July 14, 2014

FIAO 2.3 Diapering The Twins - What have I gotten myself into!?

Updated Stash Shot! This gives me so many feels (wow, did I really just write that?) Especially when I consider how little it has cost me to start! This is $400 worth of diapers that I've paid just over $180 myself for, thanks to help from family and friends!

I have this tendency to jump head first into things. I make decisions on impulse and almost all the time end up realizing, after the fact, that I've either forgotten about something I needed to consider or gotten in over my head. I tend to commit to things before fully understanding what it is I'm getting into. Sometimes this makes me regret a decision - like the times I waffle over buying something only to end up buying the wrong size or color or something, making the purchase worthless in the end, as it most often would have been anyway. I really don't feel that way about cloth diapering. Yet. But I am wondering what the hell I've gotten myself into...

It's kind of funny too because I've changed about a million diapers in my life. I know diapers. Disposable diapers (aka "sposies" in the CD community), that is. I know which brands work and what the faults are of most brands. I cringe at the sight of characters, unless it's Sesame Street. Minnie and Mickey are ok sometimes and same thing with the purple monkey, but it usually depends on the size and diet of the kid. I can out a dollar store diaper in a second. Despite these differences, you know what to do with a disposable, no matter what. And at the end of the day, they all have one purpose, way of prep, use and disposal.

 But I am a little overwhelmed and worried about whether or not this is really possible to do with twins. I know there are super mama's out there (tons of them!) who swear it's doable and so worth it and they give me hope that I can do it too. But the girls aren't even here yet and I'm already worried about a few things:

  1. My first concern is that there are so many types of diapers that come with all these rules to follow and tales of caution and... omg what if I cannot figure this out and I ruin everything?!! Seriously. I've got ~$150 of my own invested in this and just prepping them I'm totally freaked that I'm going to screw it all up before the girls are even here! I can honestly say that learning how to cloth diaper, possibly because of my knowledge of disposables, is like trying to teach yourself Chinese. My brain has no road map for this yet and it's taking me a bit to fully get it.  This is especially true when it comes to prepping, my next concern...
  2. Figuring out the "right" way to prep is nearly impossible thanks to the vast experiences shared on the internet. In the last two weeks I must have googled how to prep prefolds at least a dozen times. Despite reading not to on a few sites, I ended up just putting them all together in the machine, throwing in a little detergent and washing them on hot, twice, then in the dryer on hot. I did this a few times with my cotton prefolds and am going to do my bamboo ones tomorrow. I have no idea if the hemp ones were already prepped as they were free from a consignment sale. So far, everything is absorbing the water from my sink so yay?  Or maybe I just destroyed $50 worth of prefolds and inserts? And I just threw all my pockets, AIOs and covers in together and did a load on hot with a good amount of detergent and then laid them all out to air dry. Nothing seems ruined but again I won't know until I start using them! I'm hoping that in the end they will just hold some pee. Which leads us to...
  3. My main worry! What if they don't work or I can't figure them all out and it's all a waste!? I'm looking at my AIOs and they just don't seem like they won't leak on me. I have some AI2s (Tidy Tots) and I am positive the insert will not contain pee.  Don't even get me started on the prefolds. I've been practicing folds on a bear and they're just so big and bulky and don't seem like they'll ever actually fit my kids. At least not for the first year. I seriously wonder how so many people have such success! I guess that was why I bought I have every type you can have and yet I'm so afraid I won't be able to make any of it work.
So tonight, in an effort to make myself feel better, I organized everything to teach myself how to put them together and to get a feel for their sizes, ability and whatever. First things first, even without folding the prefolds and putting them in the covers it took me over an hour to get them all ready. Granted, I have 36 of them and I snapped every diaper to the smallest rise and closure. I won't do every time I just wanted a cute picture. I was still surprised at how long it took. I realized just how hard snaps are to do when you're not sure what goes where, especially with my poor GD pricked fingers! I can so see hubs or my mom just guessing and ending up with leaks.  Taking the time to prep, fluff, stuff and snap (and then organize into a rainbow of course) has taught me a few things though:
  • Pockets: I know they're wildly popular but I already hate stuffing them. It's a learning curve, I'm sure, but it's gonna drive me nuts unless I get a huuuuge supply of them to the point where I'm not doing laundry and stuffing them every single night. I also don't love the microfiber inserts (it feels weird on my fingers!) but I learned you can use a prefold to stuff the pocket, it's just a little bulkier. We will see.
  • AIOs: They really are the easiest but they also take the longest to dry and they kind of need to go in the dryer or they end up super stiff. The only AIOs I have though are newborn to get us eased in and a few One Sizes which I will be use for when other caregivers need to deal with it. This way they just take it off, put it in the bag and put a new one on.
  • AI2s: They seemed like the best choice to me but now I'm not so sure. It takes a bit to snap in the insert and the ones I have are aplix (velcro) which I'm not a huge fan of as I don't have much faith in it lasting very long. I also wonder if I will really be able to just snap out the insert and use another one. I will probably end up having two in rotation a day per baby, just like with the covers and prefolds.
  • Covers & Prefolds: My original go-to choice and they still are, although the prefolds and covers were a NIGHTMARE to prep!!! There are so many rules and ways to do the prep that I was terrified I'd ruin them somehow. They seem to have survived the prep though and now I am getting a hang of the folding and stuffing them. Just keeping my fingers crossed that they work!
  • Fitteds: I have four hemp fitteds that  I plan on using for overnight when the girls are a little older. They're a little bulkier than I thought they would be and the crotch area seems really wide but supposedly they're super soakers and will be worth it! They are getting bleached tomorrow and washed with some clothes after.
So there you have it. My worries so far and what I've managed to learn. Once again, we shall see where this journey takes us. Who knows, we may end up with family buying stock in pampers by the time we're done, because lord knows it's going to cost us a fortune (on our measly budget) to diaper two! I'm committed to making this work though so send me some good vibes and any advice!


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