do you ever feel at odds with yourself?
i constantly feel like i'm a big wad of contradictions. and being the living-in-my-head, overthinking type i can spend years, i mean hours pondering things. it can really get me down. example: diapers. one would think that this was a relatively easy thing to handle. i've got 3 kids. i'm pretty familiar with diapers. it seems so simple; your baby needs a change so you take the old diaper off and put a new one on. done. right? no. i have this constant dilemma going on. cloth or disposable. i have 25 perfectly good fitted cloth diapers that i paid a lot of money for when i decided a couple years ago that i was done filling up landfills. so micah wears them a good share of the time. but it bugs me that they're so bulky, especially with the covers on and clothes fit funny and that totally drives me nuts. so at home, he just wears the diaper w/ no cover and when we leave the house, i put a disposable on him. not usually a big deal, but it won't be summer forever and then there's the whole pants issue. you can't use a cloth diaper w/ no cover with pants and in january, it's too cold to not wear pants. and besides, baby clothes are so cute and i'm only using the top half of his wardrobe. i also think that the diapers get stinkier when you use the covers (probably because you haven't noticed that they're wet and you leave the kid in them longer) and it also kind of irritates his skin when i use a cover. but there's the environmental issue to think about and then, of course, there's the financial issue. the cloth diapers are already paid for. every disposable used means one more that i have to keep paying for. and then there's the disposable dilemma. i know people (and i mean most people by this) who pick a brand of diapers (usually huggies) when their first kid is born and stick with it until the last is potty trained. not me. when shane was born, i used huggies for awhile and then pampers. not sure why. i think it had to do with what costco carried and what sorts of cool freebies you could get with the points. i had heard that luvs were cheaper, but at the time, they had barney on them and there was no way i was going to have anything to do with that. i told you... i overthink things. so with layla, happily, barney had been dismissed in favor of blue's clues. i like blues clues! this made me happy. luvs are cheaper (especially at target) and they smell good. well, that brings up another issue. what is that smell? that can't be good for your baby, right? and layla has such sensitive skin anyway i hate to put anything extra next to it. not a huge deal since she only wears one diaper a day (when she goes to bed) but still, i decided to get something different. right now it's been the target brand, because they're the cheapest at target and i'm there anyway because that's where i buy the luvs for micah. yes, i know. what about the whole smell issue? still bugging me. but i don't like the target brand for every day. they're not as good of a diaper. not as stretchy and they get all bumpy when they're wet. so i still buy the luvs. but this shouldn't really be a big issue because i'm using the cloth ones most of the time, right? it still requires a great deal of thought, apparently. my latest idea is that i will get a big box of the costco brand diapers next time i'm there. why? who knows. quantity? no smell? price? i really have no idea. oh, and i almost forgot the lesser evil of disposables, the chlorine-free seventh generation diapers. i used those for a long time, but they're so freakin' exensive. i can't seem to justify it lately, even though i know i should and i therefore feel guilty every time i buy a kind of diaper that's not chlorine-free.
and this whole thing occurs to me EVERY TIME I CHANGE A DIAPER!
seriously, i have problems.
i constantly feel like i'm a big wad of contradictions. and being the living-in-my-head, overthinking type i can spend years, i mean hours pondering things. it can really get me down. example: diapers. one would think that this was a relatively easy thing to handle. i've got 3 kids. i'm pretty familiar with diapers. it seems so simple; your baby needs a change so you take the old diaper off and put a new one on. done. right? no. i have this constant dilemma going on. cloth or disposable. i have 25 perfectly good fitted cloth diapers that i paid a lot of money for when i decided a couple years ago that i was done filling up landfills. so micah wears them a good share of the time. but it bugs me that they're so bulky, especially with the covers on and clothes fit funny and that totally drives me nuts. so at home, he just wears the diaper w/ no cover and when we leave the house, i put a disposable on him. not usually a big deal, but it won't be summer forever and then there's the whole pants issue. you can't use a cloth diaper w/ no cover with pants and in january, it's too cold to not wear pants. and besides, baby clothes are so cute and i'm only using the top half of his wardrobe. i also think that the diapers get stinkier when you use the covers (probably because you haven't noticed that they're wet and you leave the kid in them longer) and it also kind of irritates his skin when i use a cover. but there's the environmental issue to think about and then, of course, there's the financial issue. the cloth diapers are already paid for. every disposable used means one more that i have to keep paying for. and then there's the disposable dilemma. i know people (and i mean most people by this) who pick a brand of diapers (usually huggies) when their first kid is born and stick with it until the last is potty trained. not me. when shane was born, i used huggies for awhile and then pampers. not sure why. i think it had to do with what costco carried and what sorts of cool freebies you could get with the points. i had heard that luvs were cheaper, but at the time, they had barney on them and there was no way i was going to have anything to do with that. i told you... i overthink things. so with layla, happily, barney had been dismissed in favor of blue's clues. i like blues clues! this made me happy. luvs are cheaper (especially at target) and they smell good. well, that brings up another issue. what is that smell? that can't be good for your baby, right? and layla has such sensitive skin anyway i hate to put anything extra next to it. not a huge deal since she only wears one diaper a day (when she goes to bed) but still, i decided to get something different. right now it's been the target brand, because they're the cheapest at target and i'm there anyway because that's where i buy the luvs for micah. yes, i know. what about the whole smell issue? still bugging me. but i don't like the target brand for every day. they're not as good of a diaper. not as stretchy and they get all bumpy when they're wet. so i still buy the luvs. but this shouldn't really be a big issue because i'm using the cloth ones most of the time, right? it still requires a great deal of thought, apparently. my latest idea is that i will get a big box of the costco brand diapers next time i'm there. why? who knows. quantity? no smell? price? i really have no idea. oh, and i almost forgot the lesser evil of disposables, the chlorine-free seventh generation diapers. i used those for a long time, but they're so freakin' exensive. i can't seem to justify it lately, even though i know i should and i therefore feel guilty every time i buy a kind of diaper that's not chlorine-free.
and this whole thing occurs to me EVERY TIME I CHANGE A DIAPER!
seriously, i have problems.
I just have to say that I am now exhausted...and I haven't been up that long. :)
ReplyDeletesee??? this is why i can never get anything done!!!
ReplyDeleteWe're using gDiapers with Baby Boy... kind of a hybrid between disposable and cloth. They're flushable, so no diaper pail smell in the house. Very cool.
ReplyDeleteGood luck with the dilemma!
i looked at those before holly. they're very very cool, but i just can't justify investing in a new diaper system when we already have one and micah is already almost a year old - didn't just say that :(.
ReplyDeletebesides they're freakin' expensive! i love the compostable aspect of them though. where do you get yours? i keep my diaper pail just outside the doorway to the garage (and conveniently right next to the laundry room) and since we do changes on the living room floor (classy, huh?) it's super convenient to just open the door and toss it out. btw, how's the bulk factor w/ the gdiapers?
We missed you yesterday rachel! I hate buying diapers and I never thought about all that. Wow, I also never knew you could buy hybrid diapers. Very cool.
ReplyDeleteIf I still had to deal with diaper buying, and when I was (not so long ago) I was there with you. When Joey and Mackenzie were young, it was "easier". Since I was shopping at the commissary, it was whatever brand had the best coupon. But with Joel, well, things changed and every time I'm wondering if I should switch to cloth, go with store brand and deal with the fact that they don't hold up well, or just throw my hands up and go the easy way with the mondo Costco box. My theory: you buy the big amount and you don't have to think about it for a while. That's the key with us I think. Finding the fastes way out of our respect heads. It must be the day we were born :))
ReplyDelete