Very inexperienced newbie here! With lots of questions

[Claire]

Hi

I'm 32 weeks pregnant and have decided that this baby, my second child, will be a cloth wearing baby. I really wanted to use cloth with my first but never looked into it enough and thought it would be just too hard......having done some research, I can see it's not that hard at all!

I have taken the plunge and purchased the Bummis infant prefold pack - I have no idea if it's the right place to start but I needed to start somewhere and it looked pretty economical. You get 36 infant prefolds, 6 whisper wraps and 100 bio liners. Would you recommend these? The sizing is 3.6 kilos - 7 kilos.

I've read so much on cloth my head is spinning a little and I'm confused.

Will the prefolds be a good absorbancy to use? Also because he may well be smaller than 3.6 kilos for the first week or so should I get something else for him to wear? or just newborn covers for a snugger fit?

I've heard that Baby beehinds bamboo are great for nights - when should I be thinking of using different nappies for overnight?

Should I get some fitted nappies in a range of sizes for convenience too?

I hoping to get my toddler into cloth for her day sleeps as she's toilet training - she's not a heavy wetter anymore and doesn't poo when asleep - what would you recommend for her?

Sorry for all the silly questions - a friend recommended this site as a great place for information and I thought I would just take the plunge before buying anymore for my stash!

[innod]

hi and welcome.
i didn't modern cloth a new born, i used terry squares and plastic pants
but what you have sounds good.
you may be right in needing some new born covers.
in regards to bbb(baby beehinds bamboo) yes they are good as night nappies, perhaps not for the new born as they can be slighty big on littlies, but will be good to get for your toddler for her sleeps and then the new bub can also use them when they grow into them, works out very economical for you.
plus if you are using the prefolds then they will be good to use in pocket nappies as bub gets bigger so also another economical choice.
i don't know if i have answered your questions or not
however welcome to nc you will get most of your questions answered here , eventually some body who has done it before will come along
oh the other thing is check out www.buyforbaby.com.au for second hand nappies so that you can try some before spending too much more on your stash, as every one like different things

[stellarella]

Hi.

We used cloth from birth.
We used eenee wraps with cloth prefolds which is essentially what you have purchased with the bummis pack.
Works a treat and great for containing newborn poos. The PUL washes up easily.

The night nappies are good once your baby stops pooing through the night and sleeps a bit more. I think around 3/4 months we got some night nappies.

With the absorbancy, you could get yourself some bamboo or hemp boosters to put inside the cotton pre-folds if you want them to last a bit longer. My son pooed about 8 times a day so I was changing often and didnt need to have super absorbant nappies.

I think the 36 pre-folds will see you through the first month or 2 at least. Then once your baby is born you can start trialling different nappies...its easier to try them on a real baby and decide if you like them.

[Peach_Bums_Mum]

Hi & Welcome. Congrats on choosing cloth!
The Bummis pack is a great place to start. I started with prefolds and Bummis Whisper Covers. I found they fit my average newborn fine - slightly big but still worked a treat - I didnt have money to spare on newborn size stuff for just a few weeks.
If you want to treat yourself, I would buy a couple of small sized fitted nappies to use after the first few weeks to give yourself an idea of the difference between the prefold and the fitted. They are much more convenient and *special*.
Babies start sleeping through from different ages, so it depends on bub, but I would imagine around 6 months is 'average'.
For your daughter, I would suggest a good training pant. I used Bummis Training Pants for my son which arnt that absorbant, but he usually doesnt wet a lot so they work great for us. There are lots of other trainers available though. Perhaps you could buy a pocket trainer and use the prefolds you have for the baby inside it. I think weewuns and darling down under have pocket trainers.
The infant prefolds you have will be great to use inside pockets for your baby when he/she gets older too, so thats something to keep in mind too if you want to recycle them

[Stelle]

hello and welcome!
one thing i found with a newborn is that liners just don't work! you'll probably need to keep those until after your baby starts solids. before that they will just lead to leaks because they don't let breastfed poos through quickly enough - at least they didn't for my boys...

i use terry flats because they are cheap(!!), easy to wash and quick to dry so prefolds will have the same advantages. we also use baby beehinds and other fitted nappies for night time so a mix of things to try is good. something i've gathered from this forum is that babies are so different and you should experiment if you need to in order to find nappies that work for yours.

good luck!

[mokster26]

I used snappied prefolds with small bummis covers, ericas fleece covers or stacinator so simple with great success. I used microfleece liners which I would squrt the BF poo off into the toilet. We had a few fitteds as well. We didn't have huge poosplosions and Max pooed many times a day so the prefolds and covers easily contained them
When he was a little bigger I lay the prefolds in the cover and used them like that. We also had small pockets and I used the prefolds as stuffers in them.
You may like to look at a one size pocket for DD - that way you can use it again when your newborn is a little bigger. I really like the bumgenius pocket but pockets are not for everyone. There is lots of great information here and so many helpful people too

[lissab]

Hi Claire, I'm just going through some trial and error with my now 10 week old. When she was first born I only used terry squares and eene wraps which was fine becasue I was changing her so much. A few weeks on we're onto prefolds which are much more absorbent. I've also got some fitted nappies (a few terry, a few bamboo) which I use at night- easier when I'm bumbling around half asleep and seem to be a bit more absorbent than prefolds. I've found microfleece liners work better for us, and have various PUL covers which are working well. I've also just bought some pockets which seem to be good ( got a OSFA so I can use the prefolds when she grows out of them) but only had a few days trial.
I understand your confusion, there's so many options but I think what you've got to start with sounds great. Also many places have trial packs which might be a good way of trying different options.

[Claire]

Hi everyone,

Thanks for making me feel welcome and answering all my questions. So I'm thinking that the prefold package is a good idea and by using a snappis I can contain more and it will be a snugger fit? I'm going to buy a couple of newborn covers, how many do you think I will need? And at your suggestion Peach_Bums_Mum I'm going to treat us to a few smalll fitted to go with my small elmo AIO I got at Touchin Cloth.

With microfleece liners - are they able to go against the skin?

[cathym82]

Hi Claire,

Welcome to NC

Are you Tania's cousin? If so I'm glad you joined, you'll get all you questions answered here.

Regards, Cathy

[lissab]

Hi Claire, I'm pretty sure microfleece is fine against bubs skin, it's microfibre that you can't put against their skin because it's too trying.
An expert around to confirm this??!