Breaking a Cardinal Rule

Rules are meant to be broken, right? If you read my last post, you are aware that I was about to break one of the cloth diapering cardinal rules: never try a new diaper on the road.

I chose to embark on this rule-breaking scheme because my cloth diaper trial package was arriving the day before we were going out of town for the Labor Day holiday weekend. The package arrived on Thursday and I spent all day (and most of the night) prepping MissE's new diapers. I separated out the natural fiber diapers and inserts and threw those in the washing machine with some Rockin' Green cloth diaper detergent. After 5 washes, I added the rest of the diapers for one final wash since the synthetic diapers only need to be washed once.

This. Took. All. Day.

At about 11 p.m., it was finally time to dry! Knowing we were getting up at 5 a.m., I decided to put the diapers in the dryer instead of line drying, thinking this would be the fast and easy route. Begin 70 minute tumble dry cycle number one. At 3:30 a.m., MissE woke up screaming so I sent Mister to check on the diapers. Begin 70 minute tumble dry cycle number two. Mister goes back to bed while I browse the Internet as I nurse MissE back to sleep. Get up at 5 a.m., check on diapers, pull out dry diapers, begin dryer cycle number three for still damp inserts and diapers. By the time everyone is finally up, out of bed, car loaded, and baby dressed, some of the inserts are still not dry! I end up just throwing everything in a large tote bag and lay the damp inserts out on some of the luggage and seats in the back of the car to dry on the way.


This was also our first road trip with the baby. A drive that normally would take us 5 hours took 8... Anyway, we decided to use disposables on the road since we were unsure of the abilities of the cloth. Very first diaper change results in wiping a poo explosion out of MissE's car seat, stripping off her poo-covered clothes, and cleaning her off as best we could with baby wipes in the front seat of the car (yes, she got a bath that evening).

We (finally) make it to our destination and swiftly slap a cloth diaper on MissE's bottom! We continued to only use cloth for the rest of the trip, the drive home, the few days after, and I am still washing every day in order to only use cloth! (Note to self: need more diapers).

I am in cloth nirvana! I will never go back to disposables again! Not only are these diapers super cute, there hasn't been a single leak and no more daily morning up-the-back poo explosions! It's actually quite convenient when going out to store the used diapers in my wet bag to take home to wash instead of trying to find a trash can or worrying about leaving a dirty diaper in someone's home trash can.

Polka Dot diaper                                      Cow print diaper                               Flat diaper



Oh, and remember the dryer debacle? I was excited to see that the property had a clothes line! The first time I washed MissE's used cloth diapers, I put them on the line and everything was dry within a few hours!

While we were there, it was easier to wash at night and hang them to dry while we slept so there were clean, dry diapers in the morning. Kept this up at home by laying them over the fence to dry in the mornings. The flats and some of the covers and pockets dry in less than an hour and I haven't had to leave anything out for more than a few hours. This is one happy mama! Plus, line drying helps the waterproof layer of your diapers last longer so that the diapers may be used for subsequent children. :)


I am becoming more and more "crunchy" by the minute! Breastfeeding, co-sleeping, baby wearing, and now cloth diapering! My next mission is to convince Mister that we should use cloth napkins instead of paper towels. I'll keep you updated, lol.


 Diapers drying on the fence at home