yes, i use cloth diapers on my baby

So I've got a three-month-old chunker (and I've got the back spasms to prove it). I decided not long after the second pink line appeared that I wanted to use cloth diapers on the baby instead of disposables. Here in Denver, people hear that choice and comment on the "green"ness or the benefit to the environment.

Here's the thing, though: I didn't choose cloth diapers for the sake of being green. I chose it because I am cheap. Do you have any idea how expensive diapers are? They are expensive. And we are on one income, people. I'll dish out $250 for a used cloth diaper stash and pocket my $2500 in money NOT spent on disposables.

Yes, it's a little bit more laundry, but seriously people, cloth diapering is not that bad. I do two extra loads of laundry a week, and I made up for it by doing jumbo loads when I used to only do large loads, so the number of laundry loads I do hasn't really changed. The water and power bills have not significantly increased, there are not ugly stained rags all over my house, I do not slave over a hot washing machine daily, and my boy has the cutest little giant butt in town.

The funny thing about babies is that they're always growing and changing shape. I'd noticed about a week ago that Gabriel had some red marks on his hip. I noticed around the same time that his diapers tended to leak from the same spot where the red marks are. I've figured out why they leak, but it wasn't until today that I figured out how to fix the problem. It's a good thing I figured it out, too, because what was a red mark a week ago has started to look almost like a callous on my poor baby's skin.

The culprit is a diaper that isn't fitting well because it's too small. It just didn't occur to me that I needed to go a size up, because doing so will mean he'll be wearing the diapers on the largest setting, and the boy's only 3 months old! But really, babies who aren't really mobile yet are super-duper fat, and once they start being able to roll around, they get a little less chunky in the thigh region. So he needs the large size to accommodate his large legs. That's my theory, anyway.

So much of this parenting thing is trial and error. I spend my days going from "what does this cry mean" to "why does his diaper pucker on the side" to "how many doggie licks to the face is too many" and back again. Next thing I know, he's been asleep for a while and I realize that it's past his bedtime and he zonked before I could even get a chance to try our bedtime routine again, and then I wonder if I'm setting him up for a lifelong habit of being able to fall asleep only if there's a tv on in the room. Oops.

At least babies grow up more slowly than dogs do. He's only three months old - I think there's still time to break the tv habit.