We've been looking into cloth diapers for Elizabeth and today we went to check out the options at a local cloth diaper place.

 

Cloth diapers are very appealing to us for a number of reasons:

1. From what we hear, we're going to be doing lots of laundry anyway.  What's another load or two every couple of days?
2. Modern cloth diapers are cute and seem about as convenient as disposables. Our laundry room is also much closer than the store...
3. Washing cloth diapers is cheaper and better for the environment.
4. There is some evidence to suggest that toilet training is easier when using cloth diapers; modern disposables are so good that the kid doesn't feel uncomfortable and is therefore less motivated to learn to use the potty.

Ottawa Cloth Diapers is a home-based business run out of Rockland (20 minutes outside Ottawa).  The owner Vicky has a dizzying number of different kinds of diapers in stock to look at and compare.  A mom herself (she's actually due with her second around the same time as I am), Vicky really knows what she is talking about.  We spent quite a bit of time going over the differences (it's like a whole new language!) and thinking about what would work for us.

 

Our options were actually quite limited by my need for natural fabrics - I was very glad we decided to go and look at what was there and checking out what it felt like!  In the end we decided to go with prefolds, diaper covers and a disposable liner.  

 

Prefolds are super cheap compared to the pocket diapers or "All in Ones" (equivalent to disposables) and the materials used don't make my skin crawl!  We liked the idea of being able to use the prefolds as cloths - they seem more versatile.  Plus some of the diaper covers have frogs on them. How could we resist? In addition to the Super Whisper Wraps we also got a few Polar Bummis which are a soft fleece.

 

The disposable liner idea is something I'd never noticed when researching options online, but the idea of having a flushable liner for poopy diapers was what really sold Brendan on trying out cloth diapers, and it sounds like a good compromise.

 

Since we're doing cloth diapers, we decided we would try doing the cloth wipes thing as well.  A little less in the way of chemicals and garbage seems to make sense.  We decided to try Ottawa Cloth Diaper's wipes sampler package since we have no idea which we'll find most useful.

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Baby and I are doing well! She is -very- active and frequently kicks me awake. It's kind of neat but I wish she'd sleep during the night... I suspect that's not the last time I'm going to wish that either. We've been trying to figure out what things we need to get for the baby and the conclusion is that we're not really sure. Pretty much everything I think although it's hard to say what is essential baby equipment versus what is gimmicky clutter. The closer I get to March the less I think I know anything about babies. We've managed to acquire a stroller / car seat and a crib. And I have a few blankets, but not much else yet.

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Things are pretty good here except that baby has entered growth spurt phase (meaning I am requiring long naps again and early to bed - booo). It's very inconvenient - we're in the middle of a LOONG month at work - the final push to get this project finished. I've had meeting after meeting after meeting after which we get to frantically fix bugs until my next meeting and hope we got most of them. Not really very fun. My sister is bugging me because I didn't go for Sunday dinner last week (crashed at 8:30 or something instead) even though my parents have been away for 2 weeks and I haven't actually seen them for more than three weeks. I doubt I'm going this week either. Sigh. So not quite keeping up with things. I'm totally going on strike after December 6th…

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I definitely am beginning to feel like a walrus. This might have something to do with now weighing more than my super-tall husband. Luckily my sister-in-law Yukiko is pregnant too and she can sympathize…

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Finding clothing that fits is starting to get challenging. I'm basically down to one skirt, one dress (not suitable for everyday wear), a pair of jean overalls (challenging for me to get on and off on my own) and one pair of pants that make me itch (too much polyester). I decided that I need to bite the bullet and actually go shopping (shudder…) I especially was hoping to find skirts or dresses that I can wear for work. I can't wear many synthetic fibres, so you can imagine that I was frustrated to find out that apparently all maternity dresses sold these days are short sleeved and goes above the knee. Do the designers not know it is currently winter?

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