On Cloth Diapering

Smelly, dirty, disgusting cloth diapering.  I had images of poop and flies, and the constant smell of urine in the air.  Still, we have to make sacrifices to protect our babies, so I launched headlong into it, and quickly felt pretty snazzy.  After all, I was now most decidely, a good mom.  And I knew the cloth diapering lingo.  AIO, OS...being a Marine wife has made me immune to the intimidation tactics of acronyms.  I got myself a couple Bum Genius Elemental Organic All-In-Ones, and a few GroVia Organic All-In-Ones, along with cloth wipes and other parafanalia that any self-respecting, cloth-diapering mama couldn't possibly live without.  And I totally loved it, right from the start.  Well, minus that whole "priming" thing....you know, washing and drying the diapers 5 or so times before the first use to eliminate any residue that would make them ineffective and leaky.  Armed with some good garbage (i.e. junk food) and a few chick-flicks, I made it through a long, long night of laundering.  Thankfully, it did the trick and we had zero leaking problems on day one.

I quickly learned it wasn't going to be all roses, and number ones.  Or even the number twos that slide right off the diaper into the toilet, no fuss, no muss.  Sometimes I wonder if my kids have a secret stash of tar somewhere that they eat when I'm not looking.  If what goes in is what comes out....it seems like a reasonable supsicion, because I can tell you, I did not feed my kids anything that sticky.  Being stationed in a foreign country has it's disadvantages too; like not being able to hook a handy, dandy diaper sprayer to your toilet.  I get to do it the nasty way....swishing and swashing and flushing...over and over again, all the while dreaming of the life of ease cloth diapering moms in the States enjoy with their high-powered sprayers.  *sigh*

Nightime proved to be a problem too.  The first night my kiddos wore their diapers, my youngest woke up in the middle of the night with a soaked bed and a soaked self.  My oldest waited until morning and was thoroughly drenched.  When I took her diaper off, pee dribbled all over my hands and I learned the valuable lesson that cotton can only hold so much liquid.  I met with the cloth-diaper lady I had bought them from and she suggested some GroVia Stay Dry Boosters for overnight (just another layer, with fleece to wick the moisture away from their skin).  They worked like a charm, and we have had no leaks since.  I was also able to purchase some more diapers when I got the boosters, so that meant less laundry.  I am still washing every day, and even when I have more diapers, I probably still will.  Slowly but surely, I am building my stash.  I bought the GroVia Hybrid Experience package, and it works well for my youngest; my oldest is too heavy a wetter and gets the shell way too wet to use again.

So far, I prefer the Bum Genius Elemental All-In-Ones, but I do like that the Grovia diapers dry faster; one of the layers snaps off, so it's not so bulky in the wash.  Unfortunately, I don't have to worry about that layer on one of my diapers anymore; you see, my friend's toilet ate it.  I was swishing and swashing away when I got to the flushing and just like that, the toilet pulled the snap right off and sucked it away forever.  I stood there in horror and let out a gasp that had my friend staring into the oblivion of the toilet bowl with me in a second.  I knew what I had to do.  I took off my wedding band and reached my hand down in there, trying to feel if it wasn't quite lost forever.  It was gone.  And my hand and arm were gross.  I flushed her toilet over and over, hoping to avoid it clogging on her later on.  Then I washed my hands and arm.  Multiple times.  With Ajax.