Diaper Stash

The post below ended up being ever so much more verbose than I had intended, but I like how much info is there so I’m leaving it.  Just warning you.  :)

Today I washed and stripped all of my pocket diapers, so it was the perfect opportunity to count them!  I only ever wash half or so at a time, so it’s too hard to count the whole stash.  But I pulled them out of the washer after several hot washes (and buried my nose in the smell of nothing!!), hung them on their racks, and had the best view for counting.  I lost track at some point a while ago of how many we had actually purchased, but I was curious!  (Not curious enough to dig through the dirty pail though.) 

Pocket Diapers that we currently use:
19 one-size Bum Genius (fit both James and Natalie, easily interchangeable, we obviously have the most of these)
2 one-size Fuzzi Bunz (theoretically fit both kiddos, but are harder to change between sizes and the last time I tried them on James he was still a little skinny for them; I think they’d fit okay now, but we use these for Natalie only right now)
2 small Fuzzi Bunz (fit James only)
3 medium Fuzzi Bunz (fit Natalie only)

So that’s 26 diapers for two kiddos.  That will last us 2 days without washing, plus a little drying time… but just barely.  We usually throw some prefolds with covers in there somewhere.  We just pulled out the two smalls for James, so I was doing it with 24 for a while.  I wouldn’t want to do it with less.

Pocket Diapers out of the current rotation:
1 x-small Fuzzi Bunz (never fit James very well, even though it was very cute; would have fit Natalie as an infant (she had more chunk))
1 medium Bum Genius All-in-One (fit Natalie until pretty recently, will fit James in a few months)
1 newborn/x-small Sposo Easy all-in-one (I loved this one for James when he was newborn.  He grew out of it pretty fast, but I’d actually consider getting a couple more of these if we have more children; they fit so well and held in the newborn explosions.)

And since I was counting, I tallied up my prefolds, flats, and covers as well.  Someday I will want to know.  :)

Covers:
2 Thirsties x-small
1 Prowrap Classic newborn
1 Bummis newborn
1 Thirsties small
1 Thirsties medium
1 Bummis medium
1 Thirsties Duo size one
1 Thirsties Duo size two
2 Bum Genius Econobum one-size

A lot of those were purchased to try out on my new little baby, and some I would buy again; others not so much.  I love the Thirsties Duo covers.  They snap to allow for different sizes.  There’s a small one and a larger one.  James is on the largest setting of the small size and Natalie is on the medium setting of the large size.  Both the Prowrap and the Bummis newborn fit very well under the umbilical stump, but they didn’t fit very long after that.  The Thirsties Duo size one fit just as well and is still useable five months later.  The Thirsties x-small didn’t fit well under the stump, but fit soon after and James is just growing out of the them.  He can wear the small now.  Natalie is just growing out of the medium sized covers but they’re still pretty big on James (although functional).  I haven’t used the Econobums very much but they fit either kiddo, which is cool.  They’re very inexpensive, but they don’t have double gussets around the legs, so I don’t know how they’ll do with explosive diapers.  Right now I’m keeping them in the car with some flats as back up for when I forget the diaper bag.  I may also decide to use those as the kids’ swim diapers.  I will either do those or one of the Thirsties covers.  Whatever I decide will then become a swim-only diaper, as the chlorine will mess with it.  They make special swim diapers but they’re basically just covers with a little webbing or something inside.  I’ve read lots that most people just use a cover. 
If you just read that whole last paragraph, sorry.  It ended up rambling a lot, but it’s pretty much for me.  :)

Prefolds/Flats:
12 flats (These are smaller than I’d anticipated and not as fluffy, but I think they may soften and fluff up with more laundering.)
2 unbleached econobum prefolds – fit both kids, not sure about the absorbency yet.
24 orange-edge newborn prefolds
12 yellow-edge small prefolds
2 red-edge medium prefolds
4 brown-edge large prefolds

In hindsight, I would have gotten just one dozen of the orange, but fleshed out the medium and large to half-dozen each.  I really like the sized prefolds, even though they’re a little more expensive.  They’re soooo fluffy and absorbent, and the sizing isn’t very “strict.”  James can wear the yellow or red.  Natalie can wear the red or brown.  I often use the orange to beef up the absorbency of a flat diaper as well as for burp cloths.

I really love using pockets to diaper my children, and I’m glad I have a large enough stash to do so almost exclusively.  The prefolds and covers allow for more “wiggle room” in our routine, which is very nice.  I also like having them when the diaper rash is pretty bad.  They’re something I can wrap around Natalie’s sore bottom that is very soft and very breathable.  They are easy enough to use, but don’t travel quite as easily and don’t work for daycare situations.  The pockets go to the nursery and MDO.  The teachers have been so supportive of that, even though it may not make them jump for joy.  :)  The prefolds are also not absorbent enough for nighttime for either child, although they worked that way when James was newborn because he woke more frequently and had more frequent changes anyway.  If we’re running low on clean pockets, I reserve them for the coming night, using prefolds for the day until I can get the diapers washed and dried.  We only very infrequently use a disposable diaper anymore, which I just love!!

I will have to do a post another time on just how little trash we generate compared to a few years ago.  I’m just so excited about that!