We're still going strong on the cloth diaper front! We use them almost 100% of the time, except for when he stays the night at Memaw and P/paw's house (more convenient for them) or I haven't gotten the dirty dipes washed and dried in time for bedtime and he doesn't have a clean night diaper. If we have to use disposables, we have found that the Seventh Generation brand is the only one that doesn't give him a rash (I think Target carries them the cheapest, but can also be found at Whole Foods in a pinch). I'd love to try the Honest Company diapers as an alternative whenever disposables are needed because of the company's ethics and the cute prints, but they are super expensive.
We have three different brands of pocket diapers: BumGenius, Charlie Banana and Fuzzibunz. We definitely prefer them in the order I listed! All of our diapers have snaps instead of velcro, and though they're more expensive, we expect them to last longer as we don't have to worry about the velcro wearing out. We almost never have a leak or any problems with fit from our BG dipes, but they are the most expensive ($18/dipe). I found four CB diapers at a consignment shop in GREAT shape for only $7/diaper, so I grabbed them and their inserts. They have worked great, and fit really well, though sometimes the lining pokes out from his belly or leg and wicks onto his clothes. Bought new, they are the same price as BG, so I would probably just buy BG if I had to choose. This same problem happens pretty frequently with the Fuzzibunz if he is in the diaper for too long. The bigger he gets, I have to watch pretty closely to prevent a leak, probably because the insert just isn't as absorbent, so we mostly use them at home. Fuzzibunz are the most affordable diapers we own ($12-15/dipe), so they definitely were worth getting and have been valuable to have in our stash, and should work well for the new baby (who we expect will be smaller with less volume of urine).
We started with a stash of about 15 diapers when James was born, which came out to washing every other day. Once we found out we were pregnant again, we started building up our stash with coupons and gift cards, knowing we will have two babes to diaper! BuyBuyBaby has our BumGenius 4.0 pocket diapers in their store, and they accept Bed, Bath & Beyond $5 off coupons for them, so I've been getting them for $13/dipe as I collect coupons (cheaper than Fuzzibunz). We currently have 23 diapers, which allows for washing every third morning (just after James gets changed out of his third night diaper). I think we started using the cloth exclusively on James when he was about 3 months old (mostly due to how skinny he was, so they didn't fit until then!). So, I think we'll have a few months after new baby is born to continue building our stash. I'd love to have 40 diapers by that time to allow for every two or three days washing and to have both babies in cloth. I've also been keeping my eyes on the consignment store in Chapel Hill that has cloth diapers. We'll see if we can get to our goal within our budget!
We have had a few issues that took some troubleshooting, but we solved the problems and have been able to continue with our cloth! Around James' first birthday, he got a yucky rash around his boy parts that was sort of mysterious. Dr. Z took a look at it, and wasn't really sure what it was, even. We tried some Nystatin on it to rule out yeast. So for a few weeks, we used the ointment everyday with some disposable diapers - the only ointment that is safe to use and won't ruin cloth dipes is coconut oil and some other specialty hippie ointments :). After a few days, the rash went away and his skin looked really good. We finished out the medication and finally got him back into his cloth diapers.
The first diaper change after going back to the cloth, the rash magically returned! Turns out something related to the cloth itself was the issue... So, I did some reading, and stripped our diapers (washed in bleach then rinserinserinse like crazy to get all the residue build up from urine and detergent out of the inserts and liners). After a few days, the rash came back again. So, I changed our detergent - we were using Seventh Generation free & clear, but I found a specific detergent for diapers called Rockin' Green that was only $16 for 90 loads (comparable to what I was paying for the 7th Generation). By switching detergents, we actually ended up saving money since the new expensive detergent was only for diapers (and we had been using 7th generation for all of our laundry), and we went back to using cheap-o Purex free & clear on all of our other laundry. The diapers have been beautiful and clean and unsmelly, and there has been no sign of rash since the switch!
The other troubleshooting I had to do involved night leaks. As James gets bigger, he pees more and more. For disposables, when leaks start happening, you just move up to the next size, problem solved. For cloth diapers, it means that the inserts aren't absorbent enough for the volume of urine anymore. We weren't having any daytime issues at all, I suppose because we change him every three hours or so. But every night he was leaking through and waking up soaked and sad :(. So I did some reading and asked around for advice from my CDing mama friends. Unfortunately, most of what I read or heard was that disposables were the way to go once night leaks started being a problem. Unfortunately, that is not in our budget (on top of the fact that most disposables give James a rash, and we don't like the amount of waste they create).
So, I went out on a limb and tried some things I had read about. We tried a new type of insert that I found on sale for $6 at the Birthing and Wellness Boutique in Chapel Hill (check them out - they have lots of awesome hippie mama stuff). It was a hemp/organic cotton blend flat (which just means it's like an old school diaper that I had to fold and figure out how to fit inside our liners). Hemp is supposed to be one of the most absorbent materials for the least bulk that you can use in diapering, and is usually very expensive! I took it home and prepped it and James slept in it that night - no leak the next morning! Yay! Half of the insert was actually still dry, which means it should solve our night wetting problem for quite a while! I went back and grabbed 2 more while they were still on sale, to give us a total of 3 night diapers. We have not had a leak since, and James has slept wonderfully since staying dry all night :)
Stuart is the money guy in our family, and he definitely agrees that cloth diapering has been a life saver for us as we have saved so much money by not having to buy disposables (which just doesn't fit into our budget in this season of life). Even though going with cloth has significant start up costs, we have even been able to be frugal there and not pay for much out of our actual budget: first, we were gifted our entire start-up stash, and then we've been buying new ones either consignment, on sale, or with coupons, and all with gift cards or gift money from holidays or birthdays. So, I think that Stuart would say his favorite part of using cloth is the savings for our family. But for me, I have to admit I just love how cute and sweet James looks in his little diapers, which give him a huge booty and help his pants fit since he is such a skinny boy. See below... so cute, right??
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