Cloth Diapering and the Lazy Mama

I wouldn't necessarily classify myself as "lazy". We take long walks almost daily, the house is pretty neat & mostly clean, I take the kids to the playground, playdates, and various activities. But at nap time, you are more likely to find me napping or binge watching bad TV on Hulu than mopping my floors or doing laundry.

I attempted to switch to cloth diapers with my second kid, Miss Midge. Between the rashes, recurring yeast, and poop scraping, I threw in the towel after only a few months. Lazy Me worried that I would battle the same issues with The Boy and spend naptime bleaching/sunning/scraping diapers. As The Boy's August due date neared, I researched, bought huge jars of coconut oil (did you know it's anti-fungal and awesome?!), picked out cute diapers (and all the fixins'...Snappis, wetbags, pail liners), and told myself I was going to stick with it! I chose a variety of diapers, knowing that what I liked for Miss Midge (yes, I had favorites despite the issues!) might not work for The Boy. Prefolds & covers, one size pockets, and a few fitteds made up our stash.

When The Boy arrived, we were moving and waiting for his circumcision to heal (Lazy Me was not up for dealing with liners, extra scrubbing, or worrying about petroleum jelly on diapers) so we didn't start cloth until he was almost two weeks. He was a decent sized baby (8# 15 at birth) and fit into everything right away, although the newborn prefolds only lasted a week! I quickly decided that fitteds weren't for us...they were pretty bulky and took FOREVER to dry. Surprisingly, I really liked the prefold/Snappi/cover combo! Easy to use, easy to wash, and easy on the budget. Lazy Me was rocking the whole cloth diaper thing...slathering The Boy with coconut oil at every change, and not even noticing the one extra load of laundry every other day. We stayed in disposables at night (Lazy Me was not willing to take a chance of extra bedding to wash!) until about four months. One night I realized too late that we were out of disposables, so I took the plunge and haven't had an issue since *knock on wood*. I've been blessed with a light wetter!

We were cruising right along until it came time to give The Boy solids (aka, time to scrape poop!). This time, after a few days of rinsing/scraping poop in the tub and then disinfecting the tub, we decided the invest in a diaper sprayer and Spray Pal. I have to say, I was not thrilled with the whole setup especially after spraying myself in the face on the first try. I mean, I needed a hand for the sprayer, one for the Spray Pal, poop was going in the pocket, diapers were falling in the toilet (totally grossed me out), and Lazy Me was ready to give up. Instead, I talked to mama friends and asked advice in online groups. It is a learning curve and is far from my favorite part of cloth diapering (stuffing clean diapers is my favorite "chore"), but I'm now a whiz (hehe) with the sprayer/Spray Pal combo.

So, what is a lazy mom's cloth diaper routine like? I wash every other day...a modest stash & fear of smells/mold is the reason for that. Typically, I start the wash in the late afternoon or evening so that before bed I can hang pockets/covers/wetbags and throw the inserts/flats/wipes in the dryer. I love waking up to fresh & clean diapers, although I admit that I sometimes fall asleep before the last rinse is finished and everything gets hung/dried in the morning. I do a short cold rinse, followed by a heavy duty hot wash with soap, and finish with a short warm rinse and it's been working great! I stuff diapers & fold wipes with Miss Midge and The Boy "helping" or while they play. We are loving bumGenius 4.0, Flips with organic day inserts, Rumparooz, Best Bottoms, and our lone Kawaii. I use mostly microfiber inserts (meet Cheap Me), and a few hemp inserts...love them both and haven't had any leaking, stinking, rashes. I plan to explore natural fiber diapers at some point but for now we are in Happy Fluffyland (and as Lazy Me would say "if it ain't broke, don't chance losing naptime to fix it!") . The Boy hasn't had any issues, our water & electric bills are normal, and Lazy Me is still watching bad TV at naptime!

Bio: Aimee is a wannabe-crunchy mama to three awesome wee ones, photographer, and sometimes blogger at thefamilyofcottons.blogspot.com, living with her husband on the Vineyard.


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