Cloth diapering

My husband & I had to make a choice about the care of our children when our babysitter hurt her back & was unable to care for them for months. We've had quite a rough year with the passing of our neice so we prayed about it & decided God was calling me to be a stay at home mom. Obviously we would be saving money on childcare but we needed to create a little more strict budget. So, along with homemade items (which are saving a TON of money!), I decided it would be more cost effective to start cloth diapering since we were spending a fortune in diapers! Plus, we have another little blessing coming in December so we can just pass down the stuff:)

A great friend, Natalie, gave me tons of information on Cloth Diapering 101. It is so different these days. It's modern, cute, & there are lots of tools to make you successful. I really feel like I'm doing something great for the environment too!

Here's a list of websites I use as resources for stuff I need:
www.pinstripesandpolkadots.com- diaper cream (although I haven't gotten any yet since cloth diapers don't really cause rashes) & this is also a fantastic resource about laundry detergent. The most research you should do about CD is about what detergent to use. There is a specific kind to use depending on your water/diapers. This site has almost every detergent on the market & how its ranked with CD.
www.greenmountaindiapers.com- I ordered all of my covers (the ones I started with, I make my own now), diapers & 1 wetbag (I made the other one) from this site. The company sends a booklet about diapering, what to expect, what to watch for, what not to do, what to do when certain issues arise. It's great! They also ship immediately so it takes no time at all to get the diapers you need!
www.pottypail.com- This company is where I ordered my potty sprayer. The options for getting poo off the diaper are: dunk it in the toilet until it comes off, buy liners, or get a sprayer. We opted for the sprayer:) I did the dunking in the toilet until the sprayer came & let me tell you, I was sooo happy when the sprayer came! haha!

I use Clotheez prefolds with Snappis to close them then use a cover overtop. Prefolds look like traditional diapers & Clotheez are the best on the market for absorption.

Snappis work like the closures on an Ace bandage. They are wayyyyyy easier to use than pins!

These covers are made by BumGenius & cost around $17 each. They are great cuz they're just like regular diapers.

I only bought 4 covers intentionally thinking it would work with my every other day wash schedule but didn't take into account that my children poo a lot!:) And I like to change the cover too since I feel that they hold the smell when they poo. I just wipe the cover out when it's only a wet diaper but I like them to smell really nice so when they poo I just change the cover too. Soooo, I refused to pay $17 per cover again, so I did some research about making my own. This is what I found:

I found the company Babyville Boutique while on the Internet. Their products are soooo cute!! (the covers below are made with all their product) My mom owns a sewing shop so she looked it up & discovered she can order their products! Awesome! She carries this book & is ordering more supplies as I type!:) Pleasant Mountain Stitchery (www.pmstitchery.com) The really great thing about this book is that there are many different patterns in it so if you wanted to try something different with diapering you can & it be cost effective!

I actually like these covers better than the ones I bought & these cost around $6 each to make! And that cost will go down as I make more because that includes the cost of the book.