Did you CD your newborn in the hospital?

[Kristina]

Our new babe is due in about three months and we are planning a hospital birth. Ds was born in this same hospital and they do not use or offer cloth. (I started cd'ing ds at 3-4 mo. ) I am determined to totally CD this babe from birth and could really use any input any experienced mama's may have. I figure I could bring my stash with me to the hospital and just bring home a bag of dirty dipes but i really would like to avoid that. I am hoping to stay in the Hospital only one night but you never know, it could be longer. I really didn't mind until I found out we don't have a diaper service in my area so I would be doing the wash immediatly when I got home. So I could come home with all my dipes dirty, not a good thing, right? I just have to be over-prepared. All bases covered???

[teniprice]

I did not cd ds until he was about 17 months. I'd personally not take my cd to the hospital. If you will only be there 24 hours, just use the hospitals diapers and begin cd'ing when you get home. Remember those first hospital diapers...that thick, black poop? Yuck!!!

JMO.
Teniece
Megan 8.10.99
Jacob 10.22.01

[momsmyjob]

I agree. I remember that first poop.

[mamamoo]

HI,
Just thought I'd get another opinion in here. If you are probably only going to be in the hospital a day or two then you could bring them to the hospital. Just throw them in the wash when you get home. It would only be around 15 dipes, maybe less. The meconium dipes are not bad at all. Mine didn't even stain, and I know they didn't get washed until 2-3 days after he was born, maybe more. :LOL I just hate the idea of nasty chemical ridden plastic and paper on a brand new baby bum.

[LaffNowCryLater]

My ds's meconium was not bad at all. It actually looked like BF poop (I formula fed this one).
The only thing for you to watch out for is I think they put the disposable on the baby after the bath in the nursery. You would have to have your dh/SO go with the baby at all times and he would probably have to put the diaper on as you will be in recovery.
I am prg. also but I plan on using the sposies in the hospital but bring cloth with me in my diaper bag for the way home. I rather spend all my concentration on bonding with this baby and starting a healthy nursing relationship.

[Spicey Momma]

I would like to point at what so many mommas forget!!!! Newborns have 1 wet diaper at 1 day, 2 dipes and 2 days and then it begins to pick up between days 3 to 5. You could probley take 5 diaper to the hospital and be FINE!!! I did't plan to CD my DD in the hospital, but the sposies fell off her tiny little butt. So I put her in cloth. Meconium didn't stain my bleached PFs either.

Good luck and CONGRATS!

[aslmere]

We brought tons of dipes with us, and then for the first 24 hours I was conpletely out of it due to narcotics given me to control pain of my nasty nasty tear. So he was in disposables since I didn't change a diaper for the first full day. Once the drugs wore off and I could actually think on went the cloth!
The meconium looks nasty and is hard to get off baby, but dissolved fine in the washer.
We were there for three days and there were 5 or 6 diapers to wash... that was it.
It wasn't as big a deal as I thought it was going to be.


Congrats!

[AahRee]

We CD'd in the hospital, but that's because that's all our hospital had. We weren't planning on CDing, and knew NOTHING about it. DH learned how to fold a CPF and use a Prowrap before I did. :LOL

In your case, though, I'd bring them with you. It probably won't be ALL your dipes, and maybe a good friend will offer to give you a week or two of laundry service as a shower gift? Or maybe you could consider the price of a pack of sposies, and spend that extra $20 on a dozen extra CPFs, just so you have an extra day where you don't have to wash?

[mamamoo]

Originally posted by Spicey Momma
I would like to point at what so many mommas forget!!!! Newborns have 1 wet diaper at 1 day, 2 dipes and 2 days and then it begins to pick up between days 3 to 5. You could probley take 5 diaper to the hospital and be FINE!!! I did't plan to CD my DD in the hospital, but the sposies fell off her tiny little butt. So I put her in cloth. Meconium didn't stain my bleached PFs either.

Good luck and CONGRATS!

I forgot about that!! Yeah it really wouldn't be a big deal, only a few dipes at most!

[Kristina]

Very good points my fellow mama's. DH thinks I'm crazy for thinking about making special arangements to cd in the hospital. I guess I can understand his view, but that doesn't mean I agree. I really love cd'ing and I am very excited to start from birth with this one. I am so glad I have the support here at MDC!

[lexbeach]

We used cloth at the hospital, although the very first diapers my babies wore were sposies (I was still being stitched up when the nurses diapered them). No one gave us a hard time about using cloth at all. The meconium was not a problem. It was funny because once we got them switched into cloth dipes (a few hours after they were born), I really felt like they were MY babies. For some reason, before that it hadn't really clicked yet (I had a not-so-nice cesearean birth). I loved their big cloth diaper butts. We only brought 24 diapers to the hospital, and that was enough for our two babies for three days. The nurses pointed out that with cloth it was much easier to tell when the diaper had been wet (and they wanted us to be writing it all down on a chart : ).

Happy birthing!

Lex

[willowsmama]

I'm planning on bringing cloth diapers to the hospital. My haspital gives you the pack of pamper or has to throw them AWAY!!! It's not sanitary to have all the babies getting diapers from the same package for some reason. I'll just talk to the dr. and the nurses and dh will slap that 1st diaper on Giles' tiny behind.


I remember meconium poo! Dh and dr. handled that diaper, both of them said it's like scraping road tar off a marshmellow! I laughed so hard watching them try to change dd. I was abotu to get out of bed and take but it was way too funny.

[Jilian]

I remember another mama pointing this out and it sounded like a good idea to me:

Use prefolds during the first few meconium days. If the meconium does stain bad, who cares. Preemie prefolds are about $1 each. You could use them as doublers later or pocket diaper inserts. Or if they stain so bad that you don't want to use them as diapers, use them as dust rags

I didn't start cd until DS was around 4 mos But I plan on cding our next baby from the start. IMO newborns need cds more than older babies. Their skin is so new and tender that I couldn't bear to put a sposie on him/her after knowing what I know now about sposies. I only wish I had known sooner

[lovelee]

those of you who cd'd from the start what newborn dipes did you use?

[Pam_and_Abigail]

I took my 20 prefolds to the hospital, and was there for 48 hours. However, dh went home to do laundry the second day. The main reason he did this was that I didn't pack enough underwear for myself (I didn't realize how heavy I would be bleeding). Meconium didn't stain (we used unbl. pf's, maybe that's why). We changed dd every 3 hours. Dh put her first diaper on, she's never been near a sposie, just the way I like it. We were the talk of the floor, with nurses coming in and saying, "oh, you're the parents using cloth" (with a smile). We were famous.

[lexbeach]

Originally posted by bellafinn
those of you who cd'd from the start what newborn dipes did you use?

We used preemie-sized unbleached CPFs. One of our babies was pretty tiny (6-4), but even his "big" brother (8-7) really needed the preemie size to keep from being swallowed up in the diaper. We used (Prorap) preemie and (Nikky/biobottoms) newborn sized wraps.

Lex

[blessed2bamommie]

Originally posted by lexbeach
it was much easier to tell when the diaper had been wet

T Ya know! I have been working in the church nursery, and even though I haven't had a lot of CD babies when I used to babysit when I was younger, I could *not tell when the babes were wet! They should just use a cd!

[tnrsmom]

We used cloth from the start and used Kissaluvs and Diaper babies bitty buns.

eta: the meconium did not stain at all but if you are concerned about that, use a fleece liner.

[jenh]

I cd'd my dd at the hospital- first baby- and it was great.
we used infant sized unblcpf (they were BIG) and NB bummis sww and NB prowraps covers. I only had 2 covers and it worked just fine- I washed them in the sink once.
My suggestion for the meconium is to cut up an old T shirt and use it as liners and throw them away at the hospital. That way you have dirty diapers to take home, but they are not that bad, even if they sit for a day or two. this worked REALLY well.
the only other thing is that we are using clth wipes I did not bring them to the hospital , i HATED the scrathcy disposables ones they gave use.

[Rising Sun]

I used cloth in the hospital. I never let anybody put a paper diaper on Emily. I took my stash, and an extra wet bag. I put the diapers in the wet bag and took them home with me. Hubby dumped them in the washer when we got home, and washed them, per my instructions. He did a fabulous job, and served me dinner as well, while me and baby rested.

I didn't find it any trouble at all. We used cloth liners to avoid stained diapers from the muconium poops. It did stain one white flannel diaper, but the sun got the stain out after a few washes and sunnings. No big deal really.

Also... the nurses and doctors were so excited to see the cute cloth diapers that they kept looking at the diaper she was wearing and oooooing and ahhhhing. It was great!

Teri - nak and playing human couch