Meet Jennifer, our Fluffy Mama of the week!
My name is Jennifer. I’m a stay at home mom. I’m married to a wonderful man named Jeramie and we have 3 beautiful children together. Tyler (5), Sierra (3) and Noah (9m). They keep my heart happy and my hands busy.
How long have you been cloth diapering? I’ve been CDing Noah since birth so 9 months.
What made you decide to start? I kept hearing about it from various websites, online forums and people in the community. When I became pregnant with Noah I decided to research it some more. At first I was going to use gDiapers thinking that that would be a good compromise with my husband. But I was worried if the flushable insert would clog the toilet and also the cost was higher than disposables. When I researched more I found that most cloth diapers are just as easy at disposables. I talked it over with my husband and we decided to go for it in hopes of saving money.
What was your first purchase and why? From what I remember my first purchase was 2 newborn All-In-Ones from Nana’s Bottoms. I got them because they were cute and on sale. They were a great newborn diaper.
How much do you think you have spent on your diapers total? I am honestly unsure. I’ve saved quite a bit of money by buying used on diaperswappers.com. Also when Noah grows out of a size I sell those to fund the next size up. I don’t think I’ve spent more than $400 out of pocket.
Have your family/ friends been supportive? They’ve been great. My mom thinks they are adorable and we have friends who also cloth diaper. When family watches Noah I make sure to give them the “grandma friendly” diapers which are the bumGenius 3.0
What has been the most rewarding aspect of cding? I think knowing how much trash we are keeping out of the dump. With my older 2 children I was always bugging my husband to empty the diaper genie. It smelled so badly. Plus at the end of the week our trash can was overflowing with all the diapers. Now our trash can has room to spare.
What is your favorite diaper to use? I use fitteds with PUL covers during the day and bumGenius with hemp inserts at night. I think my favorite diaper right now is the Dream-eze fitted with a Thirsties cover. The fit on him is great and I love the absorbency.
What has been the biggest challenge to your success at cding? I’d have to say washing. I have an HE washer and dryer. Due to the fact that the HE machine uses less water, I have to do more rinse cycles. We’ve had stink issues in the past due to not a lot of rinsing. Also with the washing it was trial and error to find a good soap. Noah has sensitive skin. It wasn’t until we switched to Charlies soap did he stop breaking out in rashes. Now that I have a routine down and found a good detergent we are good to go.Anything ese you want to discuss? I really urge new moms to at least check out cloth. I try to advocate them in real life as well. Its not as scary as it used to be when our grandparents did it.
