pooped!

i realize this is pretty laura ingalls wilder of me (fitting, considering my 2nd grade obsession with those books), but john and i have decided that we will be a CD family when the little one arrives. yes, that's right. we are going to use cloth diapers. (pause for gasping, general shocked expressions, laughter, disbelief and assorted other reactions) actually, i'm not too nervous about the process. my mom used cloth diapers for me and my five siblings, and she managed just fine. john's mom also used cloth and speaks very highly of the whole experience.

we arrived at this decision for a multitude of reasons, which i'm not really going to get into right now because i truly believe... to each his own. i've spent enough time on babycenter threads to realize that pointless name calling for people's personal choices gets you nowhere. and i'm not taking up advocacy for cloth diapering. it's just something i want to do.

but now, on to the dilemma. cloth diapers have come a long way since my mom and MIL were padding me and the hubs' behinds. back then, there weren't a lot of choices (i'm told), and the routine consisted of some gerber white cloths, pins and plastic pants. voila! done! double up at night and everyone was happy. fast forward 25 or some years and now there are a plethora of choices to make. should we get all-in-one diapers? they look like little pants and fasten with velcro or snaps, eliminating the need for pins and the top cover. if i go that route, should i invest in some inserts? (a cloth strip that's placed inside the diaper to catch the messiness and protect the diaper) how many inserts do i need? should i stick with the basic pre-fold? how many diaper covers will i need then?

the other issue is that a lot of places don't sell all the cloth diaper supplies you need. there are specialty websites you can access to stock up on the essentials (www.diapers.com, www.diaperjunction.com, etc.), but mainstream retailers like target or babies r us have limited resources. you can get the all-in-one diapers, but no inserts. you can get cloth diapers, but no covers. i'm hesitant to shell out the money on a "diapering system." those run around $150-$300 and boast all the supplies you'll need to diaper your baby from the day you bring her home until she's potty-trained.  while i know that's much less than what i'd spend in disposable diapers, it seems like a lot of money to throw around when i'm not even sure if i'm going to like the particular brand.

after extensive research (and i do mean extensive), i've come to the conclusion that i should try a few different options and figure out which one i like the best. the good news is that the modern cloth diaper is both cute (see below)




and adorably named.  the little specimen above is a fuzzibunz, which also happens to be one of the most highly rated options out there. 
 
but anyway, if you're still awake, the point of this post was to inquire about your own experiences with cloth diapering.  do you know anyone who's used cloth?  do they have any recommendations?  if so, please let me know!  after all this diaper research, i'm (haha) pooped!