back-up diapers/clothing suggestions

[nilatti]

So, my 11-week-old boy is HUGE. 95% huge. My husband and I are both really small, so we're like...where did this baby come from? :)

At not-yet-3-months, he's getting a bit big for the prefolds we've been using (we're using them with a snappi...he probably could wear them longer with 2 safety pins, but DH really hated dressing/undressing the baby until the snappi came into our lives).

Our diaper stash, not counting the prefolds & covers, consists of 4 FuzziBunz one-size pocket dipes and about a dozen homemade ones that are very similar. If we do well with EC, this could last us a few days (we've had 4 dirty dipes in the past 40 hours! but this is a record). If we go through a time when the baby is fussy or not cuing strongly, that's like...a day's worth, and maybe we're dipping into our emergency back-up sposies. 

SO.

Given limited resources of time/money, should I:

1. Make/buy more one-size pocket dipes
2. Make/buy baby undies (the kind that hold 1 pee worth). If so, patterns/sources?
3. Make/buy wool longies. If so, patterns/sources?
4. Something else.

A few relevant details:

We live in VA, which gets cold in the winter (now). We've found that our (esp DH's) success with EC has a lot to do with the convenience of the baby's clothing. If it's a hassle to get on and off, we will postpone until we're REALLY SURE he's signalling, and then it's often too late. Also, I'm a fairly accomplished seamstress (used to do it professionally) and an ok (but not fantastic) knitter.

Thanks!

[emmaegbert]

I would go ahead and make longies for now- since they'll be useful anyways as a winter layer. I've made (and plan to make more) "sweaterpants"... look online or in the diapermaking forum for ideas.

Maybe make a prefold belt that you can use to extend the life of your prefolds? (don't need to be pinned).

I've used cloth diaper backups until DD was about 15m and very reliably not peeing in her pants (well, most of the time, except for the ocassional days when she's not reliable, oh well!) I personally didn't find undies that useful until she was really mostly dry and a toddler. But thats me. I did modify some gerbers with a homemade sort of sewn-in doubler and they were okay.

You can also just rinse out the inserts and then wash with your regular laundry, if you do that more often than diaper wash??

When your baby is a little bigger (or even now?) you can use some too-big sposie pull-ups instead of regular sposies, those are so much easier to, um, pull down (and back up). At least you'll be less deterred from doing the EC when in the sposie backup.

[nstewart]

A couple ideas.  One, you could buy some next-size up prefolds (premium size) as they are quite inexpensive.  What I like about the prefolds with a snappi and no cover is that they are easy to get on and off, and if I miss a pee I know right away and can immediately change my little guy.  Also, the prefolds are handy just to have for ECing.  For example, we potty DS on the toilet when he has to poop and since he likes to face forward, and also tends to pee at the same time, I place a premium size cloth prefold in front of the toilet to use like a piddle matt.  It catches the pee.

The other idea is to buy or make a couple of covers for your current size prefolds.  Thirsties size small would work well.  Given your high success rate, you could totally get away with 2 covers and just fold the prefold into the cover.  The disadvantage to this is that it would be harder to know immediately if you miss a pee.  However, they are inexpensive, readily available and super easy to take on and off.

[theboysmama]

I always recommend going strait to cloth pull ups. They make it so easy to pull the pants up and down therefore taking hte child more. They hold one big pee and are waterproof. The ones that I had fit dd from 4 months till almost 2 (she doesn't need them now but they still fit her). I don't sew so I purchased mine from www.sassycloth.com they would probably be easy to make if you know how to do that kind of thing. They are reasonably priced though ($6-$8 each)

[riboflavin]

Here's a nice site made by a mommy who EC'd. http://doityourselfec.blogspot.com/ There are a couple different trainer patterns on it, as well as other free patterns that ECers could use.