It' s a whole new world...

A world filled with cloth diapers.

Don and I have decided we want to give cloth diapers a try. We started at the Baby Bargains message board and have gone from there. There are soooo many resources out there. And it requires you to learn a whole new vocabulary:

• prefolds - Indian or Chinese, they already have several layers in the middle to soak up pee. You fold them in 3 and use pins or snappis to hold 'em together - or use a diaper cover.
• flats - the type of diapers our mothers and grandmothers used to use. A flat cloth that gets folded a special way and pinned or snappi'd together - or use a diaper cover.
• fitteds - material that is shaped and diaper-like. Still need to pin or snappi them. Or you can use a daiper cover to hold the diaper in place.
• pockets - almost like a disposable, but made from cloth. Has a pocket thru the crotch that you can stuff with as many liners as you want depending on the absorbancy you need. I think you need diaper covers with these, too since they're not leak proof.
• AIOs - All-In-One: cloth version of a disposable diaper. All-in-one means you don't need a diaper cover to make the diaper leak-proof. The issue with these is that they take a long time to dry because of all the layers of absorbancy in the crotch.
• PULs - a type of diaper cover made out of Polyurethane Laminated Fabric. Not as breathable as wool, or fleece - other options for diaper covers.
• DSQ - Diaper Service Quality: refers to the prefolds. If you get DSQ prefolds, that's the type you would get if you used a diaper service that picks up your dirty diapers and returns them clean.
• Snappis - an alternative T-shaped stretchy plastic thingy used to keep the diaper together. No longer do you have to worry about sticking the baby with pins.
• WAHMs - Work-At-Home-Moms: many of the clother diapers out there are made by work-at-home-moms.

You can even find free patterns and make your own. When Don heard about that he was stoked and thought I could start making my own diapers - and we would really save money. Considering we don't have a sewing machine and there's very little time left before the baby comes I told him to rethink that suggestion.

If you're interested and know nothing about cloth diapers, a nice website to check out that carries everything mentioned above is www.diaperware.com.

Other news... I've cut my hair and my belly is quite a bit bigger. We've officially started the Holiday Season as today is Thanksgiving. After this week, it'll be 3 more weeks of work and then I'm off, first on Christmas Holidays and then maternity leave. Can you believe that?!?! I can't! I'm in a happy place right now. Pregnancy limbo - I look pregnant. Some people might even say I'm huge, but I don't feel huge, not really.

Also, our new plantation shutters were installed in the two other bedrooms and they look fabulous! On the to-do list for this weekend is organize one of our closets in the master bedroom so we can move the chest of drawers out and put the pack-and-play, which will be the baby's bed and diaper changing station, next to me.

Happy Turkey Day!