Newborn Cloth Diapering

So Jon & I have made the decision that we are going to cloth diaper our baby blueberry… just as soon as we get comfortable with having a newborn and his umbilical cord stump is gone.
We have friends that use BumGenius 3.0 one size pocket diapers & love them. So our plan is to use those as soon as he gets big enough (around 12 lbs). And they’ll work until potty training (unless he ends up being a giant/huge).

In the in-between time, according to experts, newborns do best in prefolds or fitted diapers with covers (I guess since the size and fit are highly adjustable). What on earth are ‘prefolds’? - Basically, the ‘cloth diaper’ that are widely used as burp cloths. There is this new fangled alternative to pins – it’s called a snappi. The snappi looks like a “T” and hooks into both sides and the bottom of the front of the cloth. See picture for illustration of a baby wearing a prefold diaper with a snappi.

Fitted diapers go on just like disposables, but they are made of cotton or flannel or hemp or any absorbent fabric. Both prefolds and fitted diapers require a waterproof cover over them.
Now, my husband has a heart of gold. He is so well meaning and always has good intentions. BUT – I just don’t picture him taking to folding and snapping prefolds. Since there is only like 2 months where we’d be doing this (until he fits into the one size diapers), I figured fitted diapers were the way to go! Now – how to secure a well functioning, cute stash on as little amount of $$ as possible? I figured that we’d be using the cloth diapers only part of the time (when we’re home) and using disposables for a while for when we’re out and about. BUT – we’d still save a lot of money using cloth just at home.

Once he’s big enough for the one-size, I found a ‘hybrid’ diaper – uses either biodegradable inserts OR cloth inserts in a one-size cover! So we’ll be using these for travel eventually…

here is an example of fitted diapers:

So – I decided to try my hand at MAKING fitted diapers! So far, I’ve made 3.5. I used prefolds, 2 old tee shirts I was going to donate & an old fleece I was going to donate. I only have a picture of the first one I made. Since the outer layer is fleece, technically this is an ‘all-in-one” diaper, meaning that it doesn’t require a cover since fleece will wick all the wetness inside back to the absorbent layer. The next one I made was with an old ECS school of Engineering tee-shirt, so it would just be a fitted diaper. I can’t wait to try these out on blueberry & see what works, what doesn’t – how to redesign it. *sorry for you non-engineers… this next part is the engineer in me* I feel like the leg gussets are critical to leak prevention. I’ve been experimenting with different size elastic & stitching techniques to get the optimum amount of elasticity and coverage without it getting too tight & making marks on my little blueberry’s thighs.

here's my first attempt:

After making a few diapers, I looked into covers. I found a few really cute and affordable ones on etsy.com. 2 PUL & 4 fleece covers. All beautifully handmade by work and home moms (WAHMs). Here’s a picture of the covers (the 3 on top are gro-baby shells that might work for newborns).

I’m very excited about these ultra cute diapers & covers! Hopefully blueberry likes them just as much!