Wednesday, December 16, 2009

Cloth Diapering a Newborn

I started my venture into cloth diapering when my 3rd son was over a month old, so I pretty much skipped most of the newborn cloth diapering phase. So when I was pregnant with my 4th son, I was very excited about using cloth for the newborn stage! That meant teeny tiny little diapers that would be so sweet and adorable. That also meant shopping for cute teeny tiny things with all my pregnancy hormones surging through me. Yikes! Can we say 'go broke'?

Yes I bought 2 dozen of each size prefolds - newborn, small and large. I also bought about over a dozen fitteds. I expected a 9-10 lb baby like my other 3 had been. So when I gave birth to a 7lb 2 ozer, I was shocked! Not only were the newborn prefolds I had gotten huge, but so were the extra small covers I had gotten. I was sure they would be too small, but instead he was swimming in his diapers! I decided I had to sell all the prefolds to foot some newborn fitteds instead. I was sure they would be the answer as I had suddenly developed an aversion to bulky diapers. (With large babies I never knew what bulky was, lol).

Anyway, I learned a few very valuable things when using cloth on a newborn. Somehow between the time that I had my last son I had forgotten exactly how much a baby poops in the first few weeks. In the first few weeks we were going through sometimes 20 diapers a day! I would feed him and he would poop. If he wasn't pooping, he was peeing. All the money I had invested into the newborn fitteds seemed like a waste. I spent $15 a diaper (well I had a discount code) and they fit no better than the prefolds. And as far as absorbancy, it didn't make a difference when I was changing him so often. So I ordered some prefolds (I know, I know) to add to my small stash that I was washing every day. If I had only know then what I know now. Sigh.

So I would say that the pooping constantly stage lasted for at least a month, maybe a little more. And for those of you that are expecting a little one and are worried about meconium and cloth, worry not. It washes better than EBF poo, believe it or not. And it doesn't last long either. And can I just add, if you ever happen to see your baby poo while you are in the middle of a diaper change, do not be surprised if it looks like foam. LMAO. Seriously. Don't ask me why it's foamy, but it is. Ahh the joys of newborn diapering. I went from thinking it was all about cute and tiny to learning its all about poop, poop, and more poop. My little guy is still pretty small at 2 months, but he has outgrown his newborn prefolds. They were a great investment for the first month and I would definitly do them all over again if I needed to.

4 comments:

  1. I didn't start out CDing our 12 week old, but wish we did because it would have stopped the red bum, but just getting cd's when we can.

    http://couponmommyof2.blogspot.com/2009/12/thank-you-to-my-followers-giveaway.html

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  2. I started cloth diapering w/my third baby when he was close to a year too and am just about due w/my 4th baby right now....mine were also all above 9lbs and so, until reading this I was assuming the new baby would be the same....I was thinking that I would get small prefolds and covers and then was convinced that maybe NB is the way to go...would love to know what ended up working for you and how long it lasted...

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  3. That's pretty funny about the foam! My daughter rarely pooped as a newborn. She peed frequently, but only pooped every 1-3 days. I was worried, but the doctors didn't seem to think anything was wrong and after a few months of colic, she was a happy baby and now at four months, she still only poops like once a day, maybe twice.
    Anyway...
    I used bumGenius one sized diapers on my daughter as soon as her chord fell off (at one week) and they fit fine. However, she was big, weighing a whopping 9lbs 5 oz at birth. My friend had a 7lb baby and she said that she had to get ex. small prefolds and covers for her baby. I think newborn diapering is an art that is difficult to master because it lasts so short that you barely have time to figure it out.

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  4. We had trouble finding diapers for my 6lb 2 oz baby too. My favourite little newborn diapers are Sandy's by MotherEase. We never had a leak with them!

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