Critique this newbie's stash!

[AnnieA]

O.K. so I'm 14 weeks pregnant with my first baby and I've started building my cloth stash. So far I've found the following on craigslist:

2 Bummis Super Whisper Wraps white size small

1 Bummis Super Whisper Wrap celery dot size small

1 Bummis Super Brite pink dot size small

1 Mother-Ease Rikki blue size small

1 random dipe that appears to be a fitted prefold?

Here's what I'm planning to buy:

2 Bummis Super Brite size newborn

1 Litewrap size newborn

1 dozen GMD size newborn

2 dozen GMD flats

1 or 2 Flip sets (comes with 2 covers and 6 stay dry inserts)

Snappis

Questions:

1. Am I being overly optimistic thinking I can survive those first couple of weeks with what I have listed above? I don't want to go crazy buying dipes if I have a larger newborn. (Both DH and I were over 8 lbs at birth so probably won't be a tiny baby unless I go early)

2. Will the flats work o.k. with a newborn? I know there's a learning curve (not overly concerned about that) but I like that the flats will work for a while.

3. Has anyone tried the Flip covers on a newborn? Are they huge?

4. Have I gone off the deep end and have no clue what I'm getting myself in to?

5. My mother has told me horror stories about trying to use cloth with both my sister and I and apparently we had such sensitive bottoms that she had to give up and switch to disposables. This was the mid-70s. Have diapers changed since then? Should I tell her to zip it if she starts in on that again?

[chel]

my dd was under 7 lbs.  while i did use gmd orange (newborn) for about 4w, i had the yellows as my backup stash and felt i could have easily gone with only yellow.  you might consider switching.

since my dd was small, i did need xsm covers.

[ocelotmom]

Originally Posted by AnnieA 

5. My mother has told me horror stories about trying to use cloth with both my sister and I and apparently we had such sensitive bottoms that she had to give up and switch to disposables. This was the mid-70s. Have diapers changed since then? Should I tell her to zip it if she starts in on that again?

Diapers have changed (prefolds, which were the norm, are still common, but there are also wicking fabrics that keep the skin drier if you need it), covers are more breathable, washing techniques have changed (wet bucket and bleaching are usually not recommended anymore), gentle detergents are available...

Some people still find their babies can't do cloth. Others switch to cloth because disposables cause rashes. It all depends on the baby.

[no5no5]

Let me preface this by saying that everybody's preferences are different.  So, this is just my own take on it. 

With DD, I got a pretty wide variety, because I wasn't sure what I'd like.  We had a few whisper wraps, but they were a lot less breathable than I expected.  Lack of breathability and infrequent changing are two of the big culprits in diaper rash, IMO.  (And I think in the 70's cloth diapering was often a prefold or two with plastic pants and not changing until absolutely necessary.  If that's how your mom did it, that'd explain it.)  We basically did not use any PUL at all, for that reason.  Maybe that won't be an issue for you, but I wouldn't put all my eggs in one basket.

Wrt the number of diapers you plan to get, I think that's fine as long as you don't mind washing often.  We had about that many, and we had to wash once a day in the beginning, but DD was possibly the world's most hydrated baby.  LOL.  Also I think flat diapers are fine, though I haven't used them yet.  We plan on using them almost exclusively for this baby, but we used mostly prefolds with DD. 

Wrt sizing, we didn't get any newborn sizing, and we did fine.  DD was 7 lbs 6 oz, FWIW.  We really liked prefolds for a newborn (less so when she started crawling), so I imagine flat diapers will also be fine. 

HTH.  :)

[WifeofAnt]

NAK

I have small BSWWs.  Way too huge in the legs on my 11.5-12 lb baby.  Even when they 'worked' 4 covers (2 bsww) wasn't enough and I was washing every day to twice a day.

I would think they'd be a little big on a newborn if they fit about the same as BumGenius, especially before the cord stump falls off.  My LO (born at 8 lb 10 oz) didn't quite fit into the BumGenius until about 3 or 4 weeks.

[AnnieA]

Thanks for all the opinions!

So it sounds like I could possibly skip the orange-edge GMDs and just go straight to yellow-edge GMDs? Will those fit in the Bummis newborn covers? Also thanks for the feedback on my mother's experiences. I know she did the wet bucket because she told me all the steps she did to try to strip the diapers and and she mentioned pouring the wet bucket in to the toilet. I explained to her that you don't have to do the wet bucket now and she seemed surprised that the diapers would still get clean.

I'm considering adding some AIOs to my stash. Anyone have any preferences or favorites that they'd like to point me towards?

[crystal_buffaloe]

We started using the Flip diapers on DD when she was 6 weeks -- I'm thinking she was about 9 pounds 9 ounces at that point. It probably depends on how big you grow your baby :) She's still using them now at 8 months.

[cristeen]

I'd agree to skip the NB PFs, and go straight to the next size.  I wouldn't skip the tiny covers, though.  The only cover that fit my 8 pounder was a preemie size.  It's all about shape.  We actually went coverless a lot of the time (and did a lot of laundry).  But we also had some wool soakers, which are much more forgiving in the size department (use a drawstring), although they're a bigger pain to wash.  Wool breaths, which PUL does not, and in babies prone to rashes, that can make a huge difference.  It's also much more difficult to ignore a wet in wool, since it's not water-proof, only water-resistant. 

At 14 wks, you have plenty of time to learn to knit or crochet and make several if you're so inclined.  We used wool pretty exclusively (meaning we had 1 PUL cover per size) until DS was almost a year.  Then we bought some pockets because we started having rash issues, and I was afraid it was the dipes (it wasn't, but it took me months to figure out the cause).  Until that rash outbreak, we hadn't had a single rash in his life using wool.

I'll also say that I heard the horror stories about how sensitive my butt was as a baby (my mom used cloth), and the special wash routine that she had to use... a vinegar rinse and hanging them to dry in the sun.  Apparently back then that was strange - now both those things are among the first recommended. 

[AnnieA]

Originally Posted by crystal_buffaloe 

We started using the Flip diapers on DD when she was 6 weeks -- I'm thinking she was about 9 pounds 9 ounces at that point. It probably depends on how big you grow your baby :) She's still using them now at 8 months.

Did they fit her well at that point or were they still a little big?

[Ola_]

For AIOs I've heard good things about the BumGenius sized AIOs and Nana's Bottoms.  We got some Nana's Bottoms in size small (she has newborn and preemie sizes also and lists the weights for each) but since they don't last that long and we're not expecting a tiny kiddo, I thought I'd jump straight to the smalls.

http://hyenacart.com/nanasbottoms/

(she has a discount code listed there so be sure to use it if you decide to order from her).