Wednesday, April 18, 2012

Decisions, decisions, decisions. Mostly decisions about cloth diapering.


I tend to get stalled out when there is a decision to be made. Like the whole reason our house is a mess is that the things that are lying around don't have an obvious home yet (you'd like they would after a year and a half of living in The Parsonage, but they don't) and that means I have to make a decision before I can do anything productive with them. In actuality what it means is that I stack things in piles of things I need to make decisions about. Lots of little piles of decisions lying around waiting, hoping that maybe someday they will find a home.

This would annoy the crap out of some people (like my husband). It bothers me, but not enough to drive actual decision making most of the time. I really like to get things right and he likes to hold me to decisions once I make them (why exactly do the plates need to continue to belong in the same place just because I thought that's where they went last month?).

In addition to object placement/home organization issues this is a bit of a problem since parenthood involves lots of decisions. As usual I'm good with the big ones. It's the little things that get me. I've been trying to come to some sort of conclusion about diapers for months and its go time on this one since our shower is coming up and I want to make sure we're registered for what we really want (I say we, but Austin has put me in charge of this decision).

I HATE the idea of using regular disposables since I really prefer not to leave a mass of waste that will be roughly the size of a small iceberg and last for the next 600 years as a result of my child's need to poo and my need to contain it. I just can't handle it. And I'm not judging you if you do. I continually keep things I really should throw away because I feel bad about throwing them away. That and there is a crap-ton of money to be saved by using cloth. Like $4000 for two kids even when you include the water and energy to wash those cloth diapers. One decision down. No big deal.

But that's also where it gets all decision-y. If you just use disposable diapers like normal people you go to the store, you buy whatever is cheap, or your friends recommend, or you try different brands until you pick a favorite. You throw them away continuously so one little decision really doesn't matter. If you pick an alternative you're a little more constrained. Especially if it's a cloth type which generally involves a significant up-front investment and you plan on keeping it for the long haul. And then there are issues around whether or not you can find a child care provider willing to go with your hippy dippy, non-dispoable diapers. Some just won't and I get that. That's the other decision I need to work on and maybe I should get on it first since the result influences this one, but I feel pretty strongly on this one and I think I'm just going to have to find someone who will at least work with cloth.

Well maybe I'll call the suggestions I've gotten and ask them something like the questions thebump recommends for interviewing caregivers, but lets just focus on the diapers for now.

I have a friend with an entire gDiaper set up she offered to sell me months ago when she first found out I was pregnant. I wasn't sure about it based on the aforementioned child care provider-cloth diaper conundrum. But the impending shower has pushed me to make an actual decision. I did some internet searching and found an awesome series on gDiapers call gWhiz - gDiapers 101 written by Emily at Joyful Abode. The very first post on why she chose gDiapers sealed the deal for me.

f

I'm getting them.

My friend has a ton of each size so I'll just get the pants and liners from her, but Emily is helping me figure out what other stuff I need to add to the registry. Hopefully I'll finish that up by the end of the week since the shower is only two weeks from Saturday and I figure people might start checking that out soon. At least the ones who aren't like me and take their first look at the registry in Target 2 hours before the party. Tell me you procrastinate on gifts too.

I also need to pick out a sling so if any of you are baby wearers I would love to get some opinions.

4 comments:

  1. so you didn't exactly ask but did you consider bum genius all in one elemental. it's just one piece, no extra liners (I don't know how gdiapers work). we finally made switch from disposable when second was 5mths old and we love them! we also use the diaper sprayer bum genius selfs to get the poo off. our daycare just leaves those for us to clean when we get home.

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  2. P.S. I also wanted to tell you that the first two paragraphs sound just like me! :) And it looks like my first comment posted before your blog - lol.

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  3. Just an FYI but if Norie is going to a licensed daycare (which it would be scary to go to someone who wasn't licensed--plus you couldn't get the tax deduction or nutrition/food without them being licensed), the daycare is not allowed to use anything but disposable diapers. In fact, if the child soils their clothes they have to bag them up and send them home to be cleaned. So deciding on daycare or not may play a role in the diaper decision.

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  4. Hi Amber - I just checked back to see if you responded to my comments and then read the other one. So I found this online for you...

    "Following proper procedures when washable training pants or diapers are to be used; For day care centers, the pants or diapers has to be labeled, covered and stored in a plastic bag or container after washing. Upon doing these, the garments can be returned to the child’s parents or guardian. On the other hand, for child care homes, procedures pertaining to sanitary laundering have to be followed to ensure that any infection will be immediately controlled."

    http://www.ownadaycare.com/blog/kansas-license - it's not an official gov website but I'd look into it further before assuming licensed daycare centers can't accept disposable diapers (which is a really silly thought) - although it is the case for us that for any dirty clothes or diapers they get put in a plastic bag and sent home for the parents to deal with which is no biggie to me.

    For sending diapers to/from daycare we love our planet wise dry/wet bag which has two zippered pockets - one we keep the dry clean diapers in and the other is waterproof and for the wet/dirty diapers

    I don't know why I've invested myself in this so much - I guess because I like our cloth diapers and I like you! :)

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