cloth-diapering a baby under 10 lbs

Well my original plan was to have a series of posts complete with pictures and reviews about diapering your newborn baby. However, while my intentions were good, time seems to have slipped through my fingers (I blame the heat)! Brax is already around 11 lbs and starting to fit into larger settings than he did at birth. And since I slacked off on the pictures, I don't have much for you in that department. However, I do have a wordy analysis of what worked and what didn't for those of you wondering.

Infant Prefolds: This was what we generally stuck with. The prefolds were folded in a reverse newspaper fold to make adequate room for the umbilical cord, plus I just like that fold. It seems to give me more width on the wings for some reason, and it makes the rise adjustable. Now that he is getting bigger I am having a harder time fitting the wings around his belly, but he is still much too small for regular prefolds. What I don't like about prefolds is that unless they are doubled up they are not absorbent enough to go longer than two hours, so for nighttime diapering or on-the-go they are not the best option. And they can be bulky unless under a very trim cover.

Fitteds: We didn't do too much OS fitted diapering. We love the Bitty Bums by Nifty Nappy, and those get daily use in our house. I don't care for the bulk of my one-size fitteds, though. It put too much material between the legs in my opinion. We tried several brands of fitteds and they all had pretty much the same issues: bulky all around (especially between the legs), a bit awkward to fold, too big for newborn covers, too long of a rise.

Covers: Our favorites were the Thirsties Duos in size 1. However, Brax is now on the largest rise setting for those. They still fit perfectly but I will not be purchasing more because I doubt if it would be worth the money. I am loving the Flip covers on the smallest rise setting and second-to-smallest wing setting. They are one-size and still fit very well and are trim. Both covers have held some pretty nasty blowouts with no leaks. I plan to purchase more Flips, as they fit both my both great. Brax outgrew the Bummis Newborn covers in no time.

BG 3.0s: These actually fit pretty well. They are a bit bulky, but not as much as OS fitteds. They will definetely work for bigger birth-weight babies, but doubtful for preemies. You have to use the infant insert.

FuzziBunz OS: I will admit I never tried these. In my opinion Fuzzi Bunz are very bulky diapers even on my 28 pound toddler, so I didn't even attempt them on a less than 10 pounder.

I will say that having been through it now, cloth diapering from birth is definetely worth the investment in smaller diapers. I was one of those people who figured that a few weeks in crunchies would be cheaper, and boy was I wrong! For the first two weeks I did full-time disposables with Brax because of the cord, and had Moose in sposies for a month because of his staph. I ended up switching to daytime cloth for Brax at two weeks of age. However, I still spent over $60 on Luvs disposable diapers for both boys in just one month. $60+ and I was not even full-time paper-diapering Brax. This does not include the price of disposable wipes, which we went through like crazy. Both my hubby and I are so thankful that we cloth diaper now that Moose is back in cloth full time and Brax is in daytime cloth. I plan to switch Brax to nighttime cloth when he starts fitting into our OS fitteds, as those make up probably 90% of our stash.