Thursday, May 21, 2009

battle of the bulge

I have about two and a half dozen cloth diapers. About half a dozen of them are these handy fitted diapers that snap. I love them, and they are convenient. But I don't have many. Mostly I have the old-fashioned pre-fold diapers. I used these when I cloth diapered Sarah, until she outgrew them. Somehow I never got around to buying a bigger size; we switched to disposables when Sarah outgrew the pre-folds I had bought up.

I was excited to cloth diaper Natalie, and Sarah has been eagerly anticipating it as well (since I was slow in healing from the c-section, and since we had been given gobs and gobs of disposables, I put off getting out the cloth until I felt recovered enough to tackle the laundry). A few days ago, I brought out the cloth diapers. Naturally I started out with the cute, easy-to-use fitted ones. :) Naturally, they got soiled rather quickly! Time to switch to the pre-folds until I had used enough diapers to make a laundry load. Unfortunately, I encountered two problems here.

Problem number one is that Sarah LOVES the cloth diapers. She just loves them. And she kept walking off with them so that she could play with them. (I bet moms who use disposables never encounter this problem.) I finally convinced her to leave the diapers alone, but when I went to grab a pre-fold this morning my Snappis were gone! Don't know what a Snappi is? Well, in the olden days one had to use diaper pins to fasten a pre-fold. I don't believe in diaper pins. I use Snappis instead.

I quizzed Sarah. Sure enough, she had made off with the Snappis. Only she couldn't remember where she had left them! It took the whole morning to locate the darn things (Natalie was back in disposables until we tracked them down). And then we encountered problem number two.

Natalie weighs about the same as Sarah did as an infant. But she's built differently. She carries all her weight in her belly. I can't really describe it adequately, but it's like a baby Buddha belly. In proportion to the rest of her, it's big. And I couldn't get the pre-fold around her properly because of it! There was no way. I would have ended up having to squish her to force the thing around her.

Sigh. So now I have about two dozen pre-fold diapers that I'm not sure what to do with. I want more of the handy-dandy fitted kind (and those actually fit Natalie's bulging belly!), but it is a large outlay at first, and I feel guilty spending the money right now. So I'm going to have think about this. Anyone have any clever suggestions for me?

6 comments:

Carey said...

Have you looked on Ebay for more? I'm sure you know of this site, but I know I've seen something like DIapersSwappers mentioned before online.. It just seems like there's got to be people out there with used ones that you can benefit from...

I REALIZE its been pooped on before... but your kid is just gonna poop on it too!

: )

As far as money goes, you're gonna spend the money, one way or the other. EIther you spend it buying disposables over the long haul, or you invest in the cloth ones. If its cloth ones you want, then I say get them.

Diapers is nearly ALL your life revolves around for a long, long time. It MATTERS. : )

Lauri Dilbeck said...

If you have a sewing machine, cut a diaper in half and sew each half of an end to another full diaper. It will give you only half as many, but you'll be able to use them for Natalie!

Tana said...

I agree with Mommy of Two. I WISH I had spent the initial money to buy cloth diapers. It would have saved SO much over the years! You're going to spend it one way or the other, you might as well spend it on what you want.

Unknown said...

I don't know WHERE my brain was yesterday...sleep-deprived, I guess. But this morning it occurred to me that I bought the silly pre-folds on eBay in the first place back when I was pregnant with Sarah. It shouldn't be too hard to simply post them myself and sell them to someone else. And then I could buy more cool fitted diapers!

Lauri, I appreciate your suggestion too! But I'll be honest--I don't have a sewing machine, and I am barely capable of sewing on a button when it falls off! :( I am fascinated by sewing and I love looking at others' creations. I've always wanted to take a sewing class some day. But for now, anything involving thread and needles and sewing machines is pretty much outside my realm of expertise! :(

Lauri Dilbeck said...

OK, Little Missy! I'm going to have to make a trip to Tenn. to teach you how to sew! In fact, Sarah isn't too far from being able to learn either. Guess I'll have to arrange a time in the near future to have a Mommy & Me class. I've done them in my area and they're very successful!
Wish we lived closer to one another!

Unknown said...

Come on! I would LOVE to learn, and I bet you're a great teacher! And a Mommy and Me class would rock! When shall I expect you? ;)