Adventures in Diapering

*sigh*

I've known for quite some time that cloth diapering would be something I really wanted to do.  I wasn't sure I felt comfortable jumping into that pool with both feet, right out of the gate, with our first baby, but to me it was an eventuality, rather than just a possibility.

Clif has not ever been completely on board with this idea.  In fact, I have barely managed to get him to even consider it, much less fully get behind the plan.  In order to make it more palatable, and therefore more likely to be done, for him I've decided to practice cloth diapering myself, first.  That way I can work out a procedure that is easy and similar to handling disposable diapers, knowing full well any chance of our joint success in this venture would be in having all the wrinkles completely ironed out before introducing it to him.

Yeah.  Still a lot of wrinkles.

We are several months later than I had thought we might be in transitioning to cloth diapering and I am afraid I'm finding that there might be a significant reason for that: I'm doing something wrong.


I've only had Flynn in a cloth diaper 3 times, 2 of which resulted in massive leakage, each of those being from completely different brands/styles of diapers.  G diapers are a little bit trickier in the sense that they have 3 pieces to them, instead of two, and take just a hair more finesse to get them assembled and secured properly.  I have no doubt with more practice they will become significantly easier to use, I just haven't put in the practice yet.  To try something I thought might be a little bit easier and user friendly I bought two Little Monsters, with the full front of snaps to adjust the size.  It's a pocket diaper, the insert is easier to handle and get situated and they are SO cute and soft!

I used the snap-adjustable diaper last night and fastened it on at its smallest option without having to use the overlap snaps.  I could tell it was a little bit lose around the waist, but I was worried the size difference to the next option would make them so tight I'd cut off circulation to Flynn's legs.  I guess either need to go ahead and snap them tighter or figure he's in between sizes and wait until he's a little bit bigger.  I'm not exactly sure what the issue is with the G diapers but imagine it must be a similar sizing situation.

I still really, really want to make this change.  It is better for the environment, it will save us a lot of money and I think it will be more comfortable for Flynn.  We were even given some wet bags and a hamper to make the transition that much easier for us by a friend who had out-grown her need for them.  So far the only down fall is this leaking issue.  Well, that and even though cloth diapering is easy, there will be a smidgen more effort to put into it.  That is hardly a counter-point, however, as I am a firm believer that if I can get a process in place we will hardly know the difference except in our bank account, but the leaking thing defeats the purpose.

Cloth diapering is important enough to me that I will be persistent in figuring it out so I can hand the process over to Clif in a nice, neat, everything-figured-out package.  I really want him to get on board, but it's frustrating, and if I'm frustrated with it there is no way on God's green earth he will even make an attempt.  Much like nursing, I've discovered it doesn't seem to be quite as easy as I thought (and hoped) it would be...

Makes me wish there was such a thing as a Diaper Fairy who could visit and show me what I'm doing wrong and help me fix it so we can make this work.