Introducing myself!

I will never forget the first time I got fluffy mail. I had been stalking the UPS guy all morning and probably scared the bejesus out of him when I answered the door .7 seconds after he knocked. “Are you Annie?”, he asked. “Yes!” I said as I frantically signed what almost resembled my name. I ripped open the package and there they were in all their glory, 18 brand spankin’ new BumGenius pocket diapers. I quickly stuffed the pockets and lined them up on my couch, organizing them by color. They were the prettiest things (that catches poop) I had ever seen. My son was just 12 weeks old and after weeks of online research, my husband and I had made the decision to take the plunge and become part of the cloth diapering community. At the time, it didn’t seem like much of a community, though. We knew no one in real life that cloth diapered and everyone we had mentioned it to thought we were nuts. But I was staying-at-home with my son and living on one income can be challenging with a new baby. We were getting into cloth diapering to help us save some money and to reduce the number of garbage bags we were hauling down to the dumpster every week!

It’s been nearly two years since that first order of diapers came in. My first son, Ian, will be 2 years old next month and I also have a 4 month old son, Sean. My husband of 3 years, Charles, and I are still cloth diapering both boys and if you ask either one of us, we’d probably tell you that getting into cloth diapering has been one of the best decisions we’ve made since becoming parents.

Our diaper stash has certainly grown and changed since those initial 18 BumGenius diapers. I’ve branched out to try prefolds and various fitteds with covers. I’ve also tried over a dozen brands of pockets and all-in-ones. I’ve found diapers that I love and diapers that I don’t love. I think that the most important thing that I’ve found through cloth diapering and natural parenting is a strong community of women and parents that support each other in their decisions, no matter what their reasons may be. I’m thrilled to have the opportunity to be able to be a contributor to the Nicki’s Diapers blog and look forward to hearing your questions and feedback! You can leave your comments here on the blog or feel free to stop in and pay me and Sean, my spiky-haired 4-month-old, a visit at our new Madison location!

My family... we are diehard Packer fans!

~Annie