Monday, February 13, 2006

 

Big money weekend

This past weekend we spent a LOT of money on baby... we bought our nursery furniture! We found a crib, changing table/dresser, and hutch made by Baby's Dream Furniture in their Generation Next style for sale USED!! We spent $710 on the set, which is almost exactly half of the cheapest quote we had to purchase it new. The drive to pick it up was a small pain, but well worth the $700 savings! The furniture is like new, it was perfectly cared for and well packaged for the trip and we couldn't be happier. We do need to buy a mattress and the changing pad, but we knew that would be the case when we decided to buy used.

Link to the furniture- We bought the convertible crib and the combo and hutch in Honey.

I also ordered a handful of all-in-one cloth diapers from CottonBabies.com, as well as a few inserts and wipes. I plan to wash them a few times and attempt to evaluate them to make sure we are making the best choice... total cost $123. Since we plan to spend about $1000 on cloth diapers, I figure this will help us make sure we are making a good decision... and these are all items we can still use, even if we decide to go primarily with other brands.

Comments:
that does sound like you got a great deal on furniture! great job :)
 
Have you found any cloth diapering forums online? Ebay is a great place to get supplies for cheap, too - all in ones (AIOs) have a great retail value, too.

Good luck - and try not to buy into the consumerist idea of needing tons and tons and tons of things for the new baby; really all you need for the first year of life are: (1) mom's boobs for food (2) cloth diapers - MUCH cheaper than disposables (3) a secure place to sleep, with parents or in a side-car type situation is often cheapest (4) a sling or stroller - depending on where you will be taking baby and (5) a SAFE carseat if you will be taking baby in a car
 
Cloth diapers. :-) Good luck. Simple or not you'll be on the disposable ones pretty shortly. We tried it. Messy job. You'll give in and hope someday recycling those nasty things comes into vogue.
 
We bought a lot of stuff from another couple at work, and did some thrifting as well.

We've been cloth diapering our 21-month old and 4-month old the entire time; it's actually manageable and nowhere near as bad as it sounds. Our child care providers have even been cool with it, once we showed them how easy the velcro covers and all-in-ones were.

I think we're out a few hundred bucks on cloth diapering, which has already paid for itself twice over. We found a big chunk of remnant fleece and cut it up into washable-liner-sized chunks. My wife also did a lot of research and shopping around. We also got a friend's hand-me-down diapers - amazing how much variety there is out there.

Gotta admit, during one week of twice-daily 16-month-old poop blowouts, I was about to put her on the patio until she turned 18.

My wife and I have tried several slings; she uses them much more than I and prefers the Maya brand.

PS the Bebe air purifier runs about $20 and gets rid of all kinds of smells in a couple of hours. Good for baby or toddler rooms in general, and improved our lives massively (not for the diaper bucket, but for killing off lingering barf-smell).

Good luck!
 
Todd D. - I'll look into the air purifiier, thanks!
 
Don't let people get you down with the snotty comments about how you're doomed to fail at cloth diapering, breastfeeding, making your own baby food, or whatever other parenting decisions you make.

Cloth diapering is NOT impossibly difficult or messy, particularly if you have your own washer and drier. If you think you'll be overwhelmed with the laundry and a newborn, look for a diaper service for the first few weeks.

Depending on the number of diapers you buy, you may only end up doing one or two extra loads of laundry in a week. If poopy diapers freak you out, you can buy disposable paper liners that slip inside the cloth diapers - or you can get a small sprayer to attach to your bathroom sink so you can rinse the mess into the commode without having to touch it too much.
 
CDing is just as easy as sposies-

you got to the store to buy diapers,
you go to the drier to get your cd's

you diaper in sposies,
you diaper in cloth

you remove sposies, throw away in diaper pail.
you remove cloth, rinse in toilet, toss in pail.

you take apart sposie pail, remove this bag, walk to outside trash, then weekely take this can to the curb.
you take cloth pail liner to washer, wash, place in drier or on line and let dry.

repeat every 2-3 days.
repeat every 2-3 days.

really, it's this easy. as long as you go with a good cd you will not have to pooping up the back and blowouts that people have with sposies. that's nasty. I've been cding for 2.5 years and NEVER had this. think about all the extra clothing you have to wash with baby poop on it while this is happening if you use sposies. might as well be washing diapers!
 
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