Real Diaper Week 2012! {Cloth Diapering from Day 1}

When I started using cloth Noah was already 7 months old so when I found out I was pregnant with Isaac I was excited (and a bit nervous) about cloth diapering a newborn! I really didn't know anything about what it would be like to cloth diaper a newborn and was actually so intimidated by it that for a while I had just decided to use disposables until he could fit into my one-sized diapers that I had from Noah. But then I decided to just give it a shot and if it didn't' work well then I would have some disposables on hand just in case. 

Although we decided to give newborn cloth diapering a try we decided NOT to cloth diaper in the hospital. I wasn't sure how I would be feeling and I didn't want to have to worry about washing diapers as soon as I got home from the hospital so we just decided to wait until we got home. But I do know plenty of mamas who did use cloth in the hospital, right from the very beginning! Most said they just spoke to the nurses and told them they wanted to put the baby in cloth and showed them how to use the diaper and the nurses we're completely fine with it. And then after that first diaper, the parents are usually the ones to change the baby's diaper anyway so it's not really an issue after that. If you are expecting and want to cloth diaper in the hospital I suggest talking to someone from the hospital and finding out how they feel about it and then go for it! 

Once we started using cloth on Isaac I realized it wasn't as difficult as I thought it might be! The only issue I had was I didn't have enough newborn diapers that fit him! Newborns go pee and poop so much you really need quite a lot of diapers for them! I tried prefolds with covers but really preferred the newborn AIOs much better. My favorite newborn cloth diaper was the BumGenius Newborn AIO. It fit my little guy so well and was so easy to use! 

Isaac in a BumGenius Newborn AIO at 8 days old

My tips for anyone interested in cloth diapering from Day 1 are to make sure you have enough diapers ( 24-30 if you plan to wash every other day), find out if your hospital is open to it and willing to put your baby in cloth right away, and to just be prepared for lots of fluffy cuteness! There is seriously nothing cuter than a newborn in a cloth diaper!