Cloth Diapers

During my eighth month of pregnancy, my mother came to visit and graciously spent about $250.00 on cloth diaper supplies.

This included:

• 30 prefolds
• 4 diaper covers (Thirsties)
• 1 13 gallon wet bag
• 1 13 gallon trash bin with lid
• 1 set (6) cloth wipes

The snap diaper covers were recommended because you can tell another person how many snaps fits baby best. This sounded reasonable at the time, but two months into motherhood I'm wishing I'd gone with Velcro covers. First, Velcro is SO much easier than snaps. Snaps aren't really difficult, but they are not nearly as easy and quick as Velcro. Second, being a single mom with a newborn, it is rare that anyone else changes Astrid's diaper, so there's no need to be able to tell someone else how tight her diaper should be.

There are two things I would add to the list above:

• 5 more sets of cloth wipes
• a smaller wet bag to keep in the diaper bag

I got one set of cloth wipes just to try, but if you're going to use them instead of disposables you'll obviously need more than six. If you're going with cloth diapers, it's convenient to use cloth wipes as well so you can toss them into the bin with the dirty diapers. Since I'm still using disposable wipes I have to keep a separate trash bin next to the diaper bin.
Happily I received a wipes warmer as a baby shower gift, so when I do get more cloth wipes I will make my own wipes solution and keep the cloth wipes in the warmer. I use disposables in it right now, and though a wipes warmer is, of course, not necessary, I find it to be a lovely luxury.