Adventures in Cloth Diapers, Part III: 18 weeks through 1 year

Welcome back to my series on cloth diapering! When we last left off, Dois was 18 weeks old and we were happily cloth diapering in a mixture of fitteds, pockets, and prefolds.

At 18 weeks something major happened, though: I returned to work full-time. We knew Dois would need care for only 6 weeks until my mother-in-law arrived, and so finding a daycare that accepted cloth diapers was not of utmost importance to us (since it was temporary). We went with a daycare we used for Bebe, and they did not want to use cloth, so we didn't push it.

Those six weeks were challenging, though. I was trying to get used to our new routine (of getting both kids to/from their daily destinations, of evening chores like making and labeling bottles, choosing clothes, etc.), and I was trying to figure out a new laundry routine. We were only using 2 cloth diapers per day (sometimes 3) and so my loads weren't nearly as full as before. Once or twice I let the diapers sit too long, and we got MAJOR stinkies! I tried to wash every-other-day but sometimes I went three or four.

Knowing we'd be going back to cloth when my mother-in-law arrived to care for Dois, I started looking for "easy options" for her to use. I sold off some of my pockets and quite a few of my fitteds, and bought Bumgenius All-in-Ones in size medium to use. Then, one day on Diaperswappers, I found an awesome deal for 20 Kushies All-in-Ones for $35 shipped, and I decided to buy them. I couldn't resist such a good deal! Kushies aren't highly recommended, and a lot of people complain about them, but they were cheap and they worked for us.

 
My mother-in-law and sister-in-law arrived to help care for Dois. My mother-in-law stayed for a little over a month and my sister-in-law stayed for 4 or 5. During that time we used All-in-Ones during the day and out and about, and a variety of fitteds (Mother-Ease One Size, Kissaluvs, Twinkie Tush, Doodle Dypes, etc.) when at home. Fitteds are more breathable (you can let your child go coverless if you test occasionally for wetness and change immediately), so I often let him chill without a cover before bed.

When Dois was 10 months old, though, my SIL decided she was ready to move on, which meant Dois returned to daycare. We went back to the former daycare and used disposables again, but we also decided to start looking for a daycare that would use cloth. We had gotten spoiled using cloth exclusively for so long, that we found we hated disposables. The smell of them especially!

A few weeks before Dois' first birthday, we found a daycare that was wonderful and agreed to try cloth. So we stocked up on more "user-friendly" diapers (more Bumgenius All-in-Ones in size Large, as well as Bumgenius 4.0 pockets with aplix) that were as close to disposables as possible, and got ready to start a new journey.