Gear for baby

They always *say* that babies are expensive. Well, I am trying to cut down on the cost of raising baby by doing things like breastfeeding, making my own babyfood, borrowing clothes and gear, and now cloth diapering. It is truly an addiction to research baby items and then once you find them, researching the best deal on what you like. My last addiction was baby shoes...oh goodness. I researched Robeez and little moccasin-type baby shoes until I was so sick of it that I didn't even buy one pair!

My newest addiction, and one that makes sense because it can save us essentially close to two thousand dollars (if I did my math correctly) is: cloth diapering. I have to say, I have spent more time researching cloth diapering than I have on my studies all summer. egads! It is easy to do, mainly because I needed to get over the hurdle of deciding how to cloth diaper and then to decide what kind of cloth diapering to do. Sites like Wildflower Babies and Cotton Babies are chalked full of information to help in purchasing the dreaded...cloth diaper. They also offer tons of adorable CDs to choose from...and accessories that you *absolutely* need, of course. :) People already think I am out of my mind to cloth diaper...but, I have friends who do it and LOVE it. And, according to Babble it is freakishly cool. Well, finally I am freakishly cool. I have been waiting to be put into that category my whole life...well, I guess, at least what I am doing for my little E is freakishly cool, and fun! There's just something about washing out a dirty nappy that gives me warm fuzzies....hahaha!

Anyhow, cloth diapering isn't the big deal I have been making it out to be. It is really rather simple. You just need to find what works for you...and I am in the middle of that, so I have no advice. What I can write is that I recieved my bumGenius 3.0 in the mail the other day and tried it out this morning. I love it. It is now in the laundry and I can't wait to try it again. I only have the one cloth diaper, so E is naked until I get the thing washed. No, really, I just want to use it again today, so I had to wash it right away so I could use it. Now I am kicking myself for not ordering a few more so I could really test out the system by keeping baby in CDs all day. But, I had to dip my toe in the pool first. Plus, I wanted to wash it to see if it was really going to be easy to launder. I did the two wash thing - rinse on cold to get the nasties out and then on warm with a little Purex to get it clean. These little buggers are certainly sensitive. You are not supposed to use detergent that has any type of additive - so you need something basic like Purex or Sun (which is probably better for all of us with allergies anyhow). Dreft is a big fat no-no. Dreft has a ton of additives to make babies clothes soft and could leave a build up on the diaper. build-up = trapped nasties. Who knew!? And, it is easy and it is not gross.

I feel silly being so consumed with where my baby's pees and poos go, but it is important. I want to tread lightly on the earth while I am here, I want my baby to have comfortable nappies to wear, and I want him to look cute, too. I know I'd certainly like to look cute in my nappies...oh, that is a far off desire...especially since I just ate a handful of chocolate chips while writing.

Today I ordered a bunch of different types of diapers so I could try them out. I ordered prefolds, fitted, wraps and I have the one pocket bG. The more I thought about it the more I liked the idea of having a diaper and then a wrap, not an AIO (all in one diaper - no stuffing, no folding, just like a disposable). And, it is much less expensive to buy them that way. I have spent $110 and the diapers will last until potty-training (hopefully). I will probably spend $50 - $100 more, but that is essentially it. So, all together I will have spent about $250 - $300, which includes a travel bag for the stinkies when I am out on the town and those little biodegradeable inserts for poos (you just take them right out of the diaper and flush them down the toilet...how easy can it get...jeesh.).

In a year I'll look back at this post and laugh because I am so new to all of this, and the lingo, quite frankly, is making me laugh. I feel like I am in a cool new club, though.