My little fluffy bum.

One of the best decisions I made while preparing for Jude's arrival was to cloth diaper.  Yes - we use cloth.  It isn't as freaky weird as you think.  In fact, I really love it.  Who can say they love changing their baby's diaper?  This girl.  {except in instances of projectile poo, which we all know happens from time to time}

What is so great about it?  Here are my reasons why:

1.  It saves is TONS of money.  This is the main way I got Jordan on board, and now he loves it for all the other reasons I do.  :-)  I've probably spent $500 give or take on our cloth diaper stash.  This will last us from Jude's birth {he started wearing cloth at about 2 weeks old} until he is potty trained.  That may sound like a lot of money, but it is nothing compared to what you pay for disposables.  I love that diapers are never on my shopping list.  BUT - I have to tell you that even though I spent $500 {ish}... I am not going to be out that much in the end.  Because......
2. Diapers have AMAZING resale value.  I bought a few of my diapers used, and as I have come to figure out what I like and don't like, I've sold a few of my own in order to fund buying more of what I love.  I've sold nearly $200 worth of diapers so I can grow my stash.  And when we are all done with diapers, I intend to sell them off again!  Obviously I won't get all my money back, but I won't be out much when all is said and done.
3. No ucky chemicals on my boy's bum.  Disposable diapers are filled with chemicals to keep the baby's skin dry and to handle the mess.  There are no weird gel beads in disposable.  My favorite diapers are organic cotton - all natural fibers on my baby's bum.  And the ONLY time Jude has ever had even a hint of a red bum is when he was wearing disposables at night.  Ever since we are 100% in cloth, no redness.
4. They are CUTE!!  Let's not forget that!

My original stash... looks a little different now!

I have constantly been mixing around my stash to get what I like.  We started completely with prefold diapers from greenmountaindiapers.com.  I LOVE these.  I had 2 dozen of their newborn sized prefolds and that lasted until he was about 6-7 weeks old.  I can still use them to double up in his other diapers now that he is bigger.  Or use them as burp clothes or whatever.  They are amazingly absorbant.  And I'll use these same newborn diapers with all of our kids.  Now that he is out of the newborn size *sniff sniff*, I still have 18 infant-sized prefolds {which are still kinda my favorite for containing big poo's... if I suspect a poo coming on I always put him in one of these}.  I also have some all-in-one diapers and some pocket diapers for Jordan and the babysitter.  These function pretty much like a disposable.  At first I thought the idea of a pocket diaper was kinda ridiculous when I could just prefold and cover just as easily and then re-use the cover.  Now I am loving how trim my BumGenius pocket diapers are... and I just sold off some of my other pocket diapers that I was trying out {Happy Heinys and Oh Katy... nice diapers, but not for me} in order to buy more BumGenius pockets.

{cell phone shot} Jude in a newborn prefold with a Thirsties Duo Wrap at 1 week old.

ANYWAY... I could go on and on... all that to say it is an addiction.  I find myself constantly evaluating my diaper stash to see what works best for us.  And I love knowing I can buy and sell and keep saving money while figuring this whole thing out.  Right now I am still LOVING my Thirsties covers, but have been dabbling a bit in the WAHM covers - and thinking of trying to make some of my own. :-)

I've tried pretty much every system - prefolds, pockets, all-in-ones, all-in-twos, fitteds... so if you have any questions, especially about diapering an itty bitty newborn bum, I'd be happy to answer your questions!