Cloth Diapering a Newborn

I will fully admit, I don't have ANY experience with cloth diapering a newborn.  I had wonderful friends and family that took care of over a months worth of disposables when Marsi was born. Although number 2 is not on the way, I am nothing but a planner. I am glad I started research early because I had an idea of what I wanted, but it took me a month of research to figure out what I am going to invest in.

My first idea was that I knew I wanted prefold diapers and wipe out diaper covers.  I love the prefold/cover idea with Marsi, so why not do what I know with a newborn?

I have such good reviews of the Chinese prefold cloth diapers from Cottonbabies so of course we are going with them again in the unbleached infant size.  I am thinking about getting 3 dozen so I can wash diapers every 3 days or so.  Since I already knew the prefolds that I wanted, I just needed 4-6 good covers to go over them.

I had the idea to make my own diaper covers.  I did lots of research, got free patterns, did pricing and decided to scrap that idea.  Even with 50% off coupons because of the start up costs with snaps and the pliers that put the snaps on, it would be better to just buy covers...bummer.

Then I researched covers.  I looked at all the sizing charts for so many brands of covers. Newborn covers just seemed SO small.  Marsi would have never been able to fit in a newborn cover, but she would have been too small to fit into the one size covers we had for her.  So, what to do, what to do?  I found this size chart for diaper covers and none of them made me happy.  First off, there were really no snap covers.  I have only used snap for Marsi, so I have wanted to get snap covers for a newborn as well.  Also, I knew I wanted leg gussets.  I don't have any diapers with gussets, but I think that it is a great idea with newborn breast milk poop.  None of those would work...bummer.  More research.

Finally today, I found and settled on a lower middle priced cover with excellent reviews and all the specs that I wanted!! Snaps, gussets, priced under $15, good reviews.  Thirsties Duo.  First off, I have to say I love the Green Mountain Diapers website!  They have pictures of all the diapers on newborns, toddlers and everything in between!  It really helped me visualize how the diapers work and look on a baby.  I could honestly spend hours on that website, but I digress.

The first thing I liked about this cover is that it is a psedo-one size diaper cover.  Let me explain...different sized babies need different lengths in the rise of the diaper.  On one sized diapers you can change the length of the rise by snapping them up or down in size.  With Thirsties Duo, you have a cover that isn't just a newborn sized diaper.  It is either a newborn or a small size in one cover.  There is also a size 2 diaper for older children up to potty training.  Since Marsi was big when she was born, I didn't want to invest in newborn diapers just to have a baby in them for 2 weeks or less.  But, I also have the possibility of having a smaller than Marsi baby needing a newborn diaper longer.  This diaper cover solves this conundrum!  The size one diaper will last as long as it is needed in order to have a baby fit in the rest of the one sized diapers we already got for Marsi.

So, far in advance, I know what I will be putting on the butt of my next child.  At least that is decided!