Yuquita's "Hippie" Mom

Mary-Blair is nearly six weeks old.  Still all newborn-y, sleepy, hungry, splotchy.  Also, unspeakably adorable.

She also has a fuzzy butt.  Allow me to explain.

No, I did not give birth to a hairy baby (though my most vivid pregnancy dream involved me giving birth to a wee giraffe.  They're hairy, right?).  (ALSO, the other day I was sleep-feeding the baby and thought she'd been born an Irish Traveler, as in My Big Fat Gypsy Wedding, and I was really upset about the price of Traveler weddings for way too long than should have been possible for a woman who was, technically, awake).  (AND DAMN, THIS POST ALREADY WENT OFF THE RAILS.)

I swear, if this is Mary-Blair in seventeen years, I will be very unhappy.

I'll begin again.  Embee has a fuzzy butt because we've decided to cloth diaper her.

Total hippie mom, I know.  We may have to move to Portland.

Long time readers know I got a lot of grief from la familia about breastfeeding Penny.  This time around, I've had no naysayers.  After all, Penny was just about the chubbiest infant a Cuban grandmother could hope for.  

Exhibit A.

Now, all I get is the occasional reminder that I should be drinking maltas with leche condensada, because, supposedly, this helps milk supply.

For the record--Ewww. Gross. I hate maltas.

This time, Orlando and I have upped the hippie quotient by cloth diapering. This goes TOO FAR for people, I know.  The family also already knows by now that the more someone tells me not to do something, the more renuente, i.e. intransigient, I get about it.

Still, the decision to cloth diaper, or CD, has been met with a significant amount of poo-pooing (yes, pun intended) from all kinds of people.  I think I have some 'splaining to do, with respects to Desi Arnaz (Respect, Pipo!)

The decision is both an environmental one and economic one.  The environmental one we've all heard.  Diapers don't decompose. All that human waste in the ground can't be good.

Here's the math on economics:

A package of 80-count disposables costs right around $20. A baby goes through 10-12 diapers a day.  They're in diapers until they're three years old.

To CD without having to do laundry every day, you need about 24 diapers, about 10-15 dollars a pop on sale, depending which brands or styles you want.

We are saving a shit-ton, people (again, pun intended).

Someone is bound to bring up the cost of water with all that laundering.  A load of laundry is the equivalent of two flushes of a toilet.  A potty trained toddler flushes way more than that.  Plus, the water used in laundering CDs is nothing compared to the water used to create disposables, water which becomes toxic after the process is complete.

Also, cloth diapers are so very cute.  And they're nothing like the dipes you remember from when you were a kid, all sharp-pinned and such:

Exhibit B.  These are FuzziBunz pocket diapers in extra small.  They have a trim fit. Basically, it works exactly like a disposable, except you don't throw it away. The band-aid is from her first visit to the pediatrician.  Ouch.

Learning which style of diaper to use took a lot of research. There are pockets and prefolds and all-in-ones, and all-in-twos, and fitteds, and OH MY STARS SO MANY.  There are plenty of sites explaining all the differences, so I won't go into it here.  And DISCLAIMER--no one is giving me anything to write about these diapers, though I wish they would;)

Exhibit C:  minky cloth, one size, Bum Cheeks pocket diapers. ALSO: look at that adorable fuzzy butt!  And how awesome are the backs of babies' heads?  So awesome.

Exhibit D: Charlie Banana one size pockets. 

And because getting your CD stash together is a bit of an addiction, LOOKIT WHAT THEY HAVE ON ETSY.  I WANT SO HARD.

By the way, today is May the 4th, Star Wars Day!  Here's the shop link in case any of you are feeling spendy.

Anyway, we're having fun with it, and honestly, it isn't any more work than I already have to do with a six year old (and husband) who go through laundry like crazy.  Besides, I'm not all THAT renuente. If this whole CD thing stops working for us, then I'll stop. I guess.  The good news is that cloth diapers retain more than half of their value on resale (I KNOW. People buy USED cloth diapers. Not I, but each his own).

Finally, I know you don't come here to see pictures of baby butts, but amazing baby faces, like this one, smiling on camera for the first time:

Exhibit D: Hee!