We love cloth diapers!
Here's Lincoln in one of our faves, a Thirsties all-in-one.
When we decided to do cloth diapers back in... oh, I don't know April of last year (like a month after we found out we were pregnant), we really had no idea how many options were out there. And I was seriously confused at first with all the crazy lingo. Pockets, all-in-twos, prefolds, all-in-
ones, covers, liners, inserts, bamboo, hemp, microfiber, oh my gosh, So Many Words.
Well, we did eventually figure it all out. But then we had to decide what system to go with! Through all the research, I was pretty confident we were going to love the Thirsties most, but after reading all the Amazon reviews on all-in-ones, pockets, and a cover system, I still didn't know which ones we should go for.
When Lincoln was first born, we planned to use diaper covers with prefolds and the fancy Thirsties duo inserts. We got four of the covers and a bunch of inserts. This was our plan due to learning that most one-size-fits-all diapers don't actually fit the brand new babies very well. This system worked well in theory; the problem with it was Lincoln– he did his business to the side
every time so the cover always had to be changed with the insert.
I had also made a ton of flannel fitteds to use with snappis inside the diaper covers. Unfortunately, Lincoln came out bigger than expected (8 lbs, 4 oz), and the majority of my fitteds were too small right off the bat. Luckily, we'd also got a sample of BumGenius all-in-ones in the newborn size, and those lasted for about his first two months. I really liked those all-in-ones; they always fit really well under Lincoln's clothes. They don't have flaps like the bigger version, so everything's contained within the diaper, but they still dried super fast.
Around six weeks, we also started trying out our assorted one size diapers on him. By that time I'd accumulated a good collection of Thirsties, BumGenius, and Alva Babies. (Oh, and we also had two size small gDiapers I'd gotten for free. We didn't use those ones much since they were a bit girly–pink and yellow–but they served their purpose once in awhile.) I've found that cloth diaper shopping is pretty addicting. Even now, when we have a good sized stash–enough to get us through three days if we wanted to wait that long between washes– I still find myself adding diapers to my Amazon cart now and then.
This picture shows most of our diapers; I think it's just missing a few Alva Babies.
Our stash includes:
11 Alva Babies (3 of which are colored tabs with gussets)
2 BumGenius all-in-ones (the black and emerald ones above)
3 BumGenius pockets (the blues in the bottom right corner)
3 Thirsties all-in-ones (left bottom corner–mint, plaid, and teepee)
2 Thirsties pockets (the blue and orange)
1 random... I can't remember the brand name, but it came from Amazon and we had to have it since it had little orange foxes on a gray background.
4 Thirsties diaper covers (not pictured)
2 Small gDiapers (girly colors, not pictured)
And, I just added a third gDiaper to our cart, this one in medium. The smalls fit a bit funny on Lincoln for now; the inserts bunch up quite a bit. I'm hoping he'll grow into the medium soon so we can try it out for real.
So with all that, what did our favorites end up being?
Well, Chris has literally no preference. He says they all work, so it really doesn't matter. Although he does agree with me that the 3 Alva Babies with gussets are a bit crazy when double stuffed, which we do at night. Here are my opinions on the diapers we have on hand:
Thirsties Pockets: I actually ended up liking all of our diapers, but the Thirsties pockets are my faves so far. We've got one in snap and one in velcro and both are great. The velcro on Thirsties is WAY better than Bumgenius' velcro; the quality between them in incomparable. I love the gussets on the Thirsties pockets, the way they fit trimly under Lincoln's clothes, and the fact that the opening is in front and back, meaning the insert washes out. Oh, and the insert? A microfiber
and a hemp insert. And they're super easy to stuff.
Thirsties All-in-Ones: These are my next favorite. An all-in-one is hard to beat for convenience, but I like these ones over BumGenius' because there's only one flap to deal with. Makes it trimmer, and still seems to hold the same amount as the two-flapped BumGenius.
Alva Babies: I can't believe these are so cheap. Seriously. We love the Alva Babies (the gusset ones, not so much, sadly). They're a little harder to stuff, but they fit great. And we can double stuff these easily and they still fit nicely.
BumGenius pockets: I really like the BumGenius colors and the trim fit... but the reason these are so trim is because the microfiber liner is thin and really doesn't hold anything. Double stuffing really bulks up the diaper unfortunately.
BumGenius All-in-Ones: The double flap is a little annoying because you have to really make sure both flaps stay inside the diaper, and it definitely chunks the diaper up a bit. These also seem to stain easier.
Thirsties Diaper Covers and Duo Inserts: We don't use these much anymore. When Lincoln was newer, we used them much more, either with the micro fleece/hemp inserts or a prefold. We do still use them when we've run out of the others, or they're in the wash, or they're all sitting in a laundry basket in his room for a day and a half (like now). Those things give us an extra day of diapering easy. Having those (and the gDiapers) on hand makes it nice and easy to cloth diaper since we can do laundry without the rush.
Seriously, cloth diapering is so much more fun than disposables. And in the three months since Lincoln was born, we have bought exactly one box of disposable diapers... and it's taking us a loooooooooong time to go through that box. Lincoln might move up to size twos before we finish the box! Good thing all our cloth diapers grow with him! ;)
