Newborn cloth diapers-what has worked/what has not

My baby is now 12 pounds and we are transitioning out of the newborn diapers and into one sized options. Before I get rid of my newborn diapers I can share what I liked and what I didn't.
Newborn covers-
 thirsties cover x-small- worked great easy to use,never any leaks with these
 bummis newborn cover- worked great, super cute print never any meals. He grew out of this one faster that the thirsties.
 fleece cover- made by a work at home mom- I did not like this one. It was nice and soft but instantly wet and I did not quite understand the point. It was wet instantly.
 newborn prefolds-
     These things were giant on my baby and he wasn't that small. They looked silly on him the first 2 weeks. I bought bummis organic prefolds and oso cosy ones.
     I had some flat diapers that I bought to use a burp cloths. These were my favorite diaper!! Nice and trim and plenty absorbent for a newborn. I just folded them and put them in the covers.
    I had a few kissaluvs size 0- they were nice but they leaked faster than the prefolds and flats. They seemed bulky on the baby and he grew out of them pretty fast.
  All in ones--
thirsties all in ones-x-small I hated these. They leaked every time. I thought these would be my favorite starting out but they just did not work for us. I read great things about these diapers so not sure what the problem is.
monkey doodles all in one-small-- I liked these. They leaked about 1/3 of the time. They were soft and cute. I did not use them too much because they still seem to leak. They were much better than the thirsties.
kushies- These were the best all in ones I had. I did not like the fabric and they looked cheap. That being said these leaked much less than the other all in ones. They were harder to get dry.
Pocket diaper
I had a handful of happy hienys pocket diapers size small. They were pretty good. I could get a good fit with these and did not have an issue with leaks. They did not come with inserts and it was a little hard to find inserts that fit them. I used the bum genius newborn inserts and was happy with them. No leaks, looked cute, fit fairly trim. These were kinda expensive because I bought diapers them inserts on top of that.
One sized diapers-
  I have not used most of my one sized diapers. They are way to big for my baby. (even though most of them say 8pds.) The Rumparooz fit well at about 9-10 pounds. I really like these. Never any leaks and they are really cute. I am not sure I see these fitting until potty training but we will see!!

At night I bought some fitteds called lollipops off ebay and a wool soaker from kissaluvs. I LOVE this night time duo. NEVER leaks. I left a newborn in this combination up to 6-7 hours without an issue. I still use this nighttime routine at 10 weeks and now up to 10 hours no issues.

If I cloth diapered another newborn I would stick to flat diapers with a bunch of covers. Nothing fancy, nothing expensive. These were very easy to use. (I never tried any special folds just laid them in the cover) The flats are now great in the one sized pocket diapers and much less bulky than the regular inserts. I would skip the all in one diapers-they didn't measure up and were much more expensive than other diapers. Love the wool at night, I see that being our routine for a long time.





                                   
                                    David newborn photo wearing a  rumparooz

New Diapers

Almost all my diapers are a result of Kelly's Closet. I found a new company started by a work at home mom and decided to try them out. Diapers were only about 10 bucks and they were super cute. I ordered a soft cow diaper a "champ" diaper and a silky monkey one. I had an issue with shipping charges and the problem was dealt with promptly (good customer service is always a plus!)
Diapers arrived super fast. I ordered them late on Thursday, they made it onto baby's butt on Monday!! Packaging was okay. I would like to see them not come in plastic (the whole "green" thing) No need for packaging really-they come in a mailer already.

Looked at the champ diaper and first things that stick out are the snaps to snap the insert in, the fact that the pocket is open on both sides so you don't have to remove the insert. (One less thing to remember!!) I am not sure though if you have to unsnap the insert before wash. Color is nice and the snaps are all different colors so they are more daddy friendly I suppose. (I could tell my husband to snap him onto the blue snaps.)  They look well made and durable.
I am not thrilled about the monkey diaper. It is more girly than I thought and I was hoping the "silky" would feel like my ecobunz diaper. I love the feel of those!! I will give it a try though. I am pretty sure I read that if I don't like the diapers I can return them for 2 weeks or something like that. I will have to look into that.
The cow diaper is beyond adorable. It is so soft and cuddly. I decided to put this one on baby first since it is so cute! Fits him great and I could tell it would have fit him as a newborn without issue. At 10 weeks old and 11.8 pounds I am not using the wrap feature for newborns. I can imagine that would have been just right at birth (8.5) Ran a few errands with this dipe and spent a good chunk of time in the car. No leaks-still can't get over how cute these are!!
3 diapers cost me right around 30 bucks (32 I think) and shipping was only 5 bucks.
I might have found my first favorite diaper!!

Help with smelly diapers!!

     I knew from the beginning that my cloth diaper laundry is the biggest hurdle I must overcome. I live in Phoenix AZ and we have super hard water. Our water is worse than anywhere I've ever experienced. While I researched cloth diapers cloth diaper care during my pregnancy I knew laundry was a challenge. From what I understand hard water does not allow the diapers to rinse properly and buildup means smelly diapers and diapers that do not absorb properly. Before David arrived I bought a bag of Rockin Green hard rock and a box of Grovia tiny bubbles. From reviews I found, these seemed to combat stinky diapers the best. Rockin Green looks like people's favorite for hard water.
     My first attempt at a laundry routine
-rinse each diaper (read somewhere to let diapers see as much water as possible)
-I use a Cabrio He Washer that is top loading without an agitator I use the bulky setting on hot/extra rinse/pre soak. I put the soil level on high and the spin on medium
- I scoop of Rockin Green Hard Rock
-wash every 3 days
  This attempt failed miserably. At 2 weeks old I noticed a slight odor when I changed the baby. By 3 weeks old it was worse. The back of the Rockin Green said to soak the diapers overnight if they smelled and you have hard water. Since I can't soak in the washer I filled the bathtub up with the hottest water possible 3 scoops of Rockin Green and all the diapers.
  New Laundry routine
-same as above but begin with an overnight pre soak.
  I hope this is not long term because using 3 scoops of Rockin Green to soak and then one more to wash twice a week could get costly.
  This attempt also failed. Baby smelled horrible. As soon as his diapers had a small amount of pee he smelled like old nasty laundry. When I filled the bathtub up at night the smell could almost knock you out. The whole bathroom smelled like old urine and old laundry. I did this for 2 weeks hoping to see a difference.  
  Finally I read about stripping diapers and using a water softener in the wash routine. I bought water softener at the grocery store and a bottle of original Dawn.
Stripping diapers--
  I used a couple squirts of Dawn in the washer. I washed everything! After 1 wash I rinsed them 3 times. I did not see any more bubbles so figured this was enough rinsing. I ran another wash cycle with 1 scoop Rockin Green and 1/2 cup water softener. I rinsed them 2  extra times to be safe and prayed.
  This time it worked!! No stinky baby!
New wash routine
  1 rinse on low spin cycle. (read this will help get more water in the washer)
   same wash cycle-bulky items on hot wash etc..
  1 scoop Hard Rock and 1/2 cup water softener.
I decided not to rinse each diaper because the water softener seemed to be the issue.
  This worked for a few weeks. Baby is now 10 weeks old and I notice the stinky smell coming back. I am in the process of pulling all the microfiber out of my diapers and replacing it with hemp/bamboo/etc. type liners. These are supposed to have less issues with smell. They still stink for me. I tried using 2 scoops of Rockin Green instead of the 1. (I read sometimes you are not using enough soap.) This did not work at all. Diapers smell worse. I tried using some extra rinse cycles (I am a little worried about my water bill) No help.
  Today I am stripping all my diapers with Dawn once more. I am going to give the tiny bubbles soap a try. I will use one scoop of tiny bubbles with 1/2 cup water softener. Diapers are going to get rinsed before going in the pail. Crossing my fingers tiny bubbles is going to be better than the Rockin Green.


Side note- I always line dry my diapers. Since I live in Arizona there is no reason not to. I do throw my wipes, inserts, perfolds and fitted into the dryer for a couple minutes after they dry so they get fluffy!
 

  

Super Short Intro

Hello-
  I am the mother of 3 kids (plus a stepchild) and also run and in home daycare. I was first exposed to modern cloth from a mother I did childcare for last year. I fell in love with her diapers and decided that my next baby would be a cloth baby! I took a while to get this blog up and running due to kids and holidays and life in general. My newest addition, David Alexander, is 9 weeks old born 1/10/2011. I want this blog to help out new parents who want to try cloth too but are a bit intimidated by all the choices.

I am currently cloth diapering a 9 week old baby full time (he is only breast fed) and 1 daycare child 18 months old while he is at my house.

I will get my blog up to date in the next few days including what I bought before the baby was born, wash routines, what worked, what is working, what failed etc. I will keep this updated regularly as we try new things and the baby gets bigger!