My experience with cloth diapering a newborn

So, with sooo many of my friends being preggers, I thought I'd get down in cyberspace how my experience with cloth diapering a newborn went. :)

The 2 main reasons I wanted to cloth diaper (CD) Jana from birth were because I heard CDs really cut down on the number of blow-outs and that it's super cute. :) Now, with Aidan, I was a pocket diaper mama, meaning I had used pocket diapers almost exclusively on him. I had some fitteds for potty training purposes but that's about it. I was in love with the versatility of the pocket system. However, after poking around online, I found that most moms prefered fitteds and covers with their newborns. Not totally understanding why, I decided to start buying newborn and small pocket diapers. And when they arrived, oh wow, those tiny diapers melted my heart. Haha! Anyhow, I had bought a whole bunch since I only wanted to wash every other day at most (I figured that I would have enough to do in the beginning) and thought I was set. But, the fact that most moms still favored fitteds was still in the back of my mind. So, I borrowed a few from my sister and then bought a few just in case.

Then Jana arrived. :) After I brought her home from the hospital and after her umbilical cord fell off, I excitedly started cloth diapering her. However, instead of washing less clothes from less blow-outs, I found myself washing more because it seemed as if the poo just rolled off the diapers, with none of it getting absorbed! Doh! After a few more days of this, I figured out what happened. 1)Her chicken legs were so tiny that the smallest diaper could not fully wrap around them to create a seal because of the inserts inside. 2)She was peeing/pooing so frequently and with such force that it was not given any time to absorb into the insert past the fleece part. The pee was just rolling off the fleece, esp since she liked to sleep on her tummy and side. Then the Ah-ha moment came. Those mamas all liked fitteds because the absorbent layer was right next to the skin and caught the pee right away. There was also no gaping at the legs b/c there was no insert to kinda bulk it up. And since we change newborns so frequently anyways, it didn't matter that there was no stay-dry inner. So, I tried the few fitteds that I had and voila, no more leaks!!! Yay!

[Cleaning the CDs was a bit of a pain but the runny yellow stuff of breastfed babies really washes right off, esp with a good rinse cycle. :)]

Anyhow, so I ended up buying more fitteds and covers and I can honestly say I can count the number of blow-outs that Jana had on one hand. It's great! So, what did Jana have in her stash? Loveybum fitteds, Loveybums covers interlock & crepe, Little Beetle hemp/OCV fitteds (they no longer make these but have great hemp ones), Little Beetle shorties and wrap covers, Imse Vimse covers, and Swaddlebees fitteds.

We did end up going with pockets after she grew out of the newborn phase, which worked out well. So Jana ended up using some of the CDs that Aidan outgrew and we finally ended up saving money. ;) Hmm...I wonder how they'll feel knowing that they shared diapers?! Ahem.

Anyhow, I'll try to post pics of baby Jana in her cutey cloth diapers soon - they're on the other computer. But feel free to ask any questions, in case I was vague or confusing on something. :)

Disclaimer: This is just MY experience with cloth diapering a newborn - I'm sure other moms prefer different things and even made pockets work! Just thought I'd add this in. :)