One more day to go until our little man turns one! I have 48 ears of corn ready for the bbq, lemonade, burgers and hotdogs all ready to go. It is suppose to be cloudy but hopefully the rain will hold off till Sunday as they are predicting.

Birthday preparations aside, I still need to wash diapers today. I need to wash diapers every day. 365 days of diapers. One and five are poopy. Damian eats solids now so his poop is so colorful sometimes I wonder if it could be used for some kind of divination technique. Not to mention the smell after certain food groups, wow that can be mind altering all on its own. Morning sickness and poop do not mesh well. My washer and drier are my basement god and goddess, is that weird?

Oh, were you eating lunch? I’m sorry.

Seriously though, I am still glad we cloth diaper and you really do get use to the poppy diapers. And really if that is the only thing keeping you from cloth diapering, then you are in for a shock, because you will get it on you whether you use disposables or cloth. Since my initially post all those months ago about our choice to go with cloth we have had to buy new ones once, in the next size up. In the 0-15 pound prefold size we purchased 36, but in the 15 to 30 pound size we only bought 18. In retrospect, I wish we would have gotten more, maybe 24, so I didn’t have to do laundry quite so frequently.

This week we ordered 18 bumGenius all-in-one diapers, which are basically a super pimped out version of the cloth diaper. No pins/snappies, no prefolds and covers, these bad boys look and work pretty much like a disposable. Very user-friendly. However at 15 bucks a pop, they are by no means cheap (prefolds are about $1.50 in comparison) making them the most expensive thing my child will ever have the pleasure of pooping in. *knocks on wood and hides her cashmere shawl* We decided on the bumGenius all-in-ones for two reasons, we needed more diapers anyways, especially since we will be going camping for three days during summer solstice and we have a child who thinks diapers are the devil and will fight tooth and nail through a diaper change. bumGeniuses go on and come off very easily, you can even change a diaper with the baby standing, which honestly sounds as close to sweet victory as I am going to get. Besides, you can get orange ones too, how cool is that?

I didn’t just say bad boys when referring to diapers in the last paragraph did I? Oh goddess…

Have we used disposables too? Yes, three times. When he was first born because a newborn’s first bowel movements (called meconium) look and feel like stick tar, when we moved and did not have access to a washer and drier and when him and I have the flu. I could not handle the smell of diarrhea at all, so we used pampers until that cleared up. Disposables definitely still have their place in my world.

Will we be cloth diapering the new baby? Definitely! It is so much easier then I initially thought it would be, even with the current diaper battles. Damian’s old diapers are still in great condition (the ones he is in now are a little worn from walking but should last as well, especially with 18 more on the way.) Having our own washer and drier is an enormous blessing, if we had to share ones (as with many apartments) we probably would not cloth diapers, or we would use a diaper service.

But what about EC you ask? For the new to my blog, EC (elimination communication/infant potty training) is learning your baby’s cues from birth for the bathroom and then taking him to it. We still do EC. I catch about 25% to 50% of his cues on any given day, he always uses the potty in the morning and after naps and will usually hold it until someone helps him onto the potty. He almost never goes in his diaper when we are out or at night anymore. EC was much easier before he started walking but now that he is almost tall enough to get on his little potty by himself, I am hoping he will start to show interest in doing so. We will see. For anyone considering EC for their baby, it takes a lot of dedication, but I still feel it has been worth it.

Speaking of Damian, he hear him waking from his nap, so to the potty we go! And then to vacuum, and finish the dishes and scrub the deck, and walk the plank… Have a great day!