Cloth Diaper Experiment Day 2: Daddy's Turn

Last night I decided I wouldn't chance it and put a disposable on Lil' J before bed. I've heard seasoned clothdiaperers say they use disposables at night so I didn't want to chance it on the first day.

So this morning I prepped the Sprout Change diaper covers with the inserts and gave my husband a cloth diaper review (which took like 10 seconds) I showed him the microfiber side that's supposed to face down in the diaper as to not dry out her little bum. He promised to use them throughout the day.

When I called home and asked how it was going, he said fine, but expressed a concern I noticed the night before.

"She used to love hanging out on the diaper changer, getting dressed, and getting her diaper changed but she just keeps crying today." He said. "Maybe she just needs to get used to them, I don't know."

I felt so bad hearing that and I had an idea of what the problem was.

I ran home for my lunch break and quickly adjusted her diapers from the fourth hole from the end around the legs to the 2nd hole from the end, giving her chubby thighs lots more breathing room (here's a video demonstration we did on how this works). Originally, I wanted to make sure poop wouldn't come through the sides but when I would change her I noticed marks around her fat thighs. She would also cry during diaper changes which she NEVER did before. In fact, that was usually when she was happiest.

After adjusting the tension she was almost back to her happy self again, and I was able to give a sigh of relief. And the poop and pee still hasn't managed to make its way through yet. She still seems not "herself" today, and I'm not sure if it's because she's adjusting to the cloth diapers, or if perhaps she's getting sick and it's just a coincidence she's acting this way, but she seems to be more fussy these past couple of days, when she's normally very cheery and giggly. I'm not sure if perhaps there's a learning curve for babies too in getting used to them?

My husband was able to change the rest of her diapers no problem, and he didn't complain about it like I expected he would. Once he saw how I fit the inserts in, and folded one end a little, he got it down, and is feeling as comfortable with these as he does with disposables.

My husband said he did change some poopy diapers, but none of them got on the cover. That explosion was saved for me.

Not long after I got home I hear a rumble from her bumble, and sure enough, that one got on the side of the cover.

This time I took my friend Jess's advice and grabbed the insert and took it in the shower. If I had a detachable shower head it would have sprayed it with that, but I don't. Instead I held the cloth insert up to the shower and watched as the shower floor turned breastmilk-poo yellow. I tossed it to the floor, squished it a little, rinsed again, then just gave up and threw it in our pail.

My reaction to the cover caught me off guard. Something in my brain snapped. I grabbed it, took it to the bathroom sink, and scrubbed it with my thumbs. You read right. Me. Ms. Eeew Poop is Nasty.

I don't know what got into me. My desire to preserve cuteness must overpower my distaste for grossness.

The inserts I don't care about as much as the covers. Cause let's face it, these are cute.

So now it's time to wash (I already washed my hands). People keep telling me breastfeed baby poop is water soluble and I don't need to rinse them first but I'm not sure I totally believe that because I've had some of Lil' J's cute outfits get stained with poop from previous blowouts. And ok, I give her a lick of my food from time to time, but that's not making it to her poop! All she's getting is mama's milk. So... I'm not sure if this problem was because the poop dried first or what, and since I'm trying not to wash EVER day, I thought I'd give them a quick rinse before the wash, and hopefully the stains will come out.

If not, people suggest setting them in the sun. We live in a townhome and don't have a huge yard to line dry all her diapers, but I can set them on the porch so they can be sun bleached. But will that bleach the cute colors too? And can I set them out after drying them or must the stain be wet to be sunned out?

Other than that, we're both trying to find an easy way to tell if the diapers are wet without taking them all the way off. That seemed easier with disposables.

So many questions I guess I'll learn through trial and error during this experiment.

BEWARE: I'm about to show poopy diapers!!! I know it's a tad bit weird but this is an experiment, I'm putting it all out there, and sometimes photos speak louder than words.

So here's how they look now. I'm about to spray a tad of shout on them and put them in a regular cycle on hot water using Tide powder detergent (I asked around and people agree this works fine I made sure it DIDN'T have fabric softner, which I guess can cause build up on the inserts and in turn make them not absorb aka work well.) That's another frustrating thing I'm finding with cloth diapers. You can't just throw them in the wash like you would any other wash, you have to pay attention to the detergent and cleaner you use on it or it can do this or that to the diapers. I suppose once you have a system down it's not so hard but in the beginning I'm getting a headache reading all of the rules about what to put, and not to put on the diapers.

Anyway, here's hoping they're nice and clean tomorrow! You can bet I'll let you know!