the great diaper experiment

It's Thanksgiving morning and I'm thankful that my kids are watching TV so I can catch up on my favourite blogs and drink two three cups of hot coffee.

There isn't an immediate connection between cross-stitch and diapers, but there was something in Nan's post, something about stumbling across an earlier version of your parenting self and finding that person maybe not silly exactly, but certainly different and less confident and less you, that made me nod in recognition. And it somehow explains why after four years of disposable I decided to give cloth diapers a whirl. With both kids I wanted to use cloth, but when Stella was born in 2003 I couldn't find any information or a reliable supplier, and with Henry I was more committed, did the research, but in the end they seemed bulky and troublesome and stinkier - especially when doing 12 changes a day with an infant - and I didn't pull the trigger. Until last week. $60 later I had two pairs: Motherease and a new-fangled Bummis. I was, truthfully, afraid to use them. Worried that Henry would poop in his $29.95 organic cotton nappy (it seemed so wrong) it took me two days to work up the nerve to try them.

The Bummis (the green one) is cute, easy to use and fit well. Henry didn't notice anything different - a concern because cloth is substantially more bulky than disposable. My timing was off: Henry pooped within the hour. Clean up was, as you'd expect, way more involved than a disposable and, for me, that's the main drawback.

The Motherease diaper is gorgeous and plush and works with a separate waterproof cover. It's also very bulky and Henry spent a good 10 minutes trying to rip it off. Cloth diapers are not as forgiving as disposable when you lose track of time: H spent about 3 hours in the Motherease and it was thoroughly soaked front to back, like a sodden towel, when I woke him from his nap. It leaked a bit but not as much as I'd expected.

I'm not sure what this experiment is really about, other than to satisfy my own curiosity. No two ways about it: cloth diapers are more work. They're not a convenience item. I wouldn't want to use them while traveling or out for the day. But still there's something deeply appealing about them. I think I may use them and disposables, the way my mother did: cloth at home, disposable when the situation calls for it. The experiment continues...