what works best- no stains and no stink! After we wash them we hang the dipes to dry overnight in our breakfast nook. When we get up they are ready to rock.

During the day we use her newborn sized Bumgenius diapers, but switch to the one size (Bumgenius 4.0) at night with 2 inserts.
When we put her to bed we use either Coconut Oil or Eart Mama's Angel Baby Bottom Balm, both of which are 100% cloth diaper friendly... and organic too :)
All in all we are very happy with our choice to cloth diaper Claire. We will absolutely be doing it with all of our future children. The only thing I'm going to do differently is order some size Small diapers for that in between stage. That way babe #2 wont have a huge looking booty :)