0-3 Months in Cloth Diapers

From the moment I found out I was pregnant, I was determined to cloth diaper. I spent weeks and weeks researching all of the different kinds and harassed my cloth diapering friends with my many questions. In the end I decided on prefolds and PUL covers for the newborn stage, along with a few newborn size AIO’s. I placed several orders over a few weeks from Kelly’s Closet to slowly build my stash. I ended up with the following newborn stash:

• 12 preemie size prefolds
• 18 infant size prefold
• 2 Kissaluvs size 0 fitted
• 2 Osocosy size 1 fitted
• 2 Thirsties size 1 duo covers
• 1 Thirsties size XS
• 1 Bummis Super Brite diaper cover size newborn
• 1 Rumparoos diaper cover size newborn
• 3 BumGenius newborn AIO
• 2 Lil’ Joey’s AIO

I felt pretty confident in my stash and planned on washing every other day. My plan was to start using my cloth when we came home from the hospital. I packed 2 prefolds and the bummis cover and both of the Lil’ Joeys. When I was dressing my 6 lb daughter to come home from the hospital, I put her in her first cloth diaper, the Lil’ Joey. It fit her great, and I was ready to start our cloth journey.

I had watched countless youtube videos on how to fold prefolds, and tried out the angel fold, bikini twist and trifold. I couldn’t master any of the folds and got quickly discouraged with the prefolds. I wanted to love them, but I just couldn’t. I loved how the Bummis and the Thirsties XS cover fit when I got a good fit with the prefolds. I was shocked to see my husband master the folds, while I was struggling with them. The preemie size fit her well for the first three weeks or so.

About a week in, I tried a BumGenius on her and was surprised at how well they fit her and how I could fold down the front so it didn’t bother her umbilical stump. I loved how trim they were and decided to order six more. During this time my husband bought me a pack of newborn disposables to ease some of the frustrations of breast feeding and learning how to take care of a newborn while running on very little sleep. I admit I had a little cry over having to use them, but they did make life easier in those sleepless and trying beginning weeks.

After I received the other BumGenius diapers, I was quite happy with how easy they made cloth diapering. My daughter quickly gained weight, and by five weeks however she was out soaking them and the Lil’ Joeys. They still fit her, but I realized we just couldn’t use them anymore. At this point I tried an OS BumGenuis 4.0 on her and was shocked to see it fit her pretty well. She was about 8 lbs at this point.

I decided to keep trying with the prefolds, and decided that trifolding them was the easiest way for me. I used Bummis fleece liners and BumGenuis stay dry liners, too, because I didn’t like the idea of my LO feeling wet, which brings me to the fitteds.

I bought the fitteds because I read everywhere how amazingly they worked for overnight. I put them on my LO several nights, but just hated the how the entire diaper was soaked, and how wet she felt even with using the stay dry liners. I quickly decided fitteds were not for us.

My daughter is turning three months old this week, and we have finally phased out the prefolds and now are exclusively using the 4.0’s and Flips with their stay dry inserts. I love how easy cloth diapering is now without having to think about how to fold her diaper. I know there are lots of moms out there that love their prefolds, and I still believe I will use them with my next newborn, but I am happy to set them aside for awhile. I am glad I tried out the different kinds of diapers and was able to gain confidence in the first few weeks. It was overwhelming at first, but once I found the routine that worked best, I couldn’t be happier with my choice to cloth diaper.

Bio: My name is Jamie Shanfield, and I am a first time mom to a 3 month old girl. We are anxiously awaiting my husband's return from Japan. We will then be moving to Washington, D.C., where he will be stationed with the Marine Corps, with our two cats and daughter


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