Diaper Duty

Ever since being pregnant with Denise, I have had moments where I think I'd like to use cloth diapers. I did a lot of research while pregnant with her, and my favorite ones were the hybrid g diapers. The ability to use the biodegradable flushable inserts while on the go, and the cloth soakers while at home really floated my boat.

photo property of Megandfamily

Fast forward a year or two, my sister-in-law was talking about how many diapers her little guy went through in a 24 hour period, and I was floored! I told her about g diapers, and she and her husband decided to try them out in an attempt to cut down ont he monthly diaper expense and save some landfill space.

Well, now that Sal has come along, I wanted to use the g diapers as well, but with the impending move overseas and my shocking discovery  new understanding that dryers are not commonplace in Chinese homes, I just couldn't see myself hanging diapers to dry. We'd be in a sea of soaker pads, and that's just not something that sounds appealing to me..Plus, if they aren't dry by the time I need one, we're going to be up $h!t creek, literally.

My ever so sweet SIL surprised me a few weeks ago by bringing over 6 g pants that her son had outgrown so that I could try them out. I ordered soaker pads from diapers.com and was super excited when they arrived. I was getting to try g diapers out for the cost of the soaker pads! But, jump-the-gun me ordered the wrong size soakers. I ordered smalls, and the g diapers on loan are mediums.

What's a girl to do?

Jump online and buy a small g pant, of course! Most people would just exchange the smalls for mediums and wait for their child to grow into the next size up, but I just HAD to try them. I'm way too excited about cloth diapering, aren't I? So, I waited and waited for amazondotcom to deliver my size small Good Fortune Red g pants....and in the meantime,  a gift card for Babies R Us showed up on my doorstep from a well wisher. Being impatient, I headed to BRU on my way back from Santa Barbara yesterday and picked up a 2 pack of small gpants for my incredibly impatient self to try.them.now!

Wouldn't you know, the amazon order was sitting on my doorstep when we got home.

And to top it off, we got super news yesterday when the landlord for our apartment in China agreed to install a washing machine/dryer combo for us. I didn't think he'd go for it, since we were told that they are not all that common over there...but he did! So yay! Thank you Mr. Landlord! I'm thinking maybe now, I can continue the use of the g pants over there. Of course I will have to purchase medium soaker pads, and some gpants, but I think the initial investment is worth it. 

I'm day two into g pant territory, and so far they've been relatively easy to use and change..and yes, I have already tackled my first poopy diaper, and it really wasn't so bad at all.

Right now, I have an arsenal of 6 soaker pads and 3 gpants. So long as the pants don't get soiled, I can manage 6 diaper changes in the g pants per day, and the rest will be disposable.

I've got a box of disposable diapers worth of money ( approx $34 plus a gift card) into this trial, but with 10-12 diaper changes a day, it's going to save me half the daily diaper changes. Economically speaking, it just makes sense. I already do a load of laundry every day, so it's not going to cost any more to wash them than we already pay for gas etc.

Rockin' his first gpants

And aren't they adorable?

To read more about g pants, check out this blog over at Meg and Fam. She breaks it down and has great answers to typical cloth diapering questions.