My little girl is 10 months old and i love cloth diapering! I hate disposables. In fact I'm a huge nerd about it and I love to talk about it. I spent most of my "nesting" energy looking into cloth diapers. You said you have been doing some research so you may already know this but, If you want you can check out a forum all about cloth diapering. I was addicted to it for the 6 months surrounding my dd's birth.:
http://www.diaperswappers.com/
I looked into cloth diapers because I really needed to save $. And I'm so glad that I did. Don't get me wrong some people can spend TONS of money on cloth diapering. It is up to you really and what you want. I've kept a running total of how much it cost to diaper her and so far its at 72 dollars and change. That includes diapers, covers, wipes, pails, pins, and wipe solution. She is only 10 months old so she isn't finished yet but I really will only need to buy new covers when she grows out of her old ones. Plus when I have the next baby I will have diapers all over again. I'm a huge tightwad and proud of it. Besides hospital and doctor bill my dd has hardly cost a dime.
I use flats with diaper pins. I use square cotton receiving blankets. I got so many when I was expecting and I've stocked up when I find them at thrift stores. I've also made some out of flannel sheets. I just cut them into squares and hemmed up the sides. I like flats the best because I can play around with the fold and get a good fit. When I first started I thought it was going to be too time consuming to fold them all but I got quick fast. Here is a good thread about flats:
http://www.diaperswappers.com/forum/showthread.php?t=877212
For covers I use wool at night. Wool is wonderfully absorbent, breathable and self cleaning. I make my covers out of recycled wool sweaters. (I can barely sew and these are even easy for me to do) Then I treat them with lanolin. During the day I usually use covers made with PUL although I've tried a few other kinds as well. I bought all of mine used on diaperswappers. I payed 5 to 7 dollars for each.
I did not cloth diaper for the first week. I wasn't sure how I was going to handle things being a first time Mom and I didn't want to deal with it. Plus, I didn't have to wash out the merconium
Next baby I will though. I feel much more confident now.
In the beginning I didn't have a lot of diapers. I believe I started with 15. So I had to wash them every day. Which was a bit of a pain if you can I would say at least start out with 24. Enough to get you through 2 days. You go through a lot of diapers the first couple of months. I would say 6 covers would be nice in the beginning. But, I had 4 and made do just fine with it.
I bought two large packs of baby washcloths I use these for wipes. I use a squeeze bottle (the one from the hospital for cleaning up after epiderals is nice) filled with a squeeze of baby shampoo, 3 drops of tea tree oil and a couple of drops of olive oil. I keep the wipes in a basket. I have a plastic bowl in the basket that I will throw a wipe into then squeeze the solution onto the wipe ( the bowl keeps the solution from going everywhere) then use. It gets tossed into the diaper rolled up and put into the diaper pail to be laundered with everything else.
I don't do anything special with laundry. I take the diaper off of my dd and throw it in the pail (Its dry no water) If there are solids I do shake it off into the toilet. But, I do not dunk and swish. I just shake the diaper over the bowl then toss the diaper into the pail. I have a hamper next to my pail that I throw the covers into. I don't like to wash my covers with the daipers. They are not as dirty and the urine in the diapers will break down PUL over time. I just wash them with her clothes. The wool ones are self cleaning so I only wash them about three times a month unless they get poo on them then they get washed in the sink with a little baby shampoo. Then left out to air dry.
When I'm ready to do laundry I just throw the diapers in and wash on hot with a cold rinse cycle. I use homemade detergent. Now that she is really pooping good I will usually run it twice. First with soap then without. Just to be sure. When it was nice out I would hang everything out to dry. Right now I just toss it in the dryer.
All of my fears about cloth diapering have not come true. I don't mess with poop any more than I have to. I've never stabbed my daughter with a pin. My dd rarely gets a rash.(only happened a few times when she pooped I didn't change her right away. My fault completely!) And it has never been more than a little redness. I usually just let her go without a cover for a little while so she gets some air.
If you have any other questions please ask.
Obviously I love this subject. I'm such a nerd.
