I use cloth diapers on my baby and I highly recommend a diaper service if it's available in your area.

I use the prefold style diapers with a diaper cover that has velcro fasteners. I have about 6 diaper covers so I'm not constantly washing those that get wet or dirty.

I use a paper disposable diaper at night because I was unable to find a cloth diaper/diaper cover combination that would hold the wetness sufficiently. I only started using this once my son began to sleep through the night.
When he was still waking up for a midnight(or 2am) feeding, I would change his diaper before I fed him and then put him back in his cradle or crib after he ate. This worked just fine until he began to sleep for 8 hours at a stretch.

I also used cloth diapers on my 12 year old when he was a baby and at that time there was some sort of absorbent paper liner that I used in conjunction with the cloth diaper at night for him. I've been unable to find anything like that for my new baby though. I'm not sure if they're not available, or I'm just not looking in the right places. They worked very well, as I recall.

I'm not sure about the difference in quality in the cloth diapers. Just remember that more expensive doesn't automatically mean better.

Hope I was able to answer some of your questions anyway-

And congratulations on deciding on cloth. I recommend it to everyone I know. My babies rarely had diaper rash and it was so much easier to potty train my son because he could tell when he was wet!

Good Luck!

Keli

Thanks for your help, Keli. It sounds like you're happy with the wraps you use for during the day, even if they haven't been good at night. Can I ask which sort you use? I was thinking of Bumkins because the vent at the back sounds good - especially for a July baby who might get hot.

Has anybody else had any luck using a prefold and a wrap at night? What about other sorts of cloth diaper?

The type of diaper cover I use is called "Dappi". I get them at Babys-R-Us. The store also has a proprietary brand which are essentially the same thing. They run about $10 US for a two pack.

My 12 year old was a July baby and this baby was born in June, so I know about the heat worries. If it was really hot and we were just going to be home, I would just pin a cloth diaper on them and lay the baby on a waterproof changing table cover. They are covered with terrycloth and are comfortable for baby, but don't let the cradle get soaked. My boys really seemed to enjoy this "airing out" so to speak.

There are so many different brands of diaper covers out there that I'm not familiar with all of the designs. I just went for something pretty basic, realizing that they would be growing out of it in a few months anyway.

Don't try to overcomplicate the process. I'm sure anything you choose will work very well. Besides, you have so many other things to be concerned about, like getting lots of rest and eating well during your pregnancy.

Have you tried yoga for moms-to-be? I got a few video tapes and found them to be really relaxing during my pregnancy. I especially liked "Yoga Mama" by Crunch Workout.

Just a thought-

Keli

Don't worry, I'm not as neurotic as I sound! :oD I'm not fretting or concerned about the diaper thing - I just like to have information under my belt. (That's my method for *not* getting concerned.) I like your 'airing-out' idea, Keli. And maybe you're right that there are lots of different kinds of cover I could use that would work well. That would certainly make things simpler.

I started doing some yoga a few months before I got pregnant, and I've been using a prenatal video recently. And I nap just about every day! So I'm getting good at relaxing. :o)

Thanks for your thoughts - I appreciate it,

Zena.

Lots of people use Fuzzibunz diapers for nighttime (some people use them all day, too!). You can stuff them with a chinese prefold or a Joeybunz, or anything else that strikes your fancy. Some people just buy three and use them as covers for at night. I've heard tons of raves about them!

Here is a link that might be useful: Fuzzibunz

Following your suggestion, I looked into Fuzzi Bunz and they do sound great for night time. And I found a good deal on them on the web, so I probably will use them for over night.

Thank you both for your help!

Zena.

There are many choices for nightime diapering. If you are going to go mainly CPF and covers then for the night you could just double up on the CPF and use and Aristocrat or a knitted Wool soaker these can be found at www.familyauction.com or You could use a Wool Cover or a Polar Fleece soaker/pull on pant.
For your prefold and covers/soakers you can try www.naturalebaby.com Amanda is very helpful and she price matches. naa
I have been cloth diapering since 2000 if you have any questions please feel free to contact me. arjsmom@hotmail.com I currently use varoius Fitted diapers, Bumkins, CPF, various AIO's and Bummi SWW covers.

hope this has helped a bit. and as a previous poster suggested get a diaperservice if you are going with CPF's.

We're now only 12 days away from our due date, and (at least initially) I've gone for Chinese prefolds, with Bumkins covers during the day and Fuzzi Bunz at night. There's no diaper service in our area, but (believe it or not) I actually like doing normal laundry, so hopefully doing diaper laundry won't be too bad for me - even with a new baby. Fingers crossed...

Once we've had some practice getting the hang of the diapers after the baby's arrived, I'll let you know how it's going. Thanks for all your help and advice!

Zena.

I cloth diapered my son who is now 5 1/2, here are my thoughts.

A 484 prefold (with the dark blue stitching) in a wrap will swallow a newborn, they are just too big. Did you get some of the smaller infant size prefolds too? They have dark green stitching and are the same thing, just a smaller size. You can use them when the baby gets bigger too as a doubler for nighttime. Just fold one up into thirds and put it inside the bigger prefold. Bulky, yes, but very absorbent for overnight.

For the tiny newborn phase I've heard that buying a couple 24-packs of cheapie cotton washcloths and using them inside a wrap cover is great. And you can use the washcloths as diaper wipes later or just throw them away if they are too stained. I've seen them at Walmart for I think $3 a pack.

We loved Prorap brand velcro wraps. Didn't much care for Bummi or Bumkin wraps but we loved the Bumkin all-in-ones. Dappi pull on covers are very good, cheap and reliable but the velcro ones run very small and IMO aren't near as reliavble as Proraps. I also have to second the recommendation for an Aristocrat wool cover. Ds used to wake up soaked from his chest to his knees in anything but a Chinese prefold (with the aforementioned infant prefold inside arrangement) and an Ari. They require special care but are well worth it if you have a heavy wetter.

Fuzzibunz didn't fit my son right. A friend of mine had the same issues. And another friend tried them but her baby ended up have an allergic reaction to the fleece, something to watch out for.

IMO cloth diapers, no matter what covers you end up using, are going to be more comfortable for the baby in July than disposables.

Washing diapers is easy. What I did:

-Cold rinse cycle with nothing added
-Warm wash/cold rinse cycle with detergent
-Cold rinse cycle with nothing added

Occasionally I would use vinegar in this rinse, followed by another rinse with plain water.

Hope this helped, drop me an email if you have any questions. I'm all too happy to talk about my CD experience. Hopefully we will have another baby next year and this one will also be cloth diapered (I already have a stash put away LOL!)

Karen