Preparing......diapers!

Well, the count down is on. It's been a long few weeks of cleaning and the continued preparations for welcoming our new baby within the next 4-5 weeks. This pregnancy has seemingly flown by! Between big kids and all of their activities and being home with two littles, life has never a dull moment. Lately, I've been drifting back into memories of having my first born......napping when he napped, snuggling all day, quiet days and cozy nights, just us! There happen to be 6 years between Bella and Charlotte so I was able to experience that feeling again with her, napping when (or IF) she napped, super snuggles, less chaotic moments. Having more children certainly changes the way you are able to spend time with you newborn. Not in a bad way, just different. Fewer slow moments, packing baby more to accomplish tasks instead of letting things fall to the wayside and wrapping ourselves in bed for a day full of snuggles. The other children need to eat, have clean clothes, they need attention, too. It's an adjustment when you open your heart and mind even wider to welcome another blessed soul into your life, something I would never change.......right now, I'm just acknowledging the transistion and what is required to make it all come together seamlessly and with as little trauma as possible!

This week I spent the week researching ways to cut costs and help make life a little more easy. Diapers and babywearing have been at the top of the my list. I don't like disposable diapers.......I appreciate the convenience however after doing the math (I admit I'm a bit late to the party) and realizing how much money we've spent and literally thrown away in disposable diapers, I'm quite disappointed in us! For the past 5 years we've been between disposable diapers and gdiapers. I like them alot but there are some things I don't........like the bunching of the insert, the messing in the liner, and not being able to afford the covers and liners. It's expensive (for us). Seventh Generation diapers are sold at our local grocery, so, even though they were still disposable we felt better about the ingredients. The cost is quite high next to other mainstream diapers but we agreed it was worth the "investment". SO, after thinking long and hard about how to use the gdiaper covers that we owned already I was led to find Green Mountain Diapers. Between what they offer and what I was given a few years ago when KiKi was born (wool covers, some prefolds, and other random covers) I was able to compile a list of items that would take us into the realm of full time cloth diapering for our new baby and for KiKi. It has been a full week of alternative diapering for  KiKi this week. I went to an amazing consignment sale and scored on items that she could use now and baby will eventually grow into! Walking into the consignment sale I inquired about cloth diapers being there since I had no interest in scoping out the entirety of the 20,000 items in the sale. The lady at the door smiled and said "Oh, I don't think so.......". I politely smiled and felt the urge to peek anyway. I walked around the corner, found the potty training section and proceeded to discover and bounty of bumGenius covers and inserts and a bummis start up kit which came with 4 covers, 18 organic cotton prefolds, a wet bag, flushble and reusable liners; all for a huge discount! I saved over $200 by purchasing all that I did used.

KiKi in her bummis Super Whisper wrap with
an organic cotton prefold.

Whew! It's a lot of hard work trying to make a decision like this one. Why? Well, there are so many options (too many in my opinion) and trying to discover which ones are best for our family was the most difficult task. Having two in diapers maked it even more challenging in my mind. Finding or more over creating a system that works for both babes and both parents (simpicity at home and out) was the leading factors, aside from cost. The enviromental implications of what we've contributed thus far are staggering.......and it breaks my heart! I'm glad that I've reached whatever plateau I needed to finally find the confidence and discipline to make the switch. It feels SO AWESOME!!!!! There is such a sense of accomplishemnt!

Well......this is just a small piece of where we've been this week! I've got my list, made inquiries on Craigslist and Freecycle to find the pieces I still need to complete our stash at a discount and second hand. If any of you who visit my blog have any comments about what worked for you in the alternative diapering world I'd LOVE to hear them!!!

For my next post I will write about our adventures in babywearing :o)