Cloth Diapers - The First Weekend

Because of the fact that I entered school in the spring, I've received financial aid for spring, summer, fall, and now spring semesters consecutively. Unfortunately, aid is only available for 2 semesters out of the year... so that means this time, my spring money has to last through the summer. 

As a result, I'm trying to cut corners financially speaking. One way that I've chosen is through exploring cloth diapering. 

I've gotten a lot of strange looks and comments, up to and including "cloth diapers are ridiculous," "seriously?!"  and "ewwwwwwww!" especially from my family (that I live with). That's made the transition a little rocky, but other than that little hurdle, it's a lot easier than I expected. 

I have a little mini-stash of 6 diapers, which is enough if I wash them every night. Two were generously donated to me by each of my friends Katie and Beth, so that's four, plus one that I won from one of Becca's giveaways and one that I'm lucky enough to be able to review. So total expenditure = $0. Not bad, eh? 

I was very, very intimidated at first as I had NO idea what to do with the diapers in the first place. There seemed to be so many ins and outs of washing them, and everyone has "what works best for them" so there really aren't any hard and fast rules. The first time E pooped in one I ran to Twitter like OMG NOW WHAT?!?!?!?! But it turned out fine. 

E has been in cloth this entire weekend! Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. We had a little mishap Friday night where I didn't anticipate his nighttime wetting volume, so he leaked some. But hey, that has happened to me with disposables too! 

My mom and step dad (who frequently watch E) are adamant that they don't do cloth, so I'll still have to keep disposables on hand for them, and I don't really have enough of a stash to provide daycare with any. Even having him in cloth part time will cut down on the amount of diapers that I'm buying, though. At least that's the idea. 

Plus? My room smells WAY better now that there aren't poopy diapers sitting in it all the time. The poop goes into the toilet - imagine that! I was afraid the cloth diapers would make it smell worse but I have to say, the complete opposite is true. I'm not sure if that will be the case once I get enough diapers that I don't have to wash every night, but we'll see. Maybe it will!