Cloth Everything! Except at Night.

I'm the kind of person who scrapes every last bit of peanut butter from the jar I possibly can (and then endeavors to wash all the remaining stuff off for recycling): I don't like to waste things.  While this weirdness is strongest with foodstuffs I try not to waste material goods as well.
That is why I'm trying to cloth diaper.

I say "trying" because I'm still not using cloth at night.  The only reason for this is that I like sleep more than I hate wasting.  I'm not sure I'm up for the commitment of changing the little one's diaper every two hours through the night; he doesn't even wake up that often.  And when he does, I can just roll over and feed him.  Sometimes I wake up and he's latched already, which amazes me since I feel like I'm still learning how to breastfeed.

At any rate.  I like cloth diapering a lot.  The only thing about it is I'm afraid of the pins.  I know you can use the covers as a way to secure the diaper, thus making pins obsolete, but I like the extra security that pins provide for the diaper itself.  With pins, I know the diaper is going to stay put.
So what that meant was I tried not using pins and I didn't like it.
Since I am a total noob at cloth diapering, I looked up a video on youtube:

Then I promptly ordered a Snappi.  I'm still waiting for it to arrive, and I can't wait!
Yep, I feel like a total loser now; I'm excited about a diapering tool.

I've learned through doing that cloth diapering is really not as hard as I thought it would be.  Or as difficult as people talk it up to be.  It even taught me something about my laundry machine: how to use the prewash option.  I'd never used it before, so I actually had to bust out the manual and look up how to activate the thing.


Another thing to consider making cloth: nursing pads.  I go through a lot of these right now, so the cost would be tremendous for me if I used disposable.  I did try some disposables that we got on accident (the packaging was not immediately helpful in discerning re-usable vs. disposable) and I found that the wee one would not latch until I cleaned my nipple off.  So I had my mom take them back and K-Mart actually refunded her (which was super awesome!).  She brought home some cloth ones by the same company - who knew Philips electronics made nursing pads, btw.
Cloth nursing pads are more comfortable and they don't leave any weird residue that baby can taste.  Also, they are saving me a ton of money right now.


I also ordered some cloth pads for postpartum bleeding.
I have always hated disposable pads.  Even pantyliners.  They never stay in one place and I always end up with a sticky paper wedgie an hour or less after putting one on.  I'd been thinking about "going green" with my period stuff ever since reading Dyno-Mom's post about it, I'd just been lazy about actually doing it.  So I finally ordered some and I am super impressed.  I will never use a disposable again and I'm planning on never using tampons either.
These are super comfy and, again, it's easier to do the maintenance than everyone thinks it is.


So the moral of the story - for me - is to try things for myself before being discouraged.  Also a determined stubborn streak is helpful if you should fail once or twice at the get-go...like I did with cloth diapers (hence the youtube video).