cd from birth or wait a few days?

[slingmamaof4]

I am starting to get closer to delivery time. And I am still unsure if I will be bringing cd's with me to the hospital or just using the sposies they supply while I am there. Then starting cloth when I come home. (Homebirth really isn't an option for us. The nearest midwife or doula is over 3 hours away that will deliver at home.)

Some random thoughts:
*I don't know what my recovery will be like and if I will be up to having a load of dirty diapers to wash right when I go home.
*I have meconium comes right out...any experience with this?
*I like the idea of starting cd right away...but I would like to hear others experiences.

Please share with me what you did.

[Close2MyHeart]

I didn't start CDing til E was 4 months old because I didn't have any until then.

I do all the laundry and don't get a day off once I'm home from the hospital, so I wouldn't add an extra load of laundry every 2 days into my life when I'm recovering. Usually it's hard enough to get the regular laundry done when I'm recovering.

[Marielle]

meconium does come right out. We CDed #2 starting when we arrived home from the hospital. It was just easier not having to bog down hubby that was transporting the toddler already with a load of diapers.

Hopefully any other births will be homebirths and we'd start right away.

[Moon]

My last two were in cloth from birth, they were born at home though. In all four of my kids meconium never stained anything. :-)

Printing up the basic wash routine for your hub may be a good idea for the first weeks, even if you don't take them to the hossie. I had to walk my hub through it a time or two, but I was already up so he didn't have to wake me for it.

[slingmamaof4]

My last two were in cloth from birth, they were born at home though. In all four of my kids meconium never stained anything. :-)

Printing up the basic wash routine for your hub may be a good idea for the first weeks, even if you don't take them to the hossie. I had to walk my hub through it a time or two, but I was already up so he didn't have to wake me for it.


Dh is not a fan of cd'ing. He would rather that I wasn't cd'ing at all. But of course he wouldn't tell me that I couldn't. I am cd'ing and he knows it. He isn't complaining much these days about it. Hopefully when I start he will see that it really isn't going to stink the house up. lol!

[Close2MyHeart]

Dh is not a fan of cd'ing. He would rather that I wasn't cd'ing at all. But of course he wouldn't tell me that I couldn't. I am cd'ing and he knows it. He isn't complaining much these days about it. Hopefully when I start he will see that it really isn't going to stink the house up. lol!


That's my DH too. He says I can, he just doesn't want to deal w/ it. :lol He was surprised that there really is no smell (unless I leave them on the washing machine instead of putting them in the wet bag. :O ) He prefers not to change E. if he is in them, so I do use sposies for those rare occasions when I'm out and Matt is alone w/ the kids.

[Naked Camper]

I've thought about taking dipes to the hospital too, but I think what I will end up doing is use the dipes at the hospital until we get home. I think I will also continue to use sposies for the first couple of weeks just because I don't really want to buy diapers JUST for that time, KWIM? Give it a few weeks and he/she will fit into regular CPF. I also don't want to have an extra thing to take home from the hospital - there's enough junk (flowers, gifts, pillows, etc), let alone another child, to get home safely. I would hate to add dirty diaper laundry to the mix.

[inesperada]

Yeah, my dh's agreement is that I can use them, but *I* have to wash them. I had great intentions of putting babe in cloth when we left the hospital and not looking back, but my recovery was a lot harder this time than it was with the first, and I ended up not starting cloth until day 6 when I finally felt human enough to want to think about laundry.

[mellymommy]

I'm excited to cloth diaper this one from birth. My first two I cd'ed after the first 6 weeks was over, but I'm really looking forward to doing it from day one this time.

[Soliloquy]

for me the only issue is the cord stump. I don't have any covers or dipes w/ a cut-out for the cord stump, so both times I used sposies until it fell off--8 days for G, 6 days for S.

If I could get a nice deal on some used newborn dipes w/ cord cut-outs, I'd use cloth from day 1. But, I'm pretty frugal about things that they will outgrow quickly.

[inesperada]

If I could get a nice deal on some used newborn dipes w/ cord cut-outs, I'd use cloth from day 1. But, I'm pretty frugal about things that they will outgrow quickly.


KLO's last to 15 pounds and have a cord snap down. You can typically get them in VGUC for $6-8 apiece.

[slingmamaof4]

If I could get a nice deal on some used newborn dipes w/ cord cut-outs, I'd use cloth from day 1. But, I'm pretty frugal about things that they will outgrow quickly.


KLO's last to 15 pounds and have a cord snap down. You can typically get them in VGUC for $6-8 apiece.


I have 11 Kissaluv's size 0. They seem like they will be great for a newborn. But last a while once you unsnap the part for the cord.

[inesperada]

Yeah, Mr. H is 3.5 weeks and 10.5 pounds and he still has lots of growing room in the KL0's. :yes

[Iarwain]

I did with two of mine from birth. Rosebud was in sposies for the first week or so because a friend gave me a pack and life was pretty stressful at the time so I swallowed my idealism used them. I don't know about the hospital. When Noodle was in the NICU I just let the hospital use their sposies while he was there and put him in cloth as I was dressing him to come home, but that's a different situation. I really did like using cloth from the beginning but doing it in the hospital might not be as fun. :shrug

[slingmamaof4]

My 18 yo sis may stay with us for October, so that if I go into labor in the middle of the night we don't have to wake up the kids. Maybe if I do cloth I can show her how to launder them and she can do that for me if she doesn't mind.


Do you just toss the dipes with meconium in the washer? Or do you do something first?

[Soliloquy]

You don't have to do anything special w/ meconium, unless you are really picky about stains. Diapers do get stained sometimes, but they are diapers after all, not linen tablecloths. :giggle

Do a cold rinse or wash cycle first w/ no detergent, then your warm or hot wash.

Some people like to use cloth or paper liners during the meconium phase. If you are breastfeeding and your milk comes in quickly, the meconium doesn't last long.

About the Kissaluvs--I know, I know, people have told me how great they are. My friend even loaned me some, but she didn't loan me any covers so I didn't use them. :blush I will probably look for some if we are blessed with more children.

[BeckaBlue]

ah! good question about rinsing of meconium! the diapers ive bought i could really use getting some money back for them, so i wanna avoid stains...i know bf poo comes out really well in the sun, but meconium i dunno??? i hafta assume it will though.....im thinking to cut up some fleece to lay in as a JIC thing, so they can get stained no biggie and it leaves the dipes w/o stains
oh, were going from day one in cloth, i refuse to spend money on a pack of sposies cause that could go towards something else i need :) of course having the baby at the birth center, i wouldnt get any sposies from the hospital, but even still i think id just go straight to cloth :shrug

[milkmommy]

I'd have both :shrug. I remember how expensive sposies were the thousands of diapers we went through in the first few months prior to cloth.. The number of "wasted" sposies from immediate explosive poos or wettness or broken tabs ect... Cloth even a parttime stash at first would have made life a lot easier at least financially.. OTOH I alos remember how I could hardly move (I tore extensivily during birth) how ven a simpe load of laundry was really hard even with help from others. DH is fine taking out the trash but panics with laundry. Mencoin stains as far as I know come out there not an issue. BF diapers are pretty eaisy to maintain and clean.. Do a cold rinse wash maybe and extra rinse and dry.. I think you deffiently CAN CD from the start but I'd also allow your self some slack and having some sposies on hand just might be what you need to keep sanity.


Deanna

[klpmommy]

(having only read the OP) My plan is to use the hospital disposables while there b/c I don't want to bring home a load of cloth & make my first thing I do upon walking in a load of laundry. I am packing a couple of cloth diapers for Binkiness to wear home.

[Marielle]

hubby was already sold on CDing when #2 was born since we'd switched when #1 was 6 months old. So all I did was post the washing & drying instructions in the laundry room and he did the wash until I was able to handle it.

re: the stump, honestly it's not a big deal to have a diaper that covers it. Newborns get changed so often and if you stay away from the horrible advice to put alcohol on it the baby's umbilical stump will fall off within days (I did the alcohol with my first and it took 5 weeks!). I sewed mine so I made a whole stash of AIOs and it was great to have the newborn size which actually held the poop unlike the sposies.

[zak]

We will likely CD from birth (tho we are homebirthing, so that's a little different). I started CD'ing Reid at 2-3 weeks old (I used up all the "gifted" 'sposies first).

For the meconium, I plan on cutting up some fleece/flannel (whatever I can find cheap!) and using them as tossable liners. Putting some lotion/oil on the baby booty will help keep him clean too. :)

[Garnet]

i used up the pack of dipes the hospital gave me and by then the meconium was gone. That stuff can really stain your cd's.

[illinoismommy]

We started cloth after we came home

[klpmommy]

Sharon- my dh is the same way about cloth diapers. So I have a few aio's for him to use since they will "act" just like disposables when it comes time for him to change a diaper or two. He has never been a big one about changing diapers anyway so it isn't that big of a deal that he isn't going to do too many this time. He did like the way the bumgenius pockets "looked" & I can see him being more willing to use one of those to do a diaper change than a prefold. I kind of have to keep it easy for him or he will claim creative incompetence. ;)

I do have some cut up fleece for the meconium diapers, but I think most of it will be gone before we leave the hospital- at least that was my experience with both P&E. :shrug

I know that if I have disposables here on hand I will use them, so I don't want to have any as a temptation.

[bananacake]

We used the hospital disposables and continued to use disposables for a week or two after coming home. I had a c-section and couldn't do laundry (climbing 3 flights of stairs with a 10-lb baby after c-section = no thank you :) ). Now we still occasionally used a disposable (1 a day, max), but do mostly cloth. Baby Bear is 5.5 weeks old, and I still don't do the laundry; my husband does.

[Mama Bird]

I have crocheted all Josiah's soakers, and plan to use a Snappi to hold them together, so I can fold them down around his cord. I've gotten the ok from the hospital to use cloth there, the nurses were actually all excited about it, wanting to see it in action.

When DS was put in the children's hospital at 2 weeks after birth, we used cloth exclusively. The hospital though it was nice. They weigh each wet diaper to check output, so they simply asked for a dry diaper to weigh so they could check the differences. We were there for three days, and I just put the wet/dirty diapers in a plastic bag, which DH took home once a day and washed, then brought me more. The covers, Prowraps I believe, I rinsed in the sink in the room and draped them over the sink to dry. We had no problems at all.

I do plan to take the gDiapers I have in case I have a c-section, or something happens that I'm not really able to change him easily. That way, the disposable part is actually flushable, so we're not adding to the landfills, and DH can definitely handle a gDiaper.

[BeckaBlue]

i hadnt really thought of an unsupportive hospital staff being an issue. sacred heart actually had a washer and when she had to stay an extra day we ran short on dipes (2.5hrs from home, so running home to pick up more wasnt an option) they told me to freely use the washer there
and both local hospitals didn't say anything about cloth. they did offer a pack of sposies cause i didnt bring *any* cloth that first day, and im actually glad abs had a sposie on when she pood that evening since shed swallowed a lot of blood :sick