Itwas never out intention to cloth diaper. However, as many of you know, my mother makes cloth diapers for her Etsy site and offered to supply us with all the cloth diapers we needed so I'd be a fool to turn it down. The only dilemma was that Danielle and I knew nothing about cloth diapering. So we were referred to Pittsburgh Cloth Diaper, which is run by a SAHM who runs this business out of her home in a very cute workshop. She offers free consultations and sells just about every kind of cloth diaper and accessory out there on the market. She was very thorough and after being there for an hour we were completely sold. Now, that's not to say our child's hiney won't ever see a disposable but we plan to primarily cloth diaper. I think learning about it really decreased the overwhelming feeling of it all. The nice thing was that we brought two of my mom's diapers so that she could offer some feedback and she absolutely loved them. She also suggested that instead of having my mom make 24 newborns, to have her just make about 10 and supplement with prefolds and covers while I'm at home on maternity leave as the baby will grow out of them fast. That way my mother can spend a lot more time making larger ones.
The icing was that she offers a gift registry on her site so I can't wait to register for some accessories.
Ive learned a very important lesson during this pregnancy which is as you are going through pregnancy and I'm sure this extends itself to when the baby comes and you are parenting, keep your decisions to yourself because everyone always has an opinion and wants to tell you what you should/shouldn't do or enforce their parenting styles on you. Note, this is done primarily when their opinion was NEVER asked in the first place. The cloth diapering lady made a good point today when I told her about some people's reactions to cloth diapering and she said that as a new parent you are seen as lacking credibility. I've found this to be quite true and as a result I tend to preface my answers by saying "I'm going to try to ...." instead of being more assertive because it seems like people are always telling me the negative or their failed attempts at something or try to discourage me in some way or either by their tone or their words. For example:
Midwife: people were really taken aback when I told them about this and felt I should use an OB because it was "safer." Meanwhile I love my midwife and have had nothing but a great experience so far. While I'm not knocking OB's, this was a great fit for us and I have no regrets.
Medication: I'd like to try it med free. Not because I think meds are bad but because I'm deathly afraid of it putting me on the train track to a c-section. And while I know c-sections are medically necessary for some, I'd really like to avoid it.
Cloth diapering: The response has been, why would you want to do that? It's so time consuming. Disposables are so much easier, etc. I just want to respond with "what the hell do you care? you'll never be responsible for changing my child's diaper whether cloth or disposable."
Breastfeeding: It's so hard. You are naive. Everybody thinks it's so easy but you'll see. Not all babies take to it. A bottle is easier. And once again I just want to say "what the hell do you care? I'm not asking you to take your breast out to feed my child."
Baby names: My friend Deanna told me early on not to disclose the names we were considering because at the end of the day, it's your child and your decision and people will always tell you if they don't like it. This my friends, is very true. So I agree with Deanna, don't do it.
Finding out the gender: It amazes me how many people try to talk us out of finding out the baby's sex. What difference does it make to you? I'll just be as suprised when the tech tells us if it's a boy or girl as I would be if the midwife told us at birth.
I just find people in real life to be utterly rude sometimes. I love when I come across women who share positive stories of breastfeeding or cloth diapering or natural child birth. It's just so inspiring and I try to focus on their stories more so than the people who try to discourage me or want me to parent like them.
Anyway, sorry about my rant. I'll leave you with some pics of our cloth diapering Elmo who is our temporary baby model. Danielle is WAYYYY better at doing the prefolds than I am. Danielle, who loves poker, also bought a onesie that says "you stack blocks, I stack chips."
7 comments:
My baby is 14 months and I still cloth diaper. I like cloth so much better! When I was pregnant I got the same reaction, at least from people who had never tried cloth diapers. I think most people who actually use cloth, like it. It's not that hard. I was determined to make it work so while I had a small pack of disposables on hand, I stored them away so I wouldn't be tempted to use them unless I absolutely needed one! It worked for me. Good Luck!
People STILL think I'm nuts when I say that we cloth diaper our twins (now 5 months old). But I really don't think it is much harder, and I feel so much better about having them and cloth (and not generating all that landfill!). Plus, the colors are fun! I actually just gave away our extra size one disposables that we got at our baby shower becuase the babies have outgrown them and we never ended up using all of them!
We used newborn prefolds with Nikky covers when the babies were little (up to 8 lbs), then switched to Bum Genius all-in-ones and 3.0 pockets. I didn't find the prefolds to be more difficult (with snappis!), but I got a great deal on some used Bum Genius diapers, and I like that they are adjustable as the babies grow.
The other interesting thing is that I got all my prefolds and covers used (craigslist), and when I was done with them, I had no problem selling them again. I think I actually made money on those....
I say stand your ground. I took all the OPPOSITE flack: People chided me for having an induction, an epidural, for not breastfeeding, etc! I agree, it's no one's business! I used to go into the whole explanation of my blood clotting disorder and why I could not breastfeed because of my medication, and that my labor had to be very medically managed so I didn't bleed to death, but now I just smile and say 'to each her own.'
If your mom is making all those diapers for you, you're saving a ton of money whether you'd be using cloth or disposable. Just make sure your daycare is okay with using cloth to avoid any surprises when you show up with baby and no Pampers!
This is a great post - and I really enjoyed reading about all your choices. It's so odd how people feel the need to go on and on about how yu should do this or that! Why can't people just be supportive?!
It reminds me of telling people about being infertile or having a hard time conceiving - it's like you have to actually argue with people and disprove all their theories about how you are way too young to be IF or there must be some mistake, or maybe you just didn't go to the right doctor. And then when they have put you through all that they act like you are still completely devoid of critical thinking skills and make the earth shattering suggestion that you might want to think about adoption!!!! Grrrrr!!!
I think you are very smart to keep your plans to yourselves!
Very exciting about your mom making all those pretty diapers for your little one!
I'm so glad the consultation went well! So funny, just this past weekend we had a neighbor tell us that if we lasted 3 months with cloth diapers she'd buy us dinner. She was being funny, but it felt like rooting for us to fail, ya know? I believe in you guys!!
Breastfeeding can be tough but that doesn't mean it always is. I had no success with my daughter but am exclusively breastfeeding my son. You never know how it will be. If you have issues with latching, I had great success with the nipple shield. I used it for 3 months for my son and now don't need it.
We cloth diaper. It's not difficult. It's not time consuming (it's just laundry). We used them less with my son just because we go out of the house with disposables (a diaper bag packed for a toddler and infant is big enough without bulky diapers and dirty ones to lug home). It is great.
We had prefolds and I love them the best. We didn't use that clip she used in the pictures. We just did a twist and then used the cover (bummis) to hold it together. works wonderfully.
and guess what, you have the diapers for the next baby!! it's awesome.
Breastfeeding definitely can be hard, at least it was for me, both times. Both my babies just didn't get the hang of it for a while, and my 11 month old was losing weight instead of gaining, which scared me...but I was determined that I could make it work and we just sort of muscled through and I have LOVED nursing both of them. Nursed my now 11 year old daughter for 13 months and imagine I will do the same for my boy. Some things in life are hard but so worth it, you know? So just do what you're going to do, and don't listen to the naysayers! :) --Katie
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