Tuesday, August 19, 2008

I Am Addicted to Cloth Diapers

Some people use cloth diapers because they are environmentally friendly. Others because they don't want to put something full of toxic chemicals on their baby every day. Still others enjoy the economic benefits of investing in reusable cloth. And of course there's the comfort that comes from swaddling babe in cotton, velour, and feece, as opposed to paper and plastic. These are all good reasons to use cloth diapers, but I must confess that I love them because they are so damn cute!
Before my daughter became pregnant, I thought cloth diapers were disgusting. Who the heck wants to wash poopy diapers?! But then I started seeing pictures of today's cloth diapers. Oh the colors, the prints, the choices! And I found out, laundry was not nearly as troublesome as I'd thought. There are plenty of cloth diapering websites online where you can learn all about cloth diapering, but this blog is about my addiction.
Like with anything else, when I want to buy something, I scoured the Internet researching, and trying to find the best, prettiest, and most inexpensive diapers I could find. I found some adorable little newborn all-in-one's in pretty pastel colors, and ordered those. Then I started obsessing over pastel-colored fitteds that everyone raves about for newborns. I had to have some of those. I actually found a local store with them. I also ordered some custom pocket diapers in the cutest prints-monkeys, ducks, stars.
Little did I know that I was playing in the amateur league in my cloth diaper quest. It came about as an offhand comment from the woman who runs the local cloth diaper store. I had commented that even if one purchases at the high end of the cloth diaper spectrum, money is still saved over buying disposables for several years. It was then that I was informed that people did in fact buy diapers that cost $50-$100 a piece! What?! Where?! Hyena Cart-I'd heard of it before, but was overwhelmed when I looked at their listings. But, I decided to take a peek.
After finding out how to navigate Hyena Cart, which is an online marketplace for hand-crafted goods, I started scrolling through the daily listings using the calendar. It didn't take long till I found a beautiful all-in-one called Duck, Duck, Goose in a store called Clothmopolitan. It had a green on green star pattern all over, and a duck on the butt! I HAD to have it!!! So I hit the "buy" button. The next day I saw an aution for a diaper with gorgeous blue celestial pattern. I checked back all day, till it hit $51.50. OK, I'm addicted, but I do know I can't spend that much on one diaper!
And so the saga continues. It will have to end eventually. After-all, I'm only diapering ONE baby!