10 Months In and a Mini Review

In a couple days Shawn is 10 months old. I can't believe it! We are still cloth diapering 95% of the time during the day, though not so much at night. My babies are such difficult sleepers (and don't go BACK to sleep easily if they wake) that it's just never been something I push. I don't need to be stressing about if their diaper is so fluffy that it's uncomfortable, or if it's  not fluffy enough and is going to leak, or about trying to figure out (or afford) wool. When they get older and stop having a bottle to go to sleep I usually try an organic Flip insert, topped with a mf/fleece doubler inside a Flip cover, and it usually works for us.

The other brand I've tried lately (in addition to BumGenius pockets and Flip covers) are Lalabyes. I love that they are All-in-2's or Pockets, and I love how soft and trim the bamboo inserts are.  They seem to wear well, and come in some cute colors and prints. They are not as bulletproof for me as my favorites though, and I'm not going to go crazy and switch my whole stash. I have 3 currently, and am pretty happy with them. I recently sold a purple (mulberry) one and bought a cute owl print instead. I definitely recommend them, but I can't trust them with just the bamboo inserts because they tend to bunch into the middle and then leak through the PUL on the edges. Throw some microfiber inside the pocket part (just a newborn insert) and they get a lot more dependable. They are pretty popular right now, but production is still kind of low, so they're sometimes hard to get a hold of the colors or prints you want. I got the first two used, and the second two at Nicki's Diapers and Dream Diapers. Here are some pictures of my Lalabyes:

EIEIO and Around the Mulberry Bush

The bamboo inserts can go against the skin or inside the suedecloth.

Itsy Bitsy Spider (and airing out in an old-style Thirsties fitted)

E-I-E-I-O

Owl Always Love You

And some more cute pictures of Shawn in his cloth.

Chaplin Flip - a new print from this summer.

A newer color - Hummingbird Flip

One of the newest prints - a Spence Flip (don't actually have this - bought it for a friend in Canada)

Armadillo Flip. Didn't love this at first, but now it's a favorite.

Sassy Flip

Albert 4.0 pocket. Love this print.

More Armadillo

Crazy baby in a Butternut (discontinued) Flip

Our only Alva Minky pocket. Love the giraffe.

BumGenius just announced two new colors that I'm excited about. I preordered "Stellar" (a dark blue). Hopefully it will be here in time to be a Christmas present for Shawn!

My "current" stash shot (before I traded the purple Lalabye for the Owl one)

Almost 6 months!

Shawn is almost 6 months old, and is super chunky! I have used cloth on him more than on any other baby (partially because I have a lot of it, and disposables are expensive!). He is in cloth 99% of the time during the day, and sometimes at night. I still use disposables a lot at night, especially since he sleeps with me a lot, on his side, and I don't want to get wet...
I've tried a few different things with him, but mostly still prefer to use BumGenius pockets (4.0's in snaps and some aplix 3.0's) and Flips (snaps). I put Flip stay-dry and organic nighttime inserts in the Flips, as well as prefolds. Here is my current stash:

All of the ones on the right are BG and Flips. On the left there are two Alvas (stars and giraffe), some random China diapers that I love but don't trust completely to keep him dry (Batman and Supes), an Econobum, a Happy Heiny, etc. I have two fitteds and a couple Thirsties wraps not show in the pic.

And here are a few of my favorite "cloth" pictures from the last few months. You can see how different Shawn grew when we finally stopped fighting and gave him a good amount of formula...

Twilight Katydid pocket

Thirsties Duo cover (aqua, sz 1) over a newborn GMD prefold

Rumparooz OS pocket

Thirsties Duo sz 1 cover

snappi'd prefold (I almost never use snappis, I just trifold)

BG 4.0 in Albert (my favorite)

white Flip

BG 4.0 in Irwin

BG Freetime in Mirror

oh-so-cute China cheapie

Blueberry deluxe pocket in Dino Party. Didn't like the fit of this and resold it.

1st 6 weeks

So I ended up with a c-section. Partially because of that we didn't do as much cloth as I hoped at first. It didn't help that his cord didn't fall off for 2 weeks. And most of the newborn stuff I had didn't work for that, even though he was over 8 lbs at birth, and so between 7 lbs 12 oz and 8 lbs 4 oz during the first 2 weeks probably. The only ones that would fit below his cord at all were the Thirsties Duo Wraps with snaps and the Rumparooz NB cover with snaps. The RaR ones with velcro didn't, and they have never seemed that comfortable for him, especially since his tummy seems upset much of the time. I actually already sold them and the Imagine cover with velcro. We are currently using the Thirsties wraps and RaR with snaps over orange-edged prefolds, BumGenius NB AIO's (a bunch of which a friend let me borrow) and a couple stray pockets that fit smaller than others. He is still maybe just over 9 lbs (not gaining quickly, as usual) and we have enough small stuff that I haven't gotten out most of the one-size stuff.

BG NB AIO at 8 lbs. Love the color! (Mirror)

Orange-edge GMD newborn prefold at 8.5 lbs.

RaR robots with snaps over a snappied orange edge GMD prefold. 8.5 lbs.

A Best Bottoms with newborn insert. Actually loved the fit on this at 9 lbs.

Another shot of an XS BG AIO at over 9 lbs.

Ready to go

I'm due in 6-7 weeks now, and thankfully we confirmed that this baby is a boy, so he can wear all these cute covers. :) I've never used cloth diapering as a way to save money so much, but at this point in our lives (with almost 4 kids, and trying to start a business) I'm really grateful that we're all set and won't have to spend any more on disposables than we WANT to. Yay!

Not Forgotten

I've been pulling our cloth diaper stash out again lately. It hasn't really been used in almost a year now (since we moved from Virginia) because Katy potty-trained (more or less) pretty soon after that. But I'm halfway along with this baby, and getting interested in what we have (a lot) and what we need (thankfully not much). For the first time I am super grateful about the costs-savings using cloth is going to provide this time around. We will use -some- disposables, but I'm going to try to use cloth as much as possible. And since I have most of the basics already, it really won't cost much.
Hoping that this baby really comes out a boy (like they think he will) or she will look a little silly wearing some of these cute newborn covers I've been acquiring lately...

Thankfully we're all set for prefolds, and won't need much in covers/one-size diapers once the baby hits 12 lbs or so. Still have a bunch of Flips covers (even some boy-ish ones I had lent to my sister). It's fun to deal with a different color scheme, especially since I didn't use a LOT of cloth on Reilly, since he was 18 months when I started.

Who needs a swimming suit?

It's true. I have 3 kids, and I've never bought a pack of swim diapers. An unstuffed pocket diaper works perfectly!

Just a shout out and some pictures!

I haven't posted on here in forever, but I thought I should, just to let you know I haven't given up cloth diapering by any means... :) We didn't do it for much of December and January, because we were in Provo without on-site laundry facilities in the middle of winter, but it just wasn't going to work out.  Katy's in cloth about 75% of the time, and though I've tried to get rid of a lot, I still have a lot of Flip covers (mostly snaps) and inserts, BumGenius pockets (3.0 and 4.0, aplix), a Thirsties wrap and a half dozen Green Mountain Diaper prefolds, and a few other random pockets. (some Kawaii Pure & Naturals she's about to outgrow, a Katydid, an Evolution diaper, etc.) I have to say my favorite right now is a Flip with an organic insert. Trim, clean lines, and oh-so-absorbant!
Jaina is (sort of) potty-trained, or at least hasn't worn diapers in like 6 months, so we just have one in diapers. (She's in pull-ups at night; I tried a few cloth trainers, but my kids are just too chunky for the regular ones I've found and I don't feel like making any... maybe I'll get industrious once we move to Virginia and I have my sewing machine back!)
Here are a few pictures of Katy in her cloth diapers over the last 7-8 months!

4 months-ish - snappied sherpa prefold

5 months-ish, Kissaluv size 1 fitted

Katydid pocket. It fits better now that she's older I think...

8-ish months; BumGenius OS pocket, blossom

BumGenius 4.0 pocket in... can't remember the color name. Light purple. :)

Pretty diaper laundry!

You can't see it, but she's using an unstuffed pocket as a swim diaper. Awesome.

11 months-ish in her new Thirsties wrap over a GMD prefold.