If at first you don't succeed... Part Two

If you haven't seen it yet, you might want to read my previous post about why cloth diapering didn't work for me the first time around. It's a sad, sad tale of fifteen fabulous fluffy diapers that went unused for a long time.

Don't worry, this tale has a happy ending.

I don't remember exactly what prompted me to pull out the pile of fluffy goodness again when the Peanut was about four months old. It had been about a year and a half since I'd used cloth on the Pumpkin, but once again I think I'd gotten into a pretty good routine and was looking to try something new. Using cloth on the Peanut was new! Probably because she was so much smaller than the Pumpkin had been, I immediately got a great fit with our BumGenius diapers, and I don't recall having any leaks. I also discovered that cloth diapers do a wayyyy better job of containing little-baby poopsplosions than disposables do. Encouraged, I quickly got into the routine of using cloth full-time.

With a family of four (plus a big messy dog), laundry was pretty much a daily event in our house already, so working in diapers wasn't a challenge. It also helped that my washing machine now had an automatic "second rinse" feature that saved me the step of resetting it manually. (We'd moved into a new house the previous year.)

Then - bam! Routine interruptus. I broke my foot, and I couldn't walk down to the basement where our laundry was. Two very kind and helpful grandmoms immediately stepped in to help take care of us, but I didn't want to burden them with an additional work, so we went back to disposables during my recuperation.

But as every misfortune should, mine had a silver lining. When my foot healed, and I could walk, carry a baby and (joy of joys!) do my own laundry again (okay, it wasn't really a joy, but trust me I was glad I could do it), I was almost overwhelmed by how EASY cloth diapering suddenly seemed. I'd spent the last two months practically housebound and relying on strategically timed orders from diapers.com to keep stocked with diapering essentials. Being able to walk to the basement and just toss some diapers in the wash seemed blissfully simple.

That, I think, was when I really fell in love with cloth diapers.

Naturally I pursued my love around the clock, and since I'd only been able to shop for cloth diapers online (I'd recently added a few Flip Organic Cotton Diapers to my stash), imagine my happiness when I found a diaper store - an actual brick and mortar, stuffed-to-the-roof-with-fluff, cloth diaper store - just an hour away. I packed up the kids, and headed up to the big city. I was the proverbial kid in a candy store. (What? There isn't a proverb about candy stores? Whatever. You get the idea.) This was my first time seeing, touching, talking to an actual live human being about diapering options. So exciting. I worked up the courage to buy a pack of prefolds and an irresistably cute Bummis Super Whisper Wrap, plus a bamboo fitted diaper.

My newly expanded stash of diapers helped me to realize that for any time of day, any place, any outfit - any baby - there is a perfect cloth diapering solution out there. It just takes a little effort to find it sometimes.

Hopefully this blog will help some other cloth-lovers find their perfect diapers too! Tell me. Have you tried cloth? If so - what's been your favorite diapering moment? If not - what's holding you back from trying cloth?