cloth diapers- not just for hippies and mennonites.

although billy has called me both of those in the past.
a hippie when i was vegan - he said i smelled like hummus all the time,
and a mennonite when he discovered pictures of how mom dressed me in elementary school.
let's just say she went through a handmadedresseswithruffledcollars phase.

alas, i am neither a hippie nor a mennonite.
i drive an suv, am addicted to spray-tan-in-a-can, and spend far too much time lusting after expensive shoes.
but billy and i don't do everything mainstream.
we try to think things through and be responsible when it comes to our carbon footprint.
we try to buy and eat local foods, we try to reuse and recycle, we try and make it through every summer without air conditioning (we normally only stick a window unit in our bedroom for august), and we try to only shower once a month to conserve water.

that last one was a joke, kids.

so when it came to diapering little finner, we decided to skip the paper route and use cloth.  and we've been super happy with our decision.

we have used cloth diapers from the beginning, so we never really thought twice about it...  until a couple of weeks ago when we went down to north carolina for the weekend and decided to use seventh generation chlorine-free disposable diapers for the trip.  (we didn't think our friends would be too keen on us using their washing machine for our little dude's little doodies.)
we went through a 40 pack of diapers over the weekend!!!
WHAT!
we filled up a trashcan full of diapers and we were both like "woah. that's a lot of garbage."
expensive garbage.
and then we were both like "wow, i'm really glad we're using cloth."

now, let me just say, cloth diapering nowadays is not the cloth diapering that your grandma knows about.
billy was actually cloth diapered the old fashioned way as a baby (his mom had a serious hippie phase... i think i recall hearing a story of tripp being sent sugar cereal by relatives as christmas gifts because they only had steel cut oats at home or something... i digress) ahhem, but cloth diapering these days involves a lot of options.  if you're like me, the idea of pinning a square piece of cloth on a baby butt and covering it up with rubber pants sounds really scary.  so i went for the easiest cloth diapers possible. 

for me, those diapers came from the geniuses at bumgenius, a cloth diaper brand that appeals to lazy people like me.  the newborn sized cloth diapers we used for finn literally look and feel like regular disposable diapers, and you put them on exactly the same way. finn recently just outgrew these, and is now in his one-size diapers, that fit him now and have snaps to adjust them so they will fit all the way through his potty training years.

here finn is modeling his new underoos:

they are super cute on him.
(and let me tell you, these cloth diapers outlast disposables when it comes to leaks.
they are awesome at containing the ewwie stuff.)

we are really happy with our decision to use cloth.  and since the diapers are so cute and colorful, finn doesn't look like a hippie or a mennonite in them.  he just looks adorable!
and it's a good thing, because he probably won't be wearing much more than a diaper once the july heat kicks in! ;)
in short, cloth diapers are not scary, they are surprisingly easy, and if you have a little one i would highly recommend giving them a try.

if you are interested in knowing more about using cloth, here's a great link.
my friend t also has a great blog and recently wrote a little q&a about her experience with cloth (she's a little braver than i am).  check it out!