Cloth Diapering Joey

Favorite Diapers
I have been cloth diapering Joey for a little over a week now. I have found that I LOVE Bumgenius 4.0's and Kawaii pockets the best. They fit him great and he seems very comfortable in them.

Laundry Process
I do laundry every other day. We have an HE front loading washer which has a "sanitize" setting on it. I always wash the cloth diapers on this setting. It takes about 2 hours and washes them in extra hot water. I also run an extra rinse cycle at the end to make sure all of the detergent gets washed out. I put the cloth diapers and liners in the dryer, but I only dry the diapers for about 15 minutes on extra low heat. This speeds up the drying process since we currently don't have a clothesline outside to hang dry them.

Dirty Diaper Storage
We currently store all dirty diapers in a regular kitchen size trash can lined with an old pillow case. The lid on the trash can contains the smells, but the pillow case gets really gross. I can't wait to get some pail liners! I've even been thinking about making some to try out.

Aplix vs. Snaps
I can't decide which I like better- aplix (velcro) or snaps. It seems that the aplix gives a more personalized fit than the snaps, but if Joey is running around in just a diaper (which he does a lot, of course only while we're home) he can undo the velcro really easily. He hasn't tried to take the snaps off yet, which I think will be harder for him to pull off.

Usage Per Day
We go through about 6 diapers a day. I try to change him every 2-3 hours. I stuff each diaper with 2 inserts which allows for more absorbency. He's a pretty heavy wetter, and we have yet to have any leaks. He usually only has one bowel movement a day and it's in the morning.

Overnight?
We have not tried cloth diapers overnight yet. Joey gets uncomfortable when the cloth diaper gets wet and asks to be changed. I am thrilled about this because it is a sign that he will show interest in potty training sooner! However, I feel that he will wake up during the night when he wets himself and need to be changed. We're still using disposables for night, but using 1 instead of 6-7 disposables today is a huge difference and I'm happy with that!

Out and About
I am going to start using cloth diapers full time during the day once I can get a small wet bag to take around with me. I am also going to buy disposable liners to use while we're out of the house. We can't use them here because we are on a pretty old septic tank and I fear that the money we save from cloth diapering will be spent on repairing the septic tank down the road, which could be a HUGE bill.

Diaper Sprayer, Yay or Nay? 
Absolutely, 120% YES! The first week, I dunked and swished the poopy diapers in the toilet. Let me tell you, that was awful and made me question this whole cloth diapering idea. After looking at diaper sprayers online, most were priced starting at $40 for one with decent reviews and went up in price from there. I showed Joe and he said he could make one for less than $20. He went to a couple of stores and picked up all the parts he needed. He had it put together and working within 30 minutes! I love having a handy man as a husband :-) The diaper sprayer cuts down the time I spend washing the diaper and it makes it 100 times easier. If you are looking to make a diaper sprayer yourself, definitely plan on putting a shut-off valve on it. Definitely don't want your floors to flood because of the constant pressure being sent to the nozzle. I'll try to post a picture of ours.

How Much We Have Invested
Diapers and inserts- $200
Diaper Pail- $10 (kitchen trash can with lid made by Sterlite)
Diaper Sprayer-$18
TOTAL: $228

I am not exactly sure how many diapers and inserts we have, but we have a TON! I'll put up a new post soon with pics of our stash for both Joey and Hayley. Knowing that this investment will save us around $2,000 on disposable diapers feels amazing and totally worth it.