My Journey to Cloth

Even before I was pregnant with Oliver I had planned on cloth diapering my babies.  I was cloth diapered as a baby and so were some of my cousins, I grew up seeing my family change cloth diapers.  That was the era of prefolds, pins, and pull on waterproof pants.  Leaks happened.  Fast forward to 2010 and I was pregnant and told my husband that I wanted to cloth diaper our child.  He humored me but I saw the glint of fear in his eyes.  He grew up in a house that used disposables.  I knew that I would need to do some research and present him with some cold hard facts to fully sway him to cloth.  I mainly used the money saving aspects to sway him.  Yes, there is an upfront cost for cloth and most people balk at the price of some diapers which can run upwards of $25 (I don't have any diapers that expensive).  The savings come the longer you use the diapers and definitely for subsequent children.  I just like knowing that we don't have to run out every week and buy a box of diapers.
The world of cloth sure had changed in 30 years!  Things were so much easier, trimmer, more absorbent, less leaky, and lets face it cuter.  You could still get the retro prefolds and waterproof pants and pins if you wanted.  I started looking around online and was overwhelmed by all the choices.  I eventually decided on one online diaper store, Diaper Junction.  They carried a variety of brands, offered good advice, had a rewards program, and sold used diapers at a discount.  I wasn't sure what system would work the best for us so I decided to buy a few different brands.  Around this time I also scored some waterproof covers at the discount site Baby Steals.  With the addition of the covers I needed to get some prefolds, so my mom and I bought some at a local baby store.  To make our diaper stash last as long as possible I only purchased one sized diapers so that as the baby grew we wouldn't have to buy a whole new stash of diapers.
Once we were finally home from the hospital I prepped (pre washed) the diapers just like the directions said.  Then I put them away for a few months, since Oliver was still so small when he came home we used preemie size disposable diapers until he was big enough to fit in the cloth.
Since I had studied the different types of systems I knew how to assemble the different diapers and what pad went with what cover.  My husband had a few weeks of frustration before he got a good handle on the diapers.  Now, he is a pro.
Once we were cloth diapering Ollie full time we discovered that we liked certain systems and others left something to be desired.  We quickly discovered that the prefolds my mom and I had purchased were not up to par for diapering and were put in the burp cloth pile.  I returned to Diaper Junction and read the reviews for their prefolds and decided to give them a try, I am so glad that I did!  What a difference, they are AWESOME!  Prefolds and covers quickly became our go to diaper system.  With the addition of a diaper sprayer, our diapering journey was complete, or so I thought.
I think that I have a bit of an addiction problem with shopping for cloth diapers.  Over the past year I have bought some more diapers to add to our stash so that we would have enough to make it 3-4 days before running out.  I figured we were good on diapers for the rest of our diapering lives and had stopped shopping.  Since I had always planned on having a few years between children, I hoped that Ollie would be close to potty training when the next one arrived.  HA!
A few months later I found out I was pregnant and Ollie was just over a year old.  It hit me that we would have two children in cloth at the same time for a few years.  Thankfully, after Thanksgiving a lot of diaper sites had great sales.  I decided to get some newborn size diapers this time since it is highly likely I will not go full term with this baby.  I lucked out and got some newborn and small size used prefolds.  I found some great newborn covers that are adjustable to make them last a bit longer.  I have also added to the one size stash so that we will have enough to diaper two children full time.
Cloth diapering can be intimidating at first but once you get in a routine it is pretty easy.

Oliver in his first cloth diaper at 4 months old.  It was huge on him.  On a side note to all my therapy friends look at that great ATNR position!

Running (Ha! like I will be doing that anytime soon)

Pregnancy is a lot like distance running: slow and steady, one foot in front of the other.  Your body paces itself.  I am now 25 weeks and 5 days pregnant.  I have been out of the hospital since the 13th of January and it is so nice!  Today I had my weekly appointment with the MFM doctors and things are holding steady.  So, I get another week at home since my body is behaving.  Each week that I don't get admitted is a small celebration.  I have kind looked at this pregnancy like running a marathon, each week is another mile that I have run.  When I am running I have a small celebration or feeling of accomplishment with each mile marker I pass.  Right now I feel like I am gearing up to run up a big hill, it will be hard to get to the top but once up you get a small break as you coast down the other side.  The hill for this pregnancy is coming up starting tomorrow that is the point when my water broke with Oliver.  I feel like tomorrow is one of the first really big milestones to get past and then the hill will continue until Valentine's Day.  On Valentine's Day I will be 27 weeks 4 days, after 5:19 PM I will be in new pregnancy territory, thus the downhill part of the race. 
I think the 15th of February will call for a celebration!  Not too big of one because that will have to wait until this baby and I reach the finish line.