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July 2016 Moms
LDSJM123
member
Cloth Diapering Mama's
LDSJM123
member
The response for a cloth diaper thread was great so here we go! Would we like to just keep 1 big thread? Or do a monthly check in/update thread?
Lets get to know each other.
1. Have you ever cloth diapered before?
2. What made you decide to try cloth?
3. Will you be doing cloth from birth or waiting?
4. Have you decided what style(s) and brands you'll use?
5. What are you finding the most overwhelming?
6. Will you cloth 100% of the time or a combo?
7. What questions do you have?
Lets get to know each other.
1. Have you ever cloth diapered before?
2. What made you decide to try cloth?
3. Will you be doing cloth from birth or waiting?
4. Have you decided what style(s) and brands you'll use?
5. What are you finding the most overwhelming?
6. Will you cloth 100% of the time or a combo?
7. What questions do you have?
Re: Cloth Diapering Mama's
1. Have you ever cloth diapered before?
Yes, with my first.
2. What made you decide to try cloth?
It's much cheaper and much cuter.
3. Will you be doing cloth from birth or waiting?
Last time I waited until about a month after he was born.
4. Have you decided what style(s) and brands you'll use?
I currently have sunbaby diapers and a few kawaii diapers. The sunbabies are my favorite though.
5. What are you finding the most overwhelming?
My first go 'round was overwhelming at times because there are times when the inserts you use don't do their job and you have to find the right combination for different times of day. My son was such a heavy wetter at night, I started using disposable after a few months of cold, wet wake-ups.
6. Will you cloth 100% of the time or a combo?
While I'm on maternity leave, I'll cloth diaper probably 95% of the time. If this one is a heavy night wetter, I might have to do the disposables again. Once we figure out the childcare situation, we'll see what happens at that point. If she goes to daycare, she'll probably only be in cloth at home.
7. What questions do you have?
No questions. Just excited to use my old stash and maybe acquire a few new ones.
July BMB June Signature
edited to delete superfluous intro text and to answer 1st question
No.
2. What made you decide to try cloth?
A combo of saving money and helping the environment.
3. Will you be doing cloth from birth or waiting?
The plan is to start within 1 week of coming home from the hospital. We hope to get home, get settled, then jump in.
4. Have you decided what style(s) and brands you'll use?
I found a newborn rental service that we'll be using for the first twelve weeks. (Link below for anyone interested.) After we get our deposit back, it'll only cost us $100 out of pocket. I didn't want to invest in a newborn stash and this allows us to try cloth and make sure its a good fit for our family. We get 25 kissaluv size 0 fitteds and 4 Thirsties Duo Wraps - aplix closures. I also picked up a few more covers, and put some Osocozy prefolds on our registry.
https://itsy-bitsy-bums.myshopify.com/collections/trials-rentals/newborn-diaper-rentals
After the newborn stage, I already have 6 fuzzibunz AIO (all in ones) to use. I also am picking up 2 boxes of cloth stuff that a friend is giving me today. No idea whats in there but from the pictures it looks like at least 5 bum genius AIO's and a slew of other stuff. We'll most likely fill in with fitteds and prefolds to finish off our stash.
5. What are you finding the most overwhelming?
The cloth diaper science website makes my brain want to explode. I spent hours researching laundry routines. Only to talk to my best friend and have her tell me that she just uses free and clear detergent, on the longest setting, and no fabric softener. Shes been doing cloth for about 6 months and so far no issues. So I might follow that until we come across an issue that needs trouble shooting. From what I can tell, we just have normal water. So I don't foresee that being an issue.
6. Will you cloth 100% of the time or a combo?
I keep reading/hearing mixed things about overnight diapering in cloth. We'll try it. But if it doesn't seem to work, I'd be open to disposables. And traveling (we have a wedding 18 hours away and will be gone for 6 days in November) with cloth seems like a lot of work. I'm also open to needing to supplement with disposables on laundry day. But while we are out and about running errands, we'll be rocking the cloth and baby will be in cloth with the babysitter as well.
7. What questions do you have? I need to find a cloth diaper friendly diaper cream.
2. What made you decide to try cloth? I had read about how much diapers cost and realized that cloth diapering was so much cheaper.
3. Will you be doing cloth from birth or waiting? We were planning on starting at birth but since we haven't found a house and currently have shared laundry, we will have to wait. We were considering a diaper rental service for the first few months but might just do disposables during that period.
4. Have you decided what style(s) and brands you'll use? Not sure yet. My local diaper store has an experiment-to-own program that we might try.
5. What are you finding the most overwhelming? Not overwhelmed - just annoyed because we were really excited about CD from the beginning and now it's a bit disappointing.
6. Will you cloth 100% of the time or a combo? Once we get our own house, we are going to do it 100% of the time (ideally). The daycare we have chosen is on board with CD too.
7. What questions do you have? Just interested to hear about other people's experiences. Around here, the cloth diaper service would be $92/month for 80 diapers/wk (delivered weekly). The cost for the same amount of Pampers on Amazon would be $76/month, so it's hard to justify the increased cost. Another thing to consider is that the only cloth diaper service is about 100 miles away, so the environmental benefits are pretty diminished by that fact.
Yes, with my son who is 21 months. We started when he was 12 months.
2. What made you decide to try cloth?
I've always wanted to try them but never took the plunge. Of course thought they were cute as well. I also wanted to stop buying disposables. Agh! So expensive! So we took the jump into the cloth diaper world, we went on a BST facebook page for the brand we wanted to try. (Grovia) I bought most of the diapers gently used and have loved them ever since!
3. Will you be doing cloth from birth or waiting?
Probably wait until the umbilical stump falls off since we aren't doing a newborn style just a hybrid style which doesn't have a little dip for it. Also assuming that baby will be of normal birth weight and the hybrids will fit after a week or so.
4. Have you decided what style(s) and brands you'll use?
We use Grovia's hybrid style which are shells and snap-in inserts. I LOVE them.
5. What are you finding the most overwhelming?
Hmm. Probably just the toddler BMS. Not fun, man. Not fun. We use the dunk and swish method. We need to get a spray pal. Eventually.
6. Will you cloth 100% of the time or a combo?
I'm thinking probably 90% of the time. We do keep a small little bag of disposables for emergencies. But Grovia has disposable inserts for the shells if you're on vacation or don't have access to a washer and dryer. We love those as well!
7. What questions do you have?
None at the moment but can't wait to hear what other mama's have to say!
1. Have you ever cloth diapered before?
I was 14 when my sister was born and my mom did cloth part time with her so I have some experience with it but not full time and not much.
2. What made you decide to try cloth?
My husband and I both hate creating trash and try our best to generate as little as possible. It's also cheaper, better for the environment, way cuter in my opinion...also in our city garbage is only collected once every two weeks (compost and recycling are every week) and that seems like a long time for dirty diapers to be sitting in the trash can.
3. Will you be doing cloth from birth or waiting?
The plan is to do cloth from the start! My husband is totally on board and my mom did cloth with me, my brother, and my sister so she's going to be a huge support for me too.
4. Have you decided what style(s) and brands you'll use?
We're going to use a mix. I've been collecting good condition 2nd hand covers and AIOs of various brands and I've bought different brands of prefolds and inserts to mix and match as needed. My family friend is sending me her cover stash too!
5. What are you finding the most overwhelming?
All the options are overwhelming and the differing information on washing. I want the simplest but most effective routine possible and there's a lot of conflicting info out there!
6. Will you cloth 100% of the time or a combo?
The plan is 100 percent cloth. My in laws are iffy about it but they know how we feel and I plan on sending AIOs in the diaper bag when they babysit so it's not much different than a disposable as far as changing goes.
7. What questions do you have?
What's everyone's laundry plan? Also, for those using cloth wipes, what is your wipe spray solution plan? I've read some info that says just water is good, some suggest adding a few drops of essential oils and baby soap but other sources say lavender oil may not be good for boys but some say it's fine! So overwhelming!
1. Have you ever cloth diapered before? Nope!
2. What made you decide to try cloth? I would love to say to better help the environment and finances, but let's be honest, THEYRE SO CUTE
3. Will you be doing cloth from birth or waiting? Waiting. There's a place kind of local (like 20-30 minutes away) that does CD trials which I will try once out of the newborn stage.
4. Have you decided what style(s) and brands you'll use? What the trial will help with.
5. What are you finding the most overwhelming? How many different kinds there are!
6. Will you cloth 100% of the time or a combo? Probably combo.
7. What questions do you have? None yet! The trial has SO MANY brands included and you can only reserve for 2 weeks, I don't know how I'll figure out which I like most! (Brands: Thirsties Duo Wrap, (2) prefolds, Snappi, Best Bottom Cover, Hemp insert, Stay Dry insert, AppleCheeks Cover, AppleCheeks Bamboo Insert, AppleCheeks microfiber insert, bumGenius Elemental, bumGenius Freetime, Thirsties AIO, Funky Fluff AIO/AI2, Sweet Pea
AIO, Imagine Pocket, Imagine AIO, Smart Bottoms 3.1)
July BMB June Signature
Check out the link I posted, it's a great rental service! They don't do the laundry, but they send you your stash. Also, craigslist and buy/sell/trade groups are great for finding cheap cloth. Also, one of the childrens consignment store by me sells used cloth of all styles. They are easily half if not 1/3 the cost of buying new. It would be a great way to try a variety of things. Modern Cloth Diaper also has some great rentals.
@sboston06 the price you gave for the diaper and laundry service is right on par for where I live in Ohio. Our service like that runs $25 a week. Plus they have a one time fee for the bags, diaper pail and some additional add ons ranging from $35-85.
It's really easy, I promise!
As far as water temperature goes..it doesn't truly matter because even the hot cycle won't do much to "sanitize" your diapers but you can experiment with it. If your diapers/inserts have stains, you can lay them out in the sun to dry and they will turn white again.
July BMB June Signature
Im either going to be making my own wipe solution with coconut oil, water, and baby wash or buying Lusa Organics Baby Wipe Juice concentrate (add to water) from amazon. I plan to keep it in a spray bottle and just mist my wipes or maybe spray directly on baby.. But I keep reading mixed reviews on the coconut oil gunking up the spray bottle. So perhaps a different oil would be better? I like the lusa because the one bottle makes 2 gallons of solution and it contains, witch hazel, aloe vera, calendula, and essential certified organic oils.
@YeezusButters I wasn't even thinking about breast milk being able to fix all the things! {facepalm} Duh.
2. What made you decide to try cloth? The environmental factor was the first reason, then I found out about the savings $$$, especially with sewing my own diapers and I have LOVED sewing as my main form of nesting (plus our house uses only cloth for everything except TP so it makes sense with our lifestyle)
3. Will you be doing cloth from birth or waiting? Cloth from birth- I've sewn NB covers with snap downs for umbilical cord and plan to use prefolds and snappis under. Also have 7 NB size pockets for DH as he's feeling unsure about prefolds, only 2 homemade pockets with snap downs though so I may be the main one on diaper duty until the umbilical cord falls off. Why don't the retail NB cloth diapers have snap downs?!
4. Have you decided what style(s) and brands you'll use? I like prefolds with covers. DH likes pockets. The bulk of all of our diapers are homemade. I also have some Alva, some Fuzi Bunz, some wholesale China Cheapies from AliExpress, 2 Diaper Rite, 1 Rumparooz, 1 Bum Genuis, 1 Thirsties, and 1 Flip Diaper.
5. What are you finding the most overwhelming? Not knowing about the fit. I'm so terrified all of these homemade diapers will leak! I really don't want to buy more retail diapers and I've spent so much time and effort making my stash. I just really really hope this all works out!
6. Will you cloth 100% of the time or a combo? We'll CD 100% of the time. I have extra thick prefolds for overnight, a few retail doublers, and have sewn various size/ absorbency inserts for the same purpose. Our in-home daycare provider is cool with cloth too
7. What questions do you have? Does anyone throw their covers/ pockets in the dryer? I'm really lazy and not interested in air-drying, but one of my covers got the PUL burned when I was prepping and now I'm worried about it. Would switching to low heat/ delicates be enough? Or do I really need to consider line drying?
July BMB June Signature
1. Have you ever cloth diapered before?
Nope! This is my first baby.
2. What made you decide to try cloth?
Mainly the environment, with adorableness and money saved a close second.
3. Will you be doing cloth from birth or waiting?
We're going to let the meconium pass and then start. We've got a small newborn stash that was handed down, so I'm excited to jump right in!
4. Have you decided what style(s) and brands you'll use?
I had bought almost all of a stash of BG, mostly AIO and some inserts when I was given three different friend's complete stashes. I've got a bounty of different AIO/inserts/prefolds! I'm going to go through what I need to have a complete stash at home and another stash at work (baby coming with me to school) and then pass the rest on. My plan is to prioritize the AIO for day and the prefolds for night, since I've heard they're better for nights once they're sleeping for longer stretches.
5. What are you finding the most overwhelming?
Knowing what I'll need is overwhelming, since there are SO MANY OPINIONS. Thankfully I have enough variety right now where I can see what works for us and adjust.
6. Will you cloth 100% of the time or a combo?
Our plan is to CD 100% of the time unless we're traveling. I'm not trying to do poopy laundry at someone else's house.
7. What questions do you have?
I feel pretty solid right now, but I'm sure that will change in July!
Re: earlier questions- I've heard that coconut oil makes a great CD friendly diaper cream. That's my plan. I also made cloth wipes and am planning on soaking them in hot water and a drop of Dr. Bronner's baby soap and maybe a drop or two of essential oils. I am also going to make a spray bottle of the mixture to keep in my diaper bag so I can carry dry wipes with me and wet them down right before I need them.
1. Have you ever cloth diapered before? Nope!
2. What made you decide to try cloth? Definitely the cost savings. We hope to have a large family and I don't want to spend all that money on disposables.
3. Will you be doing cloth from birth or waiting? We will be waiting about a month/until she fits into them. We didn't buy any newborn diapers.
4. Have you decided what style(s) and brands you'll use? So far, we have decided on pre-folds. They dry fast and are cheaper. I bought a set of Flip brand diapers when they were on sale. I do have some pocket and AIOs that I either got for free or really cheap.
5. What are you finding the most overwhelming? I think not knowing if I have enough inserts, or if I will need to double them. Just the unknown of actually putting things into practice.
6. Will you cloth 100% of the time or a combo? Most likely 99% of the time. I am going to have some disposables on hand for when other people watch her. I don't want to overwhelm them.
7. What questions do you have? I am worried about when I will know to change the fold of the diaper. I guess when I need to change the snaps? I have no idea.
Edit: Spelling mistakes.
1. Have you ever cloth diapered before?
I've never even changed a diaper before - so no!
2. What made you decide to try cloth?
Money money money
3. Will you be doing cloth from birth or waiting?
Waiting. I read something that encouraged me to sort of get my feet under me first and then switch.
4. Have you decided what style(s) and brands you'll use?
I'm using AIOs and 2-in-1s (bumGenius and Flip)
5. What are you finding the most overwhelming?
All the nay-sayers! People are so convinced that I'm going to give up, which of course makes me want to do it even more to prove them wrong. I don't see what the big deal is!
6. Will you cloth 100% of the time or a combo?
Combo - our daycare provider won't do cloth but we're only using her 3 days a week
7. What questions do you have?
None yet but I'm sure I'll think of some.
July BMB June Signature
Yep
2. What made you decide to try cloth?
What's funny, is I was so anti-cloth pre-kid. I worked at a daycare where cloth was FREE option for parents, so of course every parent wanted cloth used during the week, so they wouldn't have to pay for diapers (they also didn't pay for the diaper service). They were pre-folds and I hated them. Then I stopped working there, and there were a couple of kids that I would babysit that were on cloth. Their diapers always reeked, and I though that was normal (nope, the parents just sucked at cleaning them correctly). My DD was on disposable for several months, and then on a whim, I decided to try cloth and ended up liking it. Its also nice that when you run out of diapers, you aren't having to race to the store and can just do a load of wash.
3. Will you be doing cloth from birth or waiting?
I will be waiting until baby is a couple of months old.
4. Have you decided what style(s) and brands you'll use?
I have used a handful of brands, and my favorite are the basic Alva pocket diapers
5. What are you finding the most overwhelming?
As someone that sucks with laundry, I really worried about if I would get them clean on a regular basis and how I would keep up, especially since I was working as well. Thankfully, I never forgot diaper wash (yet still always sucked at clothing wash....so that didn't change), and had a good system down of washing M-W-F right before we went to bed, and then drying in the morning when I got up. In the summer time, I did line drying on nice days. I also had a hard time when it came to work, because I would bring DD with me and there was SO MUCH stuff to bring with me. I had my own bag for the day, diaper bag for DD, wet bag, lunch bag with enough food for both of us for a 10 hour shift, etc. and then she wasn't walking so I was also carrying her. It became overwhelming dragging everything around, and ultimately is what made me stop using cloth after awhile, just so I could toss the disposables and wouldn't have to haul cloth diapers and a wet bag back and forth.
6. Will you cloth 100% of the time or a combo?
Combo. I will be doing cloth at home, and disposables when traveling and when out and about. Even with only doing cloth half of the time, I still will save a good chunk of money.
7. What questions do you have?
No questions!
1. Have you ever cloth diapered before?
No, FTM no experience at all
2. What made you decide to try cloth?
Mostly enviromental reasons and cost savings!
3. Will you be doing cloth from birth or waiting?
We are waiting a few weeks, as a first time mom I think I'm gonna be overwhelmed so the extra laundry in the first few weeks kinda scares me, and I didn't want to invest in newborn sizes for such a short period of time.
4. Have you decided what style(s) and brands you'll use?
We are using bum genius
5. What are you finding the most overwhelming?
I think I am the most confused of how to wash them! I need to do more research!
6. Will you cloth 100% of the time or a combo?
we will do a combo, hopefully cloth most of the time but if we go traveling or camping we will most likely do disposables for those times
7. What questions do you have?
What kinda of diaper pail do you moms like best?
Do you use stain remover before you put them in your diaper pail or right before you put them in the wash?
When it comes to washing, I think that everyone has a different technique. Really, I feel like it is trial and error. I use to buy the expensive diaper detergent, only to find over time that I didn't need it. I just used All Free & Clear, on our sanitary cycle, with an extra rinse. It got them squeaky clean every time.....like "put right on your nose and take a big whiff, and smell nothing even though you know there was an explosion on there a few hours before" type of squeaky clean. Then I would stuff them (I used pocket style diapers), in the evening while watching tv after DD went to bed. They were then just stacked in her room so they were ready to go for the next changing.
July BMB June Signature
I don't use any stain remover. I'm not sure you're suppose to or not. I like sunning them clean!
@PootsDragon no, I don't put my covers in the dryer. I've heard that wears down your covers pretty fast. They are usually almost dry from the spin cycle. Then I lay them over my ledge next to the w/d.
Also on a side note, I use just Tide powder and have had no problems. I dump them in the wash then since I don't have a prewash option, I do a "quick" wash with a half a scoop on warm/hot. Then after that do a "heavy" wash with a full scoop on warm/hot again. If I do notice a smell or I just feel like I need to get them cleaned more. I'll do a Mighty Bubbles wash which is a Grovia product that is like a deep clean for the diapers. I love clean diapers!!
Yes, with my first baby.
2. What made you decide to try cloth?
Mostly the environmental factor, paired with the worry of the chemically junk in diapers spending so much collective time on my baby's skin.
3. Will you be doing cloth from birth or waiting?
We don't have newborn sized CDs, so we'll use disposable (I like Seventh Generation Free & Clear) until she fits into the CDs.
4. Have you decided what style(s) and brands you'll use?
We have 16 Bum Genius 4.0 All-in-Ones, and a few Thirsties hemp inserts that we used at night when she got older. A few of the BG AIOs have Velcro instead of snaps. HATE them. They don't stay on after a while, even when you clean the Velcro out. I kinda want to replace these. Buy snaps only, guys! Also, BG makes organic diapers too... they are great, but the way they are made, they take longer to dry than the standard ones. Just a tip.
5. What are you finding the most overwhelming?
Nothing, really. I found CDing super easy. I remember the first time, being overwhelmed by all of the options.
6. Will you cloth 100% of the time or a combo?
I'll use cloth as much as possible. We were able to do it full time until our first one was about 18 months, and then at night we had to switch to disposables. When traveling, we don't use cloth.
7. What questions do you have?
I don't think I have any, but I'll put here that I used Charlie's Laundry Soap for our diapers, and that seemed to work great. Once in a while, you can use a product like Rock N'Green ammonia bouncer to keep things fresh, and strip any detergent that is stuck on the diaper (this can coat the diaper and make it less absorbent.)
Don't use diaper cream (and with my first baby, we never had to. She didn't have a diaper rash EVER until we started using disposables at night. I totally credit the CDing with this!) and don't use fabric softener.
I needed to buy a new washer/dryer when I was pregnant last time, and I knew I wanted to CD, so I chose one with a sanitize cycle. The water gets super hot and the cycle includes the extra rinse (the extra rinse is recommended to get as much detergent off as possible (see above about less absorbency.)
Also wanted to echo that the sun is amazing when it comes to getting stains out of cloth diapers. I'm lucky enough to have a skylight in my bathroom, and I'd stick the diapers under there on a rack in the sun. This time, I'm sure my toddler will pull all the diapers off.
I also love the faces you get when people are grossed out by CDing, but really, I think a barrel full of old poopy diapers in your house is waaaay grosser.
2. What made you decide to try cloth? DH actually brought it up as he was CD as a baby. I was totally against it until I read up and thought about environment PLUS how cute they are
3. Will you be doing cloth from birth or waiting? We'll wait a few days until meconium is done on the advice of our midwife
4. Have you decided what style(s) and brands you'll use? Well, I have some homemade NB covers (thanks @PootsDragon ) a few size 1 thirsties covers plus a bunch of prefolds & flats and 4 lil' joey AIO for overnight emergencies and/or DH/parents. Then I have Bumgenious One-Size pockets that I picked up used and if they aren't absorbent enough I'll add a flat to it. I am guessing I'm going to either vandalize some of the BG pockets and rip out all the fleece lining to just use them as covers for ease in use, or might just buy a few more one size covers used once we're there - I think it'll make laundry so much easier. Definitely want to keep a stash though of pockets for the parents when they're watching LO - make it hard to screw up.
5. What are you finding the most overwhelming? The large number of options for styles/sizes/brands and the length of time it takes to prep new diapers the 5 hot washes in a row were taxing on me with stairs today! I followed these instructions and my new stuff now does feel super fluffy and absorbent! https://www.kellyscloset.com/How-to-Wash-Your-Cloth-Diapers-And-Tips-For-Prepping_ep_215-1.html
6. Will you cloth 100% of the time or a combo? Probably 99% of the time. We have a small stash (due to our shower) of disposables in 3-4 sizes as backup considering that I have no local support at home and DH has no leave at work plus is gone almost 12 hours a day during week.
7. What questions do you have? Not much, other than why are one size just covers so hard to find (and still almost as/as expensive as one size pockets)? Also, planning on cloth wipes and making/using my own solution in a spray bottle - so I'm generating ideas.
DH: 32
Married 7/18/15
1st born at 35+4 on 6/6/16
Team green turned BLUE!
2nd born at 38+6 on 8/30/18
Team green turned PINK!
Due with #3 on 6/6/20 Team Green
The elastic is pretty shot on several of the fitteds and about half the fuzzybunz pockets, so I'll be trouble shooting that today. I don't sew... So hoping I can find someone that does. But it's looking like I'll only need to get a couple packs of prefolds (if the fitteds can't be saved) and we'll have enough of a newborn stash to not need to do the rental. We're also looking good for our next stash too. We're team green, but a boy can totally rock the purple and flowers as well.
So I'm a mamacloth & cup user normally. Granted, I won't be using cup for PP flow. I am picking up a few much larger cloth pads for me, because all of mine are just panty liners, but I'm not spending money to get a whole bunch of them because I won't get much use. I am thinking of using some of my flats and/or smaller pre-folds for myself for the first really heavy bleeding weeks.
Anyone tried this or have any ideas? I have a bunch of extra flat/pre-fold diapers and will be doing diaper laundry every other day anyway, so I thought this idea had merit - but I don't plan on doing any modifications to them as I want them to be usable as diapers still afterward.
I guess I'm just trying to get out of buying a pack of icky nasty pads for the first week/two of really heavy bleeding as birth centers don't supply any.
DH: 32
Married 7/18/15
1st born at 35+4 on 6/6/16
Team green turned BLUE!
2nd born at 38+6 on 8/30/18
Team green turned PINK!
Due with #3 on 6/6/20 Team Green
Haha that is so big!
Bahahhaha yes, packaging is straight out of 1970! I kinda dig that they haven't updated it at all. I'm about to let the diapers spin and rinse (they had to soak overnight) and I'll let you know how the stuff works. If to works, that lady is going to be my bestie.
I'm a FTM so I've never cloth diapered regularly, but I have nannied in the past for cloth diaper families. I'm most familiar with pocket diapers like bumGenius.
2. What made you decide to try cloth?
A combination of ecological and financial reasons. I realize this is not going to simplify my life, but it will save money in the longterm and it reduces the amount of resources we are using in the first place and greatly reduces the amount of resources we are putting in a landfill.
3. Will you be doing cloth from birth or waiting?
We plan to do disposables until our baby outgrows newborn diapers. Our cloth system is hybrid, so we are giving ourselves grace to utilize the disposable inserts at nighttime or when traveling or in that early transitional phase.
4. Have you decided what style(s) and brands you'll use?
After doing what felt like infinite research, I've put all my eggs in one basket with Grovia AI2s. We have about 16 shells and 28 inserts along with a handful of booster pads.
5. What are you finding the most overwhelming?
Definitely the laundry. We use shared, coin-operated machines in an apartment building. The machines are fairly old and don't allow me to customize my cycles very much, I obviously need to share them with other people so I can't be doing laundry 24/7, and I do imagine the cost will stack up. We hope to be in a house with our own machines for subsequent babies, though, so the investment of all the diapers now still makes sense to us even if we don't save a ton of money this time around because of laundry costs.
6. Will you cloth 100% of the time or a combo?
Our system is hybrid as I said, so we can also use disposable inserts rather than the cloth inserts when we need to. I'd like to limit our use of disposable inserts, but I also want to extend grace to ourselves. We are super crunchy compared to my husband's family and basically everything we're doing is freaking them out, so I think we'll probably use the disposable inserts whenever we're asking a family member to care for the baby. I'm hoping the disposable inserts (which are biodegradable and much smaller in general than an entire disposable diaper) will eliminate our need to use disposable diapers in a pinch.
7. What questions do you have?
Will I hate this? Will my baby leak through basically every diaper if I don't change it every hour on the hour? Will laundry consume my life? Will my whole apartment smell terrible?
My biggest suggestion would be to use tide powder original to wash in as I almost gave up as the urine smell was awful, yes your detergent can actually make a massive difference! Second we use coconut oil as a bum cream, no need for expensive products they will try sell you. And they sell disposable thin liners (think tissue paper thin) if you need to use something medicated/zinc based for whatever reason. We also use these for when we switched to solid foods as the poo changes considerably. You have two choices when switching to solids, either use the liners (they come in a roll and can be bought on Amazon) or a diaper sprayer that connects to your toilet. You do NOT want to put any poop other than breast milk (water soluble) poops into your washing machine.
The extra load of laundry every few days was nothing compared to having to get packed up and go buying disposables especially at the beginning, it's totally do able. Good luck mommas, and don't hesitate to PM me if you need any help or advice.