Saturday, July 21, 2012

I'm Not a Loyalist.

I'm not a loyalist.  Well I am, but I'm not.  After my husband and I married, I quit my job and found a new one when I moved.  During the duration of our time in Orlando, I stayed with one company, Florida Hospital, for almost 7 years.  However, within that organization, I found myself moving from one department to another under the Patient Administration umbrella.  Quite frankly I got bored.  So I found myself maintaining a little bit of sanity by moving around the department.

Now I'm a work/stay/play at home mom.  One thing I have remained loyal to during my child rearing years is cloth diapering.  I'm not a die hard, all or nothing cloth diaper user since I am known to pull out the disposables once in a while.  However, I will admit, within the umbrella of cloth, I am not loyal to one style of diapers.  I have jumped from one type to the next.  

When my middle two girls were babies, I started up with cloth full time.  I started out with fitteds.  I had a full stash of Kissaluvs and Snugglebottoms.  Then I moved on to a full stash of every size of Diaper Rite prefolds when baby #5 was born.  From there I ventured on to pockets with a few AIO.  Looking back though, I have never found the love for the AI2 system.  I'm not sure why.  It's just never hit me as a "Wow! This is great!" system.  

So for the last year I've been using all pockets and AIO.  These seem to be the best for my husband to use.  However, over the last two years as my pocket stash has grown, they are starting to wear out.  I hate to even type that!  But in reality, after two years and two children in diapers at the same time with a new one making his way into the one size weight range, I need to look at replacing diapers.  Since starting the business, I have added a few new pockets and AIO, but a majority of diapers need to be replaced.  Thus my loyalty to pockets is starting to wane.  

I'm thinking about building up my prefold stash once again.  This time I'm thinking of using a different brand.  Last time I used Diaper Rite and Green Mountain Diapers, but I found them to be too stiff and bulky, even the unbleached ones.  As I write this I sit and chuckle to myself because when I mentioned to my husband last night that I was considering going back to prefolds he promptly said, "Don't expect me to change any diapers then."  HA!!  Boy I never knew he had such a distaste for prefold diapers!  So, to keep him happy and in the game, I told him that I will keep some of the pockets available for when he does changes.  Besides, I do like to keep my stash a variety, but always having a majority of one type.  

So with the recent birth of our son, I finally started cloth diapering from the day he came home from the hospital.  I had tried to use prefolds on our last son, but I did not like them.  This time I decided to use Knickernappies infant prefolds.  I also had other diapers in my newborn stash which I have talked about before.  Anyway, I fell in love with the Knickernappies the first time I put them on him.  They were so soft and fluffy.  They remained soft and fluffy even after all the washing and occasional bleaching.  

Sadly my son has officially grown out of his newborn stash at around 7ish weeks.  That's not bad considering he started out at 9lbs 7.5 oz at birth.  So I have been working him into the one size pocket diapers I have on hand.  Unfortunately due to the past two years of use and laundering, some of my pocket covers are delaminating, the elastic is stretched out, and on a few the velcro is too frayed to stick.  Now, some of you may say, "Well it is easy to replace the elastic and velcro, just do it yourself!"  And I will say, "Sure go ahead!"  HA!  For some reason the thought of pulling anything off or out of my diapers scares me.  They are still some what useable, but if I go ripping things off and then ruin it making it unusable, well that will just make me mad.  However, if there is anyone reading this blog who is taking pity on me and would like to do it for me, I'd be happy to send them to you!  

Okay, so back to my loyalty.  I'm starting to wane on my loyalty to pocket diapers.  Quite frankly I'm getting bored of them.  So, I know I already love Knickernappies.  I also have one lonely OsoCozy prefold in my stash.  I pulled this one out the other day and used on the baby and I love it.  I'm realizing though, that I must make really wide babies.  For some reason, all of the prefolds I have used so far are difficult to pin or snappi.  I can do it, but it takes some work to make it just right to get everything to hook and hold.  Anyway, I have learned how to still put the prefold on my boys without a snapppi but also not jut trifolding the prefold.  But that is a post for the future.  

Another reason why I am wanting to go back to prefolds is the laundering.  Prefolds can really take a beating.  I'm still having to deal with diaper stink/ammonia.  If I want it to go away completely after every wash, I have to use bleach with every load.  Lately I've not done that; it's been more like once a week I will put in a splash of bleach.  Call me crazy, but I "feel better" doing that to a load of prefolds rather than an entire load of PUL, microfleece/suede, and bamboo.   

So it's time to say good-bye to my pockets and bring back the prefolds.  The benefit of bringing them in is that they are so cheap!  Since I still have some good pockets, a couple AIO, a fitted, and a few other prefolds on hand, I can add enough prefolds to complete my stash for the two boys well under $100.  That is a little harder to do with pockets or AIO.  I will have to say though, I will never stop loving the ease and simplicity of pockets, AIO, and fitteds.  They are just too darn cute to give up completely.         

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