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My first week of breastfeeding was a bit stressful. When I was pregnant, I spent a lot of time watching NCIS when I should have been reading books to educate myself on these kinds of things. I started breastfeeding in the hospital. I'm pretty shy about these kinds of things, so I had my mom help me out for starters. Zoë latched on rather easily, but it was a poor latch so it hurt. We tried a couple times and it seemed to hurt less, so I figured we were on track.

During my hospital stay, a lactation consultant had stopped by to see if I needed help, but I since I thought everything was going well, she went on her merry way. By the time I got home the next day, I was very sore. I was using lanolin which helped a bit, but hardly. I had no idea that breastfeeding could hurt so badly. Except, it's not supposed to if the baby latches on correctly.

As Zoë latched, my mom noticed me wincing in pain. She tried to help me, but being a new mom and new to breastfeeding, I just couldn't quite figure it out. She recommended that I meet with a lactation consultant after all. Luckily, there is a Mother's Resource Center at one of our local hospitals. I gave them a call and the consultant was able to see me the following afternoon. The big downside to that, though, was that it was now going to be a $45 visit where it would have been "free" if I would have just seen the consultant during my hospital stay after delivery.  That said, I recommend seeing the lactation consultant if offered during your hospital stay even if everything is going well.

Seeing the lactation consultant helped me out a lot. She taught me the cross-cradle hold and what a perfect latch looked like. She also gave me some better tips to help with the soreness and suggested a follow up visit once my milk came in a few days later just to make sure I was adapting well. At my return visit, everything was going smoothly, and Zoë was already on her way back to her birth weight. 
 
PictureZoë in one of her Rumparooz cloth diapers.
When I first started thinking about diapers, a friend had mentioned going cloth as a more economical option for me. However, the idea of extra laundry and dealing with the poop led to a quick, "No way." In fact, I was SET on disposable diapers until about a few weeks before Zoë's arrival. 

What changed my mind? Initially, it was definitely the cost. I remember asking my mom how many diapers we'd go through when we were pricing out the Kirkland diapers at Costco. After the math, I realized one super box of diapers would only last me about a week and a half and that was assuming a minimum of 12 diapers per 24 hours. Even with Costco prices, I knew that would add up fast.  I decided to do a little more research on the cloth diapering systems as well as how to clean the poop off (since that was my biggest worry). 

After talking with Wes about it (since he'd have to take part in the process, too) we decided that we would give the cloth diapering a go after all. That's when I started researching about specific brands of cloth diapers. My mom did some research of her own and we both came up with several different options that looked good enough to try (I'll introduce those in a later post). 

Now onto why I LIKE (maybe even love) cloth diapers. First off, you should know that as a newborn, we had Zoë in disposable diapers because we only had a few cloth diaper options that would actually fit her at the time. So, we spent the first four weeks using disposables and, boy, do I have some horror stories. 

One of Zoë's favorite things to do was cry hysterically as she was peeing. We'd go in for a diaper change only to have her continue peeing as soon as we were getting the new diaper on. Two diapers for one change. Then there was the blowouts...wow. I'd wait at least five minutes before changing her and she'd STILL continue during the change. Those suckers easily sucked up three diapers per change. 

As you know, I'm a first-time mom, so perhaps this is a common thing for babies and I just couldn't get the hang of it. However, I don't think it's just a coincidence that all of this stopped once we put the cloth diapers into effect. Of course, I'm no expert. I will say this, though. We were doing a three-day trip to Disneyland, and I had planned on using disposables for the trip for the sake of convenience. The morning we were set to leave, I put Zoë in the disposables and we were back to square one. Her morning blowout was certainly a blowout and the whole two diapers for one wetting was back in order as well. Needless to say, I said, "Screw this. We're taking the cloth. There's a laundry room at the hotel." (I'll talk more about traveling with cloth diapers in a later post, too.)

Those are the main reasons I like cloth diapers. Really, the only thing I miss on the disposables is that magical yellow line that turns blue if the diaper's wet, but as I've gotten to know Zoë's patterns and cries, that isn't even that big of a deal. A couple of other reasons I like the cloth diapers? Good for the environment, lots of cute colors and print options and, I can't be sure, but they're so soft that they seem like they'd be WAY more comfortable.