Gone Crunchy... and Fluffy!

I don’t remember the very first time I heard about cloth diapers, but it was probably on Megan Tietz’s blog. Or maybe Young House Love. All I really remember was being super intrigued by them. Why in the world would anyone want to use cloth diapers these days? Aren’t disposable diapers part of the reason we are so thankful to be living in such advanced times? Why would you want to deal with baby poop when you could just throw the whole thing away?

But as time went on and I learned more about the pros of cloth diapers, I began to really consider them. And before you click away, this post is NOT written to tell you why you are a horrible person if you choose to use disposables. It’s simply to tell you why I’m choosing to cloth diaper, because so many people seem so confused when I tell them in person.

So…why are we cloth diapering?

1. We’re poor.

Ok, we aren’t actually poor but we aren’t exactly rolling in dough either. Especially after crunching the numbers and figuring out what we owe the IRS this year. (Ouch!!) Cloth diapers, while somewhat of an investment upfront, are ultimately way cheaper than disposables.

There are tons of posts already written about this topic, but here’s the gist: I’ve invested about $500 in cloth diapers, and most of those are designed to grow with the baby. Meaning that I’ve spent about $500 to diaper our child for the next couple years. If we have another baby and use those diapers on him or her, then that amount drops in half! I snapped a pic of our complete stash of diapers, minus extra inserts, prefolds, and that kind of thing. We have a nice mix of pocket diapers, all-in-ones, covers, and hybrids. (If none of that makes sense to you, don't worry! It didn't make any sense to me until I did a lot of research.)

2. It’s my tiny way of helping the environment.

Don’t hate me, but I don’t really recycle much. Our small town doesn’t exactly make it easy to recycle, and I’ve just gotten out of the habit. I also LOVE long showers and baths, and I know that’s a waste of water and energy. So cloth diapering is my tiny little way of saying “Hey Earth, I kinda like you and want you to stay all nice and homey for us.”  Maybe Leo would be proud of me for that. 

3. Chemicals are yucky.

Unless I want to buy those super expensive Seventh Generation/Honest Company/Super Green Earth Baby diapers, any disposables I choose to use will be coated in chemicals. That’s just the nature of the beast. To keep diapers thin and color changing, and to keep baby feeling dry, there have to be chemicals involved. And it’s a small thing, but if I can keep as many chemicals out of my baby’s body as possible, I’ll try it. (Again: no judgement if you use disposables!! I'm not a scientist and can't tell you any details about the pros and cons of  avoiding the disposable chemicals.) 

So those are the main three. But here's a bonus: they are so cute! Even Coco approves.

Am I saying that you’ll never see my baby in disposables? Absolutely not. We got a few packages of Pampers at our first shower, and instead of returning them we're going to hang onto them, just in case. I mean, do I want to try to find a place to do cloth diaper laundry while on vacation somewhere? Not really. (Though it depends on where we vacation.) But for the most part, she’s going to have a fluffy cloth diaper booty.

Look at how cute those tiny little newborn diapers are!

And for those of you wondering, no, James wasn’t psyched about this crunchy choice. However, as I’m the person who does all our laundry and will be caring for our baby most of the time since I’ll be working from home, I insisted on giving cloth diapers a chance. I’m really hoping once he realizes how much money we’ll save (and how cute our daughter will be in them) he’ll really jump on board. Plus, you might notice that some of those diapers are designs I bought specifically for James. Camo and deer, what is there not to like?

So that's the basics. If there's interest, I can do a more in-depth post about what diapers we are using and actually explain what a pocket diaper is vs an all-in-one. And I will be writing more posts after we actually start cloth diapering. I could tell you about what my plans and expectations are, but it might mean more once I'm actually in the thick of dirty diapers and laundry and actual baby poop.

Until next time!

Previously on Mrs Robbins Sparkles...

The Big 3-0

This weekend I turn the big 3-0. 

In my early twenties, I tried to imagine what my life would be like when this milestone hit. And while I envisioned several different scenarios, I don't think I could have known what it would actually be like. For example:

I had no idea I would be almost 6 months pregnant, trying to build up my business before our little girl makes her big debut. I had no idea I would live in a house in a small town outside of OKC with a husband who was several years younger. I had no idea I would be totally happy with all of those things, including the fact that my 30th birthday is going to be a totally laidback affair involving a few close friends, dinner, and a free water taxi ride. I had no idea that I would be so excited about finding a limited edition version of the Audrey BumGenius diaper. (It's a cloth diaper, I'll explain another time.) 

None of those things would have made sense to early twenty-something Jennifer, except the small birthday celebration with friends, because those friends are the same ones I had back then! 

But it all makes perfect sense now. The only thing that might bother me about turning 30 is that I didn't finish my 30 Before Thirty List. I did some amazing things in my twenties - I traveled to foreign countries, got married, took risks in my career, pushed myself in ways I didn't know I could. But I didn't do everything I set out to. 

And that's totally ok. I had lots of plans for this fall and winter; I was going to do the muddy rough 5k that I wasn't able to do in May when it was cancelled. I was going to take a cooking class, throw a dinner party, and buy a house. Instead I spent most of this fall hugging a toilet! The idea of cooking didn't start sounding good again until November, and simply the idea of hosting a dinner party exhausts me. The house thing went out the window when I left my banking job (getting a loan is hard when you're self-employed), and obviously the 5k wasn't going to happen. 

But guess what? Life isn't ending at 30. I can do all those things in the coming years, and so much more. My twenties are coming to an end, and I'm pretty happy about it because I cannot wait to see what my thirties bring!

Previously on Mrs Robbins Sparkles...

Hello, December

Well hello there, friends. I've been quiet since the big announcement, huh? I actually wrote a Quick Lit post for November, but the internet ate it. Twice. I'll just do it in December, because I've barely read anything the past couple weeks! 

So what have I been up to? Well, our wonderful little puppies have become total Houdinis and keep escaping from the back yard. The weekend before last I went chasing after Winchester (Remington came to me like a good puppy!) and ended up falling face first onto a concrete driveway. Thankfully all the damage was superficial - I didn't break anything, and baby girl Robbins and I are totally fine now. (Except for a bruised knee, sore teeth, and some scrapes and cuts that are still healing). But it looked pretty nasty when it happened. Here's my edited picture I shared on social media - I still don't to show you the pictures I took straight on. Not pretty!

This past week I celebrated Thanksgiving with my family, watched OU dominate in the Bedlam game, and came back home just in time to spend Sunday with no power thanks to the ice storm. It was a great weekend; I got to go through boxes that my mom saved from when I was a baby, and I ended up with lots of things for our little girl to wear/play with. Plus I got in some orders from ThredUp, including this precious coat for our little girl to wear next winter! (Complete with matching hat and muff! Don't worry, she also has camo and pink John Deere boots so she won't be too precious :) ) 

I also got a little carried away over Black Friday weekend. I am not a Black Friday shopper - the idea of battling crowds sounds absolutely awful to me. But saving money by staying up a little late to order online? Totally cool with that! I took advantage of some amazing deals at some cloth diaper online stores, and fell down the rabbit hole of cloth diapering. There's a full series of posts on that coming soon, I promise. But seriously, how cute are these diapers? I ordered two each of the ones on the upper right and lower left (2 different sizes so when she outgrows the small one we can move to the bigger one). Can anyone guess why I chose those two? ;)

And somehow it's December already! I turn 30 this weekend and I'm still trying to decide what I want to do to celebrate. I've already accepted that lots of things on my 30 before 30 list aren't going to be done - and that's ok. 

I'll be back later this week to talk about the big 30! Until then, stay warm friends!

Previously on Mrs Robbins Sparkles...