warning: diapers!

It's Thursday, which means it's diaper-pick-up day, and thus an excellent day to share my feelings on our diaper issue(s). We decided to use cloth diapers with Benjamin, at least in the beginning, because it seemed easy (enough) and cheaper/comparable, and he was going through so many diapers as a newborn that it made sense to not plow through a ton of disposables. My family assumed that our greener attempts were a result of living in Oregon for too long, and I have to admit that watching a "diaper in compost heap" video pretty much scarred me for life. But really, we're not that earth-friendly. I probably had just as much desire to be good to the environment as I had to see Benjamin (or Rhubarb, back then) with a huge cloth diaper butt. Anyway, we found a service that would deliver new diapers and pick up our disgusting ones once a week, pretty much for the same cost as buying disposables from Costco, and we signed on. They have these handy little wraps that you buy for the diapers, so instead of using pins (which for sure would have deterred us) you just wrap the cloth into a waterproof-lined cover and velcro it together. Presto!

Originally we said that we would use the cloth diapers for a few months and see how we felt. He wasn't moving around much, so it seemed like they wouldn't be too messy (obviously, we hadn't had children before. In case you haven't either, the newborn diapers are the messiest because a milk diet doesn't do much for solidifying everything). Still, it wasn't much harder than disposables so we stuck with it. Now, 9 months in, I have a few opinions:

1) Whenever we travel for long periods of time (read: over a day) we have to take disposables. I don't mind wrapping a soiled diaper in a bag and putting it in my trunk if I'm visiting a friend for the day, but I wouldn't keep those things in enclosed spaces for long. Whew! Thus, we've had to use disposables occasionally (and for entire weeks when we're down in CA)

2) A really messy diaper isn't so much fun, but with disposables you can wipe, wrap it inside itself, and toss it. With a cloth diaper you have to remove it, wipe, flush the wipe and any "flushables", rinse the cover, spray it with a strong cleaner, set it aside to wash it, and then find a new clean cover. Granted, you don't have to do all of those things. When he was young we would dump the wipes into a trashcan in his room and just throw the entire soiled diaper into the pick-up bag. Unfortunately, with the introduction of solids and the heated house, we've discovered that not flushing everything possible results in a horrible field of "don't go near there" around Benjamin's room. Also, for amazing moms that do laundry once a day, the finding a clean cover might not be an issue -- but that amazing mom isn't me. I tend to put it off until I realize that all 4 covers are soaking and he's got to go nude until I do the laundry... then maybe I start a load the next day. (Yes, an easy solution would be do buy more covers. We started with 6, and I have NO clue where they disappear to.)

3) Pick-up day. I NEVER remember that it's pick-up day until I hear the truck (or sometimes after when I go outside and trip over clean diapers). They come at 6:30 in the morning, which is too early to be rushing around to gather bags of diapers from the garage, but every Wednesday night I have this little conversation with myself:
"Put the diapers out now!"
"No way. He's totally going to explode in his pants the minute I put them out, and then I'll have to deal with a horrible smelling room until next week."
"You'll forget tomorrow. You should do it now."
"I won't forget! Besides, what about the impeding explosion?"
"You can always just go outside, open the bag again, and put the horrible diaper in then."
"Would YOU want to go outside and open one of those bags??"
"Good point. You can remember tomorrow."

But of course, I never do. Thus I end up with 2 weeks worth of diapers in my garage, or 3 weeks worth (as was the case right before we went to CA).

Every time I think about stopping our service, though, I think of the positive things. (Yes, there are!)

1) It really is better for the environment. This kid pees like no other, and that's a LOT of disposables by the time he's 3.

2) He rarely gets/has gotten diaper rash. Because we have so many diapers throughout the week, we change him as soon as we feel that he's wet (which is pretty obvious with cloth). As a result, he doesn't sit in a messy diaper for long at all.

3) They say that cloth diapered kids potty train much faster because they can feel when they're wet. I can't answer to this one first-hand yet, but the hope of this is my number one reason to stick with cloth for the next year. If I can stop changing diapers even 3 months earlier, it's totally worth it (although the stats say it's more like 6 mo-1 year sooner. Wahoo!)

As far as the "cloth-diaper-butt" incentive is concerned, I can't decide which list to put it on. One the one hand, he's so cute with his big ol' butt, and he never complains when he crashes down onto his bottom because he's got extra padding (huge bonus, because he's starting to turn into a little drama prince when he thinks he should be hurt). On the other hand, he grows out of his clothes much faster because his huge diaper (especially the double diaper at bedtime) won't fit into smaller pairs of pants/sleepers. Also, people are always saying he's a chunk because he's shaped like a pear, but in reality he's pretty slim under all that cloth (not really a downside since he doesn't have a self-esteem to crush at this point).

All of that to say, we haven't discussed if we will use cloth again when baby #2 comes around... but most likely. If we've already got the service, we might as well just tack on another order. And hey, one of the perks to forgetting to put the diapers out for 3 weeks is having to drive all the way over to SE Portland, dropping them off, and finding this:

...which we were needing. Now we have a classic high chair that will be good for ages and ages, for a whole lot less than they sell them at Target.


If you made it to the end of this semi-rant on diapers, I'm way impressed. As a treat, here's a picture of Benjamin from before the trip to CA (where he learned to pull himself up). This was back when he only did the "take a knee" pose:

Also, I updated his blog yesterday. If you didn't get on the list to have access to it, send me an email.