We were living in an apartment for JFJ's months 0-8 and then busy settling into our house for month 9. We used Dy-Dee Diaper Service for these months and were very satisfied with their prefold diapers, prorap covers, and weekly delivery service. We used the infant size for the first few months and then switched to regular, which was still fitting fine when we stopped just shy of 9 months old. We started with 80 diapers per week then lowered it to 60 when he got a little older and didn't need as many diaper changes. Even 60 was a lot for us though. We could have easily gotten by with 50.
We do use disposables when we go out, however. I know hard core cloth diapering parents carry wetbags and use cloth diapers exclusively. We opt to use disposables when we go out. Even so, we have only had to get one large box of each size so far (usually 200+ diapers in each box). We had received two boxes of size 2, in fact, from our baby shower, and only went through one box before JFJ grew out of that size. His growth has tapered off a bit so I anticipate possibly having to buy another box of size 3 before he grows out of that size. The current box of size 3 diposables we are using right now is the first and only we've had to buy so far since we got the others as gifts!
We also have used disposable wipes while we were using the diaper service. I bought some cloth wipes when we started using our own cloth diapers. We currently use a combination of the disposables and the cloth. Our use of wipes has decreased signficantly as JFJ has gotten older since he poops much less often than in early infancy (although the quantity with each poopy diaper is another matter).
At 9 months, I bought JFJ two dozen OsoCozy Better Fit Prefolds made of unbleached cotton (lined with red) from Diapers.com. I wash a load every 2 days, and so far this has worked out nicely. We are still using three medium size Prorap covers we had bought from Dy-Dee and two Thirsties Duo Wrap Snaps size 2 that we had received from our baby shower (we've gone through size xs and s in the proraps as well as size 1 of Thirsties). We got to keep the diaper pail from Dy-Dee, and we use reusable Planet Wise Diaper Pail Liners (rotating two liners).
There are ample resources on the internet about cloth diapering. I've taken advice and instructions from a variety of Pinterest pins, Amazon reviews, and friends with experience.
To remember for baby #2...
- Cloth diapers (and wipes) need to be treated to achieve absorbency before use. Especially cloth diapers made of natural materials (like cotton and bamboo) need to be prewashed many times. I read somewhere online to prewash three times. It turned out that our unbleached cotton OsoCozy Better Fit Prefolds didn't really absorb until wash 5 or 6. We went through an unpleasant couple days (nights especially) of leaky diapers before they started absorbing well. Once properly treated, however, the diapers absorb very well and are supposed to absorb even better with more washes.
- Better Fits, although smaller, are no less absorbent than Regular Prefolds as far as I can tell. Dy-Dee's were regular prefolds so we folded the diaper horizontally before making the angel trifold. This made the diaper really bulky. I think we'll go for Better Fits when we have to buy Infant sized cloth diapers for baby #2 and stick to Toddler sized Better Fits for JFJ if he needs them that far.
- Leg gussets are a must. We had a lot of poop leak onto the diaper cover, to be honest, but very rarely beyond the gussets. (Diaper blasts and projectile poo spreading up the back are a wholly different matter, which of course also happens with disposables.) OxiClean for baby works wonders in getting stains out of those diaper covers, thankfully!
I will post separately the details about washing our cloth diapers shortly.
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