While I am on maternity leave and snuggling with Conor as well as his awesome big sis, Rosie Mae, I am sharing posts about motherhood every Monday.  I hope you'll enjoy this stray from photography while I'm out; I figure, motherhood is what's on my mind these days so why not bring that to the good ole' blog???  Heck, I might even keep these going after I get back into the swing of things.  Speaking of that, my return date is May 15th - have you booked your photo session for that lovely time of year yet???

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Being a cloth diapering mum, I've had a lot of people ask me about how we do it and if it's as awful as the idea of cloth diapering seems.  I've also had a lot of parents-to-be ask for tips and pointers because when you decide to dive into the cloth diapering world, you realize there are about a zillion options and it's overwhelming.  I can't speak for every option out there, but we have worked with a few and so I've rounded up all the cloth diapering essentials we've used in our house in hopes that it makes it easier for some of you.First, let me say this:  No.  Cloth diapering is not difficult.  For 99% of the time, it's exactly the same amount of steps as a disposable diaper only you have to toss em in the laundry rather than the trash/diaper pail.  It's cheaper, it's better for the environment, it's better for your little one's skin, and it's also cuter.  There are some seriously swanky options out there if you're interested in going that route.  We went for basic solid colors for the most part, but there a ton of cloth diaper makers out there ready to sell you some cute "fluff."That being said, let me say this:  I don't care whether you cloth diaper or not.  If you use disposables, great!  There is no judgement or, I'm-better-because-I-cloth-diaper opinions here; this is just what we decided to do (mostly based on the idea of sensitive skin since *I* have sensitive skin) and it works for us.  If you're plastering Pampers or Huggies or whatever on your kids' butts, good for you.  Whatever works for your family is the best for your family.  Cloth diapering just happened to be the best for ours.So, for those of you interested in cloth diapering, let's move onto the specifics.  There are tons of options out there; I'm only going to talk about what worked for us since I can't really comment on the other types.  I have included some links at the end for great resources though.  For now, here's what works for us:#1:  A diaper sprayer.  Regardless of whether you use cloth or disposable diapers, the reality is, you're going to touch some poop.  Hey, shit happens, right?  :)  What turns a lot of people off to cloth diapering is having to "dunk and swish" a poop-covered diaper in the toilet.  Well, with a diaper sprayer, you don't have to.  Simply attach the sprayer to your toilet, hook it up to the water line, and spray the poop off into the toilet water below.  Be careful with the amount of pressure you use; sometimes turning the valve all the way results in a seriously intense spray which can backfire and cover you and your bathroom in poop water.  So, start off slow and work your way up.  My advice?  Install this wonderful invention before you have the baby.  One less thing to do later and you'll thank yourself when it's setup and taken care of.#2: Indian Cotton prefolds.  Now, again, there are SO MANY OPTIONS when it comes to cloth diapers.  Let's go over how we cloth diaper in our house before we go into specifics.  We Raileys use All-In-Ones (#7 on this list) exclusively once they fit the baby.  Usually that happens around the 10 pound mark.  If you're only interested in this kind of diaper (see #7 below for details), then you can use disposables until they fit your kid.  We opted to cloth diaper immediately (Rosie Mae started in the hospital), so we needed to find smaller options that would work for a while, fit our budget, and hopefully be re-purposed once grown out of.  After TONS of research, we landed on Indian Cotton prefolds.  A prefold is what you've probably pictured when you think of cloth diapers.  They look like modern day burp cloths; a thicker piece of fabric in the middle with two thinner sides.  There are a whole bunch of ways to fold these to suit your kiddo; we ALWAYS did what's called a tri-fold.  Here is a video to help you see what that looks like (in the video she calls it a newspaper fold.  It's the first option she shows).  We used these until RM grew out of them, and then used them as burp cloths.  I hear they last forever and make excellent cloths for wiping down your car after you wash it, for wiping up spills, etc.  We'll definitely keep ours around for a while.  We bought 12 of the infant size, and then 18 of the next size up.  Both sizes we sometimes use as an extra layer of absorbancy in the diaper I'll talk about below at #7.#3: Snappi's.  If you're going to use prefolds, you'll need something to keep them snug around the baby.  If you think back to cloth diapering days of yore, you'll imagine big scary diaper pins.  They still use these today, but I'm pretty sure the vast majority of cloth diaper users use the handy invention called the Snappi.  You can see how they work in the video above.  Basically, they're way less you-can-stab-your-baby looking than pins and they're easy to do with one hand.  We enjoy these. We bought one set of three and, though we never actually needed it, I bought a second set when I kept getting nervous we'd lose the other ones.  The one set is more than enough.#4 & #5:  Diaper Covers (#4 is a Bummis Super Brite Diaper Cover and #5 is a Thirsties Duo Wrap). We start out with the Bummis cover for when the babes are brand new, and when they are a bit older, we use the slightly larger Thirsties Duo Wrap.  The Thirsties Wrap grows with the baby a bit, so they will last not only until you move over to diapering your child in an All-In-One (#7), but beyond - so they act as back up if you don't get your laundry done in time.  Hahaha.  These are basically the equivalent to the rubber pants that used to go on over the old time cloth diapers.  They're not rubber; they do keep in the pee and the poop, and this is where you'll start to find your designs and can go nuts with designer looks.  Like I said, we went for basics.  We bought two of the Bummis covers, and three of the Thirsties Duo Wraps.  These were great.  As an added bonus, you can totally use these later on without the prefolds inside as a swim diaper.  We did that a few times and it worked out really well!#6: Cloth wipes.  No, you do not have to use cloth wipes if you cloth diaper.  We just figured, why the hell not?!  It means you don't need a diaper pail/trash in your nursery and you can just toss these in your wet bag (#8) along with your diapers.  I bought our starter kit from AsYouStitchBaby on Etsy.com.  You can find options anywhere.  But these were the most reasonably priced, they were cute (but who cares), and they seemed like they would stand the test of time.  Boy have they ever.  These things still look new after almost two years of wiping bum.  So, I highly recommend this seller.  Clearly she knows how to make a lasting product.  As time went on, we did see that we needed more wipes.  So, I cut up some of the hospital receiving blankets and we've used them as well.  Those also make amazing wipes and they're free.  If you're not going to cloth diaper right away, I would suggest taking home the blankets, cutting them up, and you'll be all set.  But, if you plan to start right away, definitely hit up AsYouStitchBaby.  You'll need something before you get the free hospital blankets (and before you find the time to sit down and cut up a blanket with a newborn in your life).  To wet them we use a solution of 90% water and 10% Diaper Wash.  There are a billion different wipe solution recipes out there; some just use a bit of soap and water.  The Diaper Wash I just linked to works well for us.  We've used a few different bottle options for the solution; usually it's an old dish soap bottle.  At the beginning (and now again with Conor) it's the peri bottles from the hospital.  Those things are GREAT!  They just don't last forever.  For the diaper bag we use a travel spray bottle.  Anything that works for you -- works.  Get creative.  :)#7: All-In-One's.  We use the BumGenius Elementals.  However, I have to note:  We use the OLD version which, I hear, is now very hard to find.  Cotton Babies (the makers of these awesome diapers) updated their Elemental diaper and it's different now.  I can't speak for the new version - there are plenty of reviews online.  We use the original version and we love it.  We started out with 12.  We found we needed more so we bought 12 more.  These workhorse diapers go from 10 pounds (more or less; every kid is different) until they are potty trained.  You can button them certain ways to make them fit your child as they grow.  These are essentially exactly the same as a disposable diaper when it comes to how difficult it is to put on.  You can decide to get velcro or snaps for how to close the diapers; we went for snaps because they supposedly last longer and, because they're harder for toddlers to open up - less opportunity for writing on the walls with poop fingers.  :)  So far, so good, knock on wood.  Hahaha.  These diapers are all we use once the babes fit into them.#8: Wet Bags.  We got two large PlanetWise wet bags and one small travel bag.  I would suggest two travel bags so if you happen to have one in the wash, you have a backup.  These things are GREAT.  They keep the smell and the mess and the wetness contained and when you're ready to do laundry, you just bring the bag to the washer, unzip, shove it in the washer and shake out the contents.  Then toss the bag in as well.  It gets washed with your diapers.  No need to touch day-old smelly diapers when you use a wet bag.  These things are great.  We've used ours for 21 months now, and they are showing some wear and tear but are still working perfectly.  I don't know if they'll last through Conor's cloth diapering journey as well, but they've been so good we would buy the exact same product again as replacements.#9: Diaper Cream.  One thing that can be hard with cloth diapers is, you can't use the vast majority of diaper creams out there because they ruin the absorbancy of the diapers.  One awesome product you can use, though, is this Angel Baby Bottom Balm by Earth Mama Angel Baby.  It's fantastic.  It's only 2 ounces but it goes a long way.  We're only on our second jar and it's been 21 months.  So, it lasts a while.  Recently, we've discovered RM has some eczema and so we've also added regular old Coconut Oil as a way to moisturize her at every diaper change.  This has been a great option since it is diaper safe, comes in large jars you can get at your supermarket, and is cheaper.  Still, The Angel Baby Bottom Balm is great for whenever you need something a bit stronger.  (Psst: Stay tuned for future Motherhood Monday posts; Earth Mama Angel Baby is sponsoring a giveaway!!!)Two items I forgot to include are Liners:  Both Fleece and Disposable.  For both, we stuck with Bummis since they're so great.  The fleece ones we use for naps and at night to wick the moisture away from the skin - therefore allowing your child to sleep longer because they're not waking up feeling wet.  Any product that gets your kid to sleep longer is #1 in my book.  These fleece liners are great.  We bought two packages and that's more than enough.  The disposable ones we use for whenever we need to slather on a lot of diaper cream or use something more intense that isn't cloth diaper safe.  These liners can be thrown out - giving you the option of staying in cloth diapers when you might otherwise have to use disposables.  We've gone through one and a half rolls since we started out.  Not too bad.So, there ya go.  That's everything we use to cloth diaper.  For further reading:A great place to check out for help with cloth diapering is the Baby Center Cloth Diaper Board.  These ladies (and sometimes gents) are AMAZINGLY helpful for any questions you might have.  Seriously, I hit these folks up every so often and they're always super helpful.  I try to return the favor for others seeking answers on there but I bow down to some of the other members; they've tried everything and they know everything.  :)Green Mountain Diapers was a HUGE help when I was trying to decide what options I wanted to go with before RM was born.  It has SO MUCH information.  It's a great source.One of my favorite blogs, Young House Love, also cloth diapers.  Here's their play-by-play of how they do it.  Cotton Babies - the makers of the BumGenius Elementals, is another great site for figuring out exactly what you're looking for when it comes to the tushes of your offspring.If you're local to Weymouth (or Massachusetts), there is a store in Somerville called Diaper Lab that is supposed to be great.  I confess I haven't been there, but when Mike and I attended a Green Living conference back when we were dating, we took a class with the owner of the Lab and it was awesome.  It was my introduction to this world of diapering - I had always been interested because of my own skin sensitivity, and after taking this little class, I was all in.  Luckily, so was Mike.  Even more lucky - he still married me after we went to a cloth diapering class while we were dating.  I mean, seriously.If you have any questions, please feel free to ask them in the comments section below.  That way others who might have the same questions can see them asked and answered, and, any other experienced cloth diaper-ers can chime in with their (very welcomed) two cents.Phew!  I did it!  I finally wrote this post! :)If you're interested in following Motherhood Mondays or Irish Eyes Photography in general, be sure to Like my Facebook Page to keep up to date!-Kerry:) UPDATE 11/7/17:  Jenny from Mom Loves Best reached out to me because she found this post and told me she had dome some research on cloth diapering and came up with an info-graphic showing off the results of her research.  She asked if I could include it here and of course I obliged!  Take a look at her excellent design work and check out her website for more information.  My kids are now both well out of diapers but it's still something I loved doing and I encourage you to do it if you're interested.  It's a little extra work but we always felt it was worth it.  If it's not for you though, I get that too!  We have to do what we can to get through those early years of parenthood!  Cheers to all the ways we do it.

Learn more about the benefits of cloth diapers at Mom Loves Best