The cat's out of the diaper bag

Yes, it's true -- I admit it. I've got a serious thing for cloth diapers and cloth diaper covers-- not for ME, you twisted sicko! For my three-month old son, Milo. Although, in the interests of full disclosure, I should confess that my obsession started long before Milo was born...

It all began last Christmas, when I went online to do a little research on cloth diapers and cloth diaper covers.

(Pregnant women should never be allowed to work at a computer -- not because of all the radiation coming off the screen, but rather the danger of giving in to the insatiable need to check out all the insanely cute baby stuff online. They're bound to get fired for slacking off or wind up in serious debt. Even I, who had once declared DEATH to all things cutesy wootsy -- "Goodbye Kitty" was my motto, and I still have a t-shirt showing that harmless little kitten getting whacked by Jason from Friday 13th -- succumbed to the lure of stores like this and this and this.)

Back then, I thought there were two diapering options available: ridiculously expensive disposables and even more ridiculously expensive cloth diaper services. I wanted to see if there were any cloth diaper services in my area that were slightly less ridiculously expensive than the rest.

So I went to Google, plugged in the term, "cloth diapers" -- and lo and behold, a whole new universe opened up to me. Little did I know there were SO MANY different kinds of cloth diapers and diaper covers out there, or that they could be so incredibly cute (or so, um, amusingly named).

For months, I spent every free moment at work surfing through the wild and whacky world of cloth diapers and diaper covers, absorbing what I could (pun most definitely intended). I learned about all-in-ones and pocket diapers, about Chinese prefolds and Indian prefolds, fleece diaper covers, wool diaper covers, and about inserts, doublers and contours.

Abbreviations such as DD, MFI, and UBCPF began to make sense to me.

Best of all, I discovered that pretty much every single do-it-yourself diapering system out there was WAY cheaper than using disposables or a cloth diaper delivery service -- and that washing all those diapers and diaper covers myself wouldn't be nearly as time-consuming or as much of a hassle as I'd thought it would be. That's when I knew I was hooked.

Now, after three months of using a variety of different cloth diapers and diaper covers, I'm as crazy about them as ever. They're a breeze to use, we never have to make any midnight runs to the local shopping center to replace them, and I feel great knowing that my baby's poop isn't permanently festering in a landfill somewhere.

So, what I'm hoping to do with this blog is share the cloth diaper gospel with anyone who's interested. I want it to be your favourite stop for all information related to the topic of cloth diapering. I'll post product reviews of the different kinds of cloth diapers I'm using, offer washing and folding tips, and will post any interesting news articles I come across in my travels through the online cloth diaper world.

Maybe you're already a cloth diaper addict yourself. Maybe you're thinking about using them but want to know more about them before taking the plunge. Or maybe you're a diehard disposables user who wants to peek over the fence to see how the other half lives. Whatever your fancy, I'll do my best to satisfy it.

Let the cloth diaper blogging begin!