Diaper Dilemmas

This story starts way back, about 6 years ago when I was pregnant with Coulson. Before he was born, I started to do some research into cloth diapers to see if they would be a good option to consider. So I read a bunch of stuff on the internet about cloth diapers and how to use them and the environment and the financial considerations, etc., etc. After several hours of research, I started to share my findings with my husband when I hit a brick wall. Casey made it clear that under no uncertain terms would he ever change a cloth diaper, so if I wanted him to participate in that aspect of fatherhood, it better be disposable. So I stopped researching and resigned to using disposable diapers. (Thinking back on the situation, I must not have gotten too far in my plans because I don't think I ever really considered the fact that we didn't have a washing machine and dryer, so I would have had to launder all those cloth diapers at the laundromat...)

Fast forward about 5 years later and I attended my friend Christi's baby shower. She was planning to use cloth diapers and received a few of the diapers as gifts for her baby shower. They were very cute. And I got the chance to ask some questions about the diapers and learn about all the options available and I guess the idea got back in my head.

About a month after the baby shower, I had a dream. In my dream, Casey leaves me for another women and she get pregnant. Of course I was upset about that, but then I find out that they are going to use cloth diapers. It was like he was twisting the knife that he had already stabbed in my back! When I woke up I was still bothered by the dream. Not by the part where Casey leaves me for another woman -- he's the best husband in the world and has never given me even a tiny concern for unfaithfulness (much to the disappointment of all his lady co-workers and friends, because in all honesty, he's a damn fine catch!) -- but the diaper part really bothered me. So I figured if we decided to have another baby, I was going look into cloth diapers again.

Well, the bun's in the oven, as they say, so I've been looking into it again. Casey isn't super excited about the idea, but he's willing to tolerate my craziness as a testament of his love for me. My mom, who pinned and laundered cloth diapers for all four of us kids, can't fathom why I would want to do this. She would have loved for the luxury of being able to afford the fancy disposables. But she's sweet and willing to be supportive as well.

To encourage Casey, I compared it to being able to drive a stick shift in high school. In general most of the 16 year olds can drive a car, just as most fathers can change a diaper. It's nothing special. But to be able to drive a stick shift? That's a pretty cool skill. And in high school I could drive a "three-on-the-tree" stick shift (which according to wikipedia, was a popular 3-speed stick shift in cars in the 40s and 50s, but hasn't been used in the US since the 80s.) So driving a 3-speed stick shift? That was an awesome skill! And that's what's it's like for a dad to use cloth diapers - Big props to the dad who can do that!

So I did a bunch of research online, talked to some friends and family and decided what kind of diapers to use (among cloth diapers, there are a lot of choices - prefolds, shaped, all-in-ones, hybrids, etc.) and I planned to use them for the first size of cloth diapers, which would be about 3 months depending on fast my baby grows and then decide if I wanted to keep using them.

Then reality hit me. Charlie had an "accident" while we were out one day and I had a change of clothes for him and put the messy stuff in a plastic bag in his backpack (what we use as a "diaper" bag/change of clothes bag). Being the good mother that I am, I leave his backpack in the car for a few days and when I finally remember that he had an accident - whew! That was pretty gross. So I gave myself a reality check - I hate to do laundry and I'm a pretty lazy and forgetful mom. How often would I run out of clean diapers because I didn't want to finish the laundry sometime? I realized that cloth diapering isn't really a great fit with my housekeeping skills. I thought about this realization for about a week before I confessed to Casey. He was overjoyed!

BUT THEN, a week later, I had another epiphany. Two redeeming words - Diaper Service. I knew this was a dwindling industry and I don't live in a huge metropolitan area, so I figured the odds were against me, but I did a google search anyway. Guess what? Baby Diaper Service of NC serves my area! So I'm back on the cloth diaper bandwagon for now. I'll keep you posted.