Well, speed ahead a couple of months, and there I am with my newborn son wiggling before me.  I opened the diaper pin and proceeded to fasten the diaper......but I just couldn't do it!  The thought of poking my baby or my finger made my hands shake, and I reached for the athletic tape instead!  (the tape was there just in case I lost my nerve)  The tape worked real well until the diaper got wet, at which point it lost all stickiness, and the diaper came open.

So we started using disposables instead.  I really wanted to use cloth, though.  I thought the cotton flannel of a reusable diaper would be more comfortable to wear than a paper and plastic one.  The chemical absorbers inside the diapers that turned into hard chunks of gel  made me feel uneasy about what exactly was next to my baby's skin.  Then there were those extra bags of trash to throw away.  The disposables didn't look very biodegradable to me, and we were putting lots of them in to our landfill.

A few weeks later, I found an ad for diaper covers in the back of one of my magazines.   With a prefold diaper folded in thirds inside the cover, it's tabs wrapped around to the front and fastened with velcro or snaps!  No pins!!  So I ordered a few...we liked them..and happily returned to using cloth again.

Well, now it is 5 years later, and I am cloth-diapering my daughter.  She has worn cloth from her 1st day,  am happy to say.   But diapering needs can be as different as kids themselves, so I hope to update this page to include my experiences with her, too.

If you are considering using cloth diapers, please let me reassure you that it can be affordable, practical, sanitary, comfortable for baby, and do-able within a busy family life.  I hope the following information is helpful...