Cloth Diaper Carnival: All about the daddy’s: do they do, do-do?

Well, I’m not sure how this Carnival thing works, but thought I’d give it a try and see how I do. The host is Dirty Diaper Laundry and I found out about it via the Cloth Diapering Bloggers group. Here’s this month’s topic: I was thinking of a fun carnival. This can be funny since most of us have had interesting cloth diaper encounters with our husbands. I know I have!Share what you would like us to know. You can tell a story of how supportive, wonderful, helpful, on board your husband/SO is with cloth. Or, tell us the resistance you met and how you convinced them to come to the cloth side! Even better, have a funny story to share about something your hubby/ SO did to/with your diapers? Please share!

Well, I read recently where a mom left and came home to a diaper in the yard, a mysterious garden hose, and a loosely put on diaper. Yup, daddy ‘washed’ the chunks off. Effective, if not the way mom would do it (sorry, I don’t remember where I saw it, but if it’s yours, feel free to put your link in the comments and I’ll backtrack and add it in!)

Anyway, we really haven’t had that many issues with my husband and cloth diapering. He pushed me into ordering my first ones, when postpartum was kicking my butt and I didn’t feel like I could handle one more thing, even if it was my idea in the first place, before a pre-mature baby. He convinced me to use cloth during the day and ‘sposies after dinner, and soon, we were adding to our stash and Cd’ing full time. Sure, I’m home all day and the last thing I want is for him to call me in on a rare evening poo, but I fight the good fight and do the wipe/dump/pail portion anyway. He’s there and that’s what counts. In September, I had hernia surgery, and my darling girl waited until mommy was on her feet the next day to oblige daddy with a dirty, so mommy could help. Sweet of her, right? I think they were in it together.

So how does my husband do with cloth diapers? Wonderful. He HATES disposables now, he was willing to try cloth and now I don’t think he’d let a disposable near her bum, unless it was a true emergency. Would he take the t-shirt off of his back and use it in a pinch instead of buying a pack of ‘sposies in order to get us home? You betcha.

What does my husband like about cloth diapers? The fact that they don’t stink like powder, that they don’t feel and sound like plastic, that they seem to self heal any redness she may have, by pulling away moisture. I think he’s even coming around to the fluffy diaper butt look. He definitely now has opinions about what he likes and doesn’t like. He recently said that if our dipes aplix wears out and we’re out of warranty, that he’d send them off to get them fitted for snaps. He’s also ready for another baby and has already claimed no ‘sposies’ for baby #2, not even in the hospital. Not sure if I’m quite ready for thinking about that, but it shows you the dedication! Now about the money savings…

Have we saved money with cloth diapers? Yes. Have we spent money with them?  Yes. Have I won a bunch of them and added to our stash through buy x get x free and sales? Yes. It’s like clothes. You can buy a season’s worth of clothes the year before, for cheap, but there’s always that one thing that you just have to have full price the next year. Overall, you come out a winner. He likes this, a lot.

So, does daddy do the do-do? Sometimes. He SWEARS if he holds his breath he can taste it, so he ends up smelling it, whereas I hold my breath and only get the after-stink from the flush/pail. He’s all behind the cloth wipes, I just haven’t gotten around to it yet. We won 6 and use them for bm’s until they run out with just clear water, but need a better system for full time use. If we’re out of them and it’s a bm time, man, that stinks, in more ways than one. It’s taken 14 months, but the disposable wipes are really getting to me. I’m tired of buying them, of the baby trying to eat them, of shelling out $6 every couple of weeks, even used sparingly it seems like we need them all the time. Maybe with a full time all-out cloth system the hubs would be more willing to handle a bm solo, but for now, I’m glad I get the help I do with diapering, and I’m really glad we chose cloth!