need some advice on stash...

[friendlymamma]

Hey mammas,
My LO is coming in 2 weeks : and I'm not ready at all on the diaper end. Pretty much ready in every other way. Anyway I ordered diapers via a coop and it's taking longer than I though it would. I ordered:
1 doz preemie PF's
2 doz infant PF's
4 nb fitteds
2 small fitteds

I have:
3 nb/xs covers
2 sm covers
3 BG OS (well, more if you count what I have for my son, but I've heard these don't work well on nb's)

Looks like I might get the preemies and fitteds before the baby comes, but for sure not the infants (could be I get these when baby is 2-3 weeks old). So I'm just wondering, what would you recommend me getting in addition to what I have coming? I don't want to end up with too many diapers, either, maybe I should just get by with sposies? I know I also should get some more covers, any suggestions? Should I just not panic and be patient?

Any advice appreciated. This is my first time to CD a newborn, and I just want to be all ready when she comes, so I guess I am getting a little panicky.

[Michigan Mama]

If it were me, I'd want probably 2-3 more covers. I like Thirsties. Make sure you check the weight range of whatever you buy. Thirsties xsmall fits 6-12 lbs - some people would think they could skip the xsmall, but a small would be too big generally.

With the pf's, it's hard to say what size you'd want - if your baby is small, you might want the premie/nb, but they probably won't fit for long. The infant will fit longer.
You might go through a doz pf's in one day, and your fitteds, too. If you don't mind doing laundry daily until you get your other dipes, you might be able to squeak by. When our ds was born, the hospital gave us sposies to take home, so that might help. Your dd might swim in a one-size, but you could always use that if you get stuck.

If you are thinking to order more, I personally would order maybe another dozen or 18 more infant pf's. Just to help you keep your sanity at the beginning. Who wants to wash daily when you're trying to recover?! (well, not me, anyhow.) I personally probably wouldn't go for more nb pf's - they outgrow them so fast!

This time around I"ll mostly use pf's (due Aug!), but I'm also thinking about getting a few little aio's for those midnight diaper changes when you can barely open your eyes...

[friendlymamma]

Thank you so much for chiming in. I really appreciate your input. I think I will get 1 more nb cover and 2 more small covers, and maybe I 'll just go ahead and get another dozen infant pf's. I will likely have a small-ish baby (I would guess not bigger than 8 pounds), so I hope all this will work out! Thanks again!

[Michigan Mama]

Good luck and enjoy that baby!! We won't find out what we're having for another 5-6 weeks, but I'm excited to start diaper shopping/sewing again. :

[buttercupmama]

So hard to guess the baby's size at this point. My baby is petite like every other woman she's related to...and at almost 9 months, she's still using the small Thirsties diaper cover. The infant prefold no longer snappis, but we just lay it in the cover now instead. Don't like snappis anyway and this has given us at least 3 months extra use out of the infant size. So keep in mind that the cover could actually make the biggest difference. Depends on your diapering style.

Fitteds are great for EBF poop since it's a lot less likely to just ooze out like it does in prefolds. If you're going to be using elimination communication, it's less of an issue. Since my baby is petite, things tend to fit her all wrong--including the prefolds--and we never could contain the poop unless we used fitteds. If you're not planning to nurse, then it's also not as big an issue.

By the way, we only switched to Thirsties about 3 months ago. She was just at the lower end of the recommended weight, and like everything else, the 'right' size was too big. She took about 2 months to really grow into them and I still think the crotch is too wide.

So we've tried PUL and polar fleece, and when the Thirsties wear out--the aplix in one is about to go, and we have 5--or she outgrows them--they might actually wear out first--we'll be going with polar fleece all the way. I just think if I was wearing diapers, I'd prefer to have the fleece against my skin than the plasticy feel of the PUL. A more natural, soft feel that helps retain your warmth...sounds good to me, at least. I may actually give wool a shot. I've only heard good things about it. But I know I can always fall back on the fleece.

My baby was 7 lbs. 4 oz. and born when she was due pretty much. She came early by 16 minutes because of induction, so it's basically splitting hairs to mention it. But you get the picture; she's naturally a little one. The infant prefolds were too big for her initially. She seems to outgrow the sizes every 4 months. But that's mostly affected by snappis. If you don't plan to use them, as I said before, you can get almost double the usage out of the prefolds by just laying them in the cover. So even the preemie prefolds could last a while with this method. Initially, I wished that I had considered them, but babies grow so fast. It became a non-issue quickly. The infant prefolds are getting to the point now where the dimensions are just too small, so I'm going to be prefold shopping soon for the next size up.

[friendlymamma]

Buttercup - how many infant pf's do you have? How many fitteds? How many cover? Just curious, I think I'm going to place one more order to get it right! Oh, and thanks so much for your input!

[buttercupmama]

No problem.

We have 2 dozen infant prefolds and 2 dozen one size up from Green Mountain--though I don't recommend those. Then we have 3 hemp fitteds. I used to just time the poops well. Now it doesn't matter anymore--yay for solid poop! Then we have 5 of the PUL covers and 1 fleece. With elimination communication added in, we'll go through the stash in about a week. It's because I change every tiny accident which we tend to get every single time I set her down for just 5 minutes even after pottying...

[RGsMom]

Congrats, I'm due in two weeks also! I would definitly get a couple more covers, but you don't really know what size baby you'll have, so your baby might be able to fit in the BG One Size. Usually doesn't take too long for companies to ship stuff out either so once you know your babies size, you could go from there. Hopefully the Infant Prefolds will get to you soon, but if the preemies are not absorbent enough, just remember to double up when using them.

I hope everything goes well for you!

[Smirkin]

We used disposables for the first few days after the hospital, and with the meconium poop it really seemed so much easier to use disposables until that tarry stuff was gone - we had been given some disposables from the hospital, but we also had some from a friend (10 or so) and we went through those too, so it might be worth your while to get a small pack of newborn disposables.

We used the newborn prefolds and we had 24, which seemed like a good number - we washed every other day or so. I agree with a PP that 12 might not be enough. FYI, we still use the newborn prefolds as inserts and as liners for the changing table, so they are still useful even after baby outgrows them.

DD was 6 lbs 8 oz at birth, and she fit in the newborn prefolds for about 4 weeks. She fit into the newborn size covers for about 6 weeks.

Good luck! Hope you have a healthy and satisfying labor/delivery!