I am sure this has been asked before but I went back a few pages. Sorry!
We are planning on using prefolds/ covers for the first couple of months, until the baby can fit into pockets and/ or has outgrown the covers. I just found out I am being laid off at the end of the school year (darn seniority). So, the silver lining is I will get to stay home with LO but obviously we will need to reduce expenses.
I am thinking about just sticking with the prefolds until the next school year, so when LO is about 10 months. I am looking for feedback I guess from those who have done this. Was it really hard? Was it worth the savings? What about night time? Should I get a few all in ones or pockets for night? Is there any tips you can give me!
Also, as far as washing the prefolds- am I wrong in assuming they are easier to wash than pockets? Can I throw them in the dryer? We live in AZ so I was planning on sun drying the pockets most of the time. Is this neccesary with the prefolds? Thanks!
Re: Prefold/ cover only?
We use MOSTLY prefolds, but we also have some pockets and fitteds for when someone else watches DS (which has been about... 3 times since he was born). We LOVE prefolds. They're really not hard at all. They DO have a learning curve, but its no big deal. We bought sized prefolds to limit the learning curve a bit, but if cost is really going to be that big of a deal, you might not want to do sized prefolds- you could consider flats... I *think* they're even cheaper.
You WILL want a few snappis, if you didn't already plan to get some.
And you might want to have a couple of pockets or AIOs on hand once baby is a bit bigger. We use OS BG 3.0 pockets at night and prefolds during the day.
I used to use PFs a good deal. It isn't hard at all. There is a slight learning curve, but once you get you will be fine.
I really like PFs during the day and then AIOs going out and Pockets at night. That way you can keep the majority of your stash PFs and get a few for other situations.
11 months
We use prefolds most of the time and have fitted diapers for night. We dry our prefolds in the dryer and line dry the covers. I know some people like to line dry everything and then toss the prefolds in the dryer for a couple minutes at the end to fluff them up.
At about 3 months, we needed more than a single prefold at night because of the volume my guy was peeing but maybe you could get by with doubling up. We switched to Bububebe fitted diapers for night and I know some people have had good luck getting them used.
I prefer PFs but have about half & half PFs to fitteds/pockets/AIOs. This is handy really for line drying time and letting 2 days worth dry (indoors for me) while using the 3rd day's worth of dipes. There are more traditional one-size PFs available that are a little more bulky, but you just fold them down to the rise you need. Nell's Natural Baby carries some (I think they're called "premium" or something.
If you want to expand your stash for a variety of dipes, check cottonbabies for seconds sales (sign up for emails) and or buy used. NONE of my diapers outside of the PFs have not been on sale or used I think with the exception of 2 GMs I bought that were exclusive cottonbabies prints or something like that (and even then they were cheaper than the regular ones on the GM store site).
We love our prefolds! We decided to CD for financial reasons and therefore prefolds were the obvious choice. We got all of ours at my shower and from friends who were done, so didn't actually shell out any money for them. We typically tri-fold them into the cover, which is super easy and there's no learning curve at all. When others are watching him that's all I have them do. If I'm anticipating a poop (in the morning or an hour or so after he ate a lot) I'll go ahead and snappi them on to save the cover. I agree that we also went through a phase when we had a bunch of leaks at night. We have a few HUGE prefolds (from the hand-me-down stash) that we started using at night. We also buy about a pack of disposables every 2 months for certain occasions. We used those at night for 3 nights because we got sick of the leaks and were looking for a solution. We didn't find a solution but evidently he was over the bed wetting because we haven't had any leaks since. Have I convinced you that just prefolds is just fine?
Oh, and we just throw all ours in the dryer. I don't have time to hang them out and we don't have many stains yet (only one has a bad stain, the rest are either not stained at all or barely noticeable).