Diapers

Ah, diapers.  One of the most expensive things that will ever catch your child's feces.  Not only are they expensive, but we also have the benefit of either filling up landfills (disposable) or using a ton of the earth's water supply (cloth).  It's a great feeling, isn't it?

I have mentioned previously that A inherited my husband's and my insanely long torso and short legs.  This means that she has a longer than average butt area.  Not weird or anything, just long enough that diapers that were even the littlest bit too short would cause blow-outs.  Sort of like this, from the back:

We decided to go with disposable diapers with A.  We were such new parents, we decided to go with the easiest decision at the time; we'll likely go with at least some cloth in the future (and they're so cute!!).  However, since the only cloth we tried with A as a baby were gDiapers (which I did not like), this blog post will only cover disposables.

Anyway - so, when A was born, the hospital put her straight into Size 1 Pampers.  I don't know if they just don't usually carry Newborn size, or if they recognized right off the bat that she had a little amazon torso, or what.  They worked great and we didn't have blow-outs, they just seemed so big everywhere else and sort of started to rub against her umbilical cord stub (plus, we'd gotten a ton of Newborn diapers as shower gifts).  Hence, when we got home, we decided to switch her to Newborns.

First we used Huggies Newborns diapers.  I liked these because they have a little cut-out for the umbilical stump.  You can sort of see it here:

This was more convenient than folding down the front on the bigger Pampers, but my problem was that the backs didn't go far enough up, and I didn't feel like the sides were great at holding in all of her little bodily fluids.  We ruined a few adorable little baby dresses this way.  We tried the Size 1 Huggies to see if it was just that they were too small; that fixed the issue with the back for the most part, but those sides just still weren't cutting it for me.  Plus, I honestly didn't really like the way they smelled.

So, next we tried some Up & Up brand diapers from Target that we'd received.  After I pulled the sticker tab things off of three of these in a row on three different occasions, we moved to the Pampers and didn't really look back.  I don't know if we just got a bad pack, as I know others have great luck with Up & Up, but it sort of frustrated me enough to move on.

We moved back to the Pampers Swaddlers, which I'd never had an issue with really at the hospital.  First we tried the Newborn size - the Newborn sizes are just not made for babies with long torsos.  However, we were right back to it working perfectly with the Size 1.  What I also really liked about the Swaddlers is the pee line.  I'm sure they have a more delicate name for it, but basically there's a thin yellow line that turns blue when there is some sort of bowel-ly emission.  It looks like this (not the bowel-ly emission, the pee line):

(Really hoping that they just used water to get the pee line to work)

This was nice so that I didn't have to smell my baby's junk and/or butt, and also so that I didn't have to put my finger in the diaper to check.  When they're so tiny that they don't have a giant pee diaper, it's sometimes hard to tell from the outside.  This method avoided pretty much all grossness.  

So, we became a Pampers household.  The Swaddlers only go up to about size 3 (boo), so we changed to Cruisers for the daytime and Baby Dry for the night when she outgrew those - the Cruisers specifically make a longer trunk area, so that was a help for us.  I know that the change in the type of gel Pampers used bothered some babies (although it was pretty well cleared of being damaging) - I really think some babies are just sensitive to certain things, and that wasn't something to which A was sensitive.  This was sort of a miracle, since she's got REALLY sensitive skin.

Pampers are not exactly the cheapest diapers out there.  Also, I'm sort of lazy and don't like going to the store twice a week for diapers.  So, we started using Diapers.com.  I think you had to get $50 worth of merchandise to get free 2-day shipping when I started; now it is $35 and over.  It's sort of awesome - you just log in, buy some diapers, and wait for them to show up at your front door.  (I wish someone would change the diapers the same way.)  I think Amazon Mom works similarly, I just didn't like scheduling out the diaper delivery, as I didn't really track A's diaper-use schedule that closely.  

Anyway.  That's today's chat on baby butts.  Please feel free to share your opinions - and if anyone has a "this is the best cloth diaper ever that even your husband who refuses to handle poop will like" recommendation, please share that, too!