My journey into cloth diapering...

I'm so excited to join up with the fabulous staff here at Nicki's Diapers. The knowledge and care they bring is wonderful to behold, and I'm honored to be a part of it! When I was pregnant with my first child, one of the first things I noticed was how intense people were about their decisions and how hard they were on themselves if they "failed" at something they had decided to do or not do. The stress that mothers especially pile on themselves is astounding -- they are GOING to have a natural childbirth. They are GOING to breastfeed. They are GOING to have a perfect, healthy, infant and maintain a perfect, clean household...well, that's not real life. In real life, sometimes you need some painkillers even if you decided you wouldn't. Sometimes you need a little more support to breastfeed successfully than you thought you would. Sometimes you need to be flexible and put off dishes for a day (or three). I noticed these things and decided that I didn't need that extra stress -- I was stressed enough about being a mom after a difficult pregnancy, why add to it? I decided that I was going to keep an open mind and TRY. I was relaxed about childbirth, and had a beautiful hospital birth that I am 100% comfortable and happy with. I was relaxed and open-minded about breastfeeding, and didn't stress out when it didn't come naturally. I was just trying, after all, so I was able to TRY new techniques and ask for help, and managed to work things out. Had I been stressed out, I probably would have had far less success and would have felt negatively about my "failures" rather than pleased with my decisions in the end. When it came to cloth diapering my first son, I decided once again that I'd TRY -- but I wasn't going to stress myself out over it. So I bought a couple things here and there, a few covers, a handful of prefolds, and half-heartedly gave it a go. Looking back, I didn't have near enough supplies or accessories to make it work, and thus I stopped. I liked the idea of cloth diapering, I just hadn't really committed to it. Flash forward to my second son, and my husband and I are now seasoned, veteran parents. By this time we've TRIED everything and have found what works for our family. We decided, together, to commit to cloth diapering both boys this time around. I did a bunch of research and realized that in order to TRY cloth diapering, you really have to give yourself a fair shot. Buy enough diapers to make it full-time. Buy enough accessories to make it easy on yourself. We went to Nicki's Diapers and bought up our whole system, and really prepared ourselves to give it a good, solid try. This time, it worked. We had set ourselves up for success and are very pleased with our decision. There have been bumps in the road, and tweaks of what really works for us, but that's expected. Now I can say I've tried just about everything in the world of cloth diapers, too! Over the course of the last 28 months of parenthood, I've evolved into a breastfeeding, cloth diapering, babywearing, attachment parenting mama and I couldn't be happier.