I Pick Pockets

It was time.

Tremblingly, I reached for the diaper. This was the moment of truth, when I discovered if our investment was worth it. With just four quick snaps, it was fastened on my little man’s itty-bitty bum. At 3 weeks old, his legs had chunked up enough to properly fit his one-size pockets, and I had to admit, he and his pretty – uh, I mean handsome – blue diaper looked seriously cute.

By the end of the day, I had come to realize that these diapers were not only cute; they worked, too! Since that momentous day, we have not looked back, and nearly one whole year later (sniff!) I am still pretty pleased with the decision to go with bumGenius pocket diapers.

Whilst price was definitely a deciding factor, we wanted to choose diapers which were easy enough that we would not shirk reaching for them during middle-of-the-night changing times. Changing a pocket diaper is literally as simple as “snap on and go” and are not only Daddy-proof, but also Granny-proof and even 8-year-old-big-sister-proof.

An initial turn-off for me was the idea of needing to stuff the pockets every second day after laundry. In actual fact, this has turned out not to be a big deal at all. In the beginning, when I was still trying to escape the sleep-deprivation induced fog of newborn-dom (alright, who am I trying to kid? He’s nearly one-year old and I am still sleep deprived) I would simply lay out the empty pockets in one basket next to the changing table, and the clean inserts in another basket. Newborns are pretty cooperative at changing time, and it would literally only add about ten seconds to the job for me to stuff the diaper whilst Little Man enjoyed looking at his mobile.

Nowadays, since he has mastered the Crocodile Death-Roll (a maneuver which ends up with the two of us looking like we are trying to perform a wheelbarrow race) it is imperative that the diapers are prepared ahead of time; however (and I am being deadly serious now), I have actually discovered this process to be quite cathartic. After the kids are in bed, I curl up on the sofa with a warm drink, pop some music or a favorite TV show on the Ipad, and get stuffing (And if anybody asks what I am up to, I can say “Sorry – I am working!).

Just like the pockets on a pair of little boy’s jeans (ewww!), there is really a lot you can stuff inside a bumGenius. Back in the day, when I first started, I used to try and make sure the right inserts always went with the same diaper it arrived at my house with (yes, I really can be that anal), but these days I get creative with stuffing. Going for a long trip in the car, and worried about leaks? Add a newborn insert as a booster. Baby a heavy wetter at night? Double stuff with a microfiber and also a hemp insert. We struggled for just a few days with the highly toxic Ammonia-Toddler-Pee (the smell of that stuff was so strong in the mornings that it would knock my bed-socks off) until we realized that stuffing the pocket with natural fibers, like those in a cotton prefold, minimized the smell substantially.

Since those exciting, albeit daunting, days when we first snapped our son into cloth, we have been impressed with the versatility and ease of use of a pocket diaper system; and, most importantly, they look great too! There is, in my opinion, only one thing cuter that a vibrant, soft (and pre-stuffed) pocket diaper, and that is the pair of chubby thunder-thighs which wear them….

Bio: Belinda Lamprecht currently lives in Africa with her husband, working for an international missions agency and raising her two kiddos, one who joined the family through adoption and one…ahem…the old fashioned way. You can read more about their experiences at www.reaboka.wordpress.com