the one about cloth diapers and my inner hippie

Confession: I have an inner hippie. No- not the kind that loves special brownies, friends. My inner hippie is not even very hardcore. It's the kind that drove preschool me to write a song about the evils of aersol hairspray (This actually happened, and my written lyrics didn't have any vowels.). The kind that drove teenage me to peace sign door beads, plaid pants, rainbow shoe laces, and planting flowers.  The kind that makes me love the farmer's market and local businesses. The first pair of shoes I ever saved my own money to buy, because my parents weren't about to encourage my buying them: clogs. No, not heels or anything pretty like that. Wooden-soled, platform clogs with leather-stitched hippie flowers on top. I wish I had kept those shoes for humor's sake.

Anyhow, my inner hippie got me looking into cloth diapers pretty soon after I got pregnant with Addy. I read some basics and reviews concerning cloth diapers at Passionate Homemaking. We didn't even know if we were going to have a boy or girl, and I ordered a few bumGenius one-size pocket diapers (I really thought I was going to have a boy, but I mostly ordered neutral colors and one blue. Obviously, I was wrong. Another story for another day!). And y'all- guess what? I found out cloth diapering is going more and more mainstream. I know multiple families who do this now, which makes asking around and problem-solving less complicated.  A friend from our church even has a cloth diaper business now (see Bitsy Bottoms). AWESOME. I love local businesses!

Then Addy was born, and we used regular ol' disposables for about 8 weeks as we adjusted to this new, beautiful life. After consulting with aforementioned friend, we opted to buy a Flip day pack to try out alongside 2 bumGenius diapers. Then I researched laundry detergents for the diapers (it turns out people are sassy and opinionated about this). I might offer insights into all this or a review when I'm more of a veteran, but for now I'm just telling y'all about our little adventure and linking to resources I used.

We did have some concerns going into the whole cloth diapering thing: Is it really gross? Is it cost efficient? Will laundering be crazy (Collin likes to say that laundry isn't exactly one of my "spiritual gifts")? Let this be an encouragement to anyone out there considering cloth diapers: it's not really any more gross than regular diapers, and even I get the laundry done effectively and efficiently! We like it so much we expanded our diaper collection and bought some cloth wipes. And though it's definitely an investment upfront, it seems to be totally worth it and will likely save us money in the long run. If nothing else, cloth seems to be helping Addy get over a mean case of diaper rash that creams just seemed to irritate more. I think that's a win!