Working?

mochalattemama

We're both going to be working FT and I know so many successful CD families have someone at home. 

I feel like we have an advantage because my sister is going to be responsible for the child care and she has expressed that she has no problem CDing. 

Still nervous. Tell me your success stories! 

Haley.Beth

It's not difficult at all. If anything, I like knowing part of my hard earned money isn't being thrown away several times a day!

We have a routine that helps. I suggest having a stash large enough to at least get you to every other day, if not three days during the work week. I put a load of diapers in when I get home from work, hang them up in the morning before I leave, and dh and I sit down to stuff them the next night while we're winding down watching TV. It's kind of an ongoing process, but being that it's only a small step at a time it's really very easy. I usually only have to wash Wednesday, Friday, and Sunday thanks to a larger stash. It helps tremendously having a caregiver willing to be on board! My mother is awesome, and even sprays off the diapers for me before they go in the pail, so that takes a LOT off my shoulders and makes it possible for me to only have to wash once during the work week with no stink issues.

There's no reason to be nervous, the biggest part of cloth diapering (whether you're a SAHM or working mom) is getting a routine down. Once you've got that, you're in the clear :-) 

littleredfish

I don't have someone at home, DD goes to a center. They were on board with CDing, and when I showed them what they look like they were REALLY on board with CDing. We had some issues at first where I had to send with 2-3 extra pairs of pants and sometimes she'd still come home in daycare pants, but it was a learning process for them. They got better at it, and then she was always coming home in the same outfit she went in.

Then she started coming home in daycare pants again so I had to tweak the absorbency, and we found what worked. It can be harder to trouble shoot issues when you're not there all day to monitor, but we have no problems CDing while DH and I work full time. Heck, I have 2 jobs. It's just leaving most of the diapering to somebody else, so it's dependant mainly on their success.

We've made it easy for them (don't have to spray diapers, just put the poopy diapers in the bag and I deal with it at home, I do all the washing, send only pockets - no prefolds) but our pockets all have snaps which aren't as easy for a new person to learn as aplix, but they've all managed just fine.

Cavegeko

DH and I have to work. The DC that DD goes to didn't want to do cloth until I showed them a pocket. We send 7 prestuffed pockets to school. 56 get used and I have one incase I need to change her on the way home. We use cloth wipes too. Everything goes in a wet/dry bag. Poopy diapers get rolled up. We empty it after we get home in to the diaper pail. We wash every two to three days. We start the load rinsing just be for dinner then wash after dinner and then dry on low while we clean up and make sandwitches. Then if there is time we may stuff some or stuff some in the morning. Eventually it all gets stuffed. At home we use prefolds and covers to save the pockets for school. I occasionally envy the parents using sposies because they don't have to carry in as much to school in the morning, but then I remember the diaper rash DD had and the envy goes away. The other parents are always bringing in more diaper rash cream. We haven't need any since we switched!! We are very happy we CD. My coworkers think we are nuts and had bets on how long it would last. All have lost! :P

DiannaVB

We both work full time and our daycare center uses cloth. It takes very little time to start a load of laundry every other day.

PipSqueak0313

The daycare ds has been going to has been very open to cloth. They even did prefolds and covers. Like a pp, he did go through a few outfits in the beginning while the staff in the baby room learned the prefolds but after they got the hang of it the staff was proud tobe able to do prefolds AND send him home in the same outfit. The daycare was definafely not the average daycare, because they once got paint on a brand new outfit and THEY ran it through the wash right away to make sure it would not stain....after that they asked if it was okay to just put him in one of the sposies that I kept there as back up. They also have washed his clothes when he has spit up so none of us had to smell the sour milk smell in his dirty clothes.....and they wash his bottles with the regular lunch dishes so even when I have forgotten to take a bottle out of the diaperbag it was nbd since it was a clean bottle.

hst

DH and I work full time, my mother watches DD, and will watch DS this fall too. I've got it easy she comes over to our house. I do all the laundry, it hasn't been a problem. DH does most of the tidying up in the house, it's just a matter of organizing the tasks to be done.

mochalattemama

Thank you so much! Everyone's input was so helpful! 

It's really encouraging that you are all able to do this and have found routines. We are very excited to begin.