Newborn cloth diapering: A peek of our little squishy!

As most of you know our little miss was born on October 11th, 2012, after a few rough months at the end of the pregnancy. She made her debut a few days after being released from hospital bed rest. She arrived healthy and perfect and was born at 7lbs 4oz and 19 1/4" long.


Eliana left the hospital weighing 6lbs 11oz and we started cloth diapering as soon as we were home and the meconium poop was out of her system.

Here is a link to the post on how the newborn diapers are constructed

Above & Below pics: Eliana 1 week old -6lbs 11oz

A breakdown of what I made, prior to her birth, for her newborn stash:

12 newborn AI2/Covers (I had made a mix of snap and aplix closure)
1 newborn pocket with mf insert
12 snap-in bamboo inserts- I grossly underestimated the number of inserts I would need, I was doing laundry DAILY with only 12 inserts.  I have since made her more inserts and I do diaper laundry every 2-3 days. I get a nice rotation of the AI2 covers now and use, on average, 3 different covers each day.

Quick note:
**I have been cloth diapering since my son was born in 2010, however, I was only cloth diapering part time when he was a newborn. I was so overwhelmed, as it was my first time attempting to cloth diaper and I hadn't taken care of a newborn in nearly 10 years. I started to full time cloth diaper my son when he was around 5 or 6 months old.**

  Above & below pics: Eliana 12 days old -7lbs 4oz  

My recommendation on your starting newborn stash 

(if you are exclusively using AI2's):

Aplix closure for most of your stash- Nice for quick night time changes and if you are cloth diapering for the first time. Last thing you want to do is fully wake up your newborn because you were fighting with the snaps. A little more than half of Eliana's newborn covers are aplix.  

10-12 diapers(24+ if you don't re-use the cover)- I was told that I only needed a few covers, however my little miss is a big pooper. Since Miss E is exclusively breastfed, her poop seems to get every where when I change her.

24 bamboo inserts**- I currently have 24 inserts to switch out during the day.

6-10 bamboo doublers- Eliana is a heavy wetter and I found that I have to add a doubler at night or during a longer car ride.

**These covers will fit over an infant prefold, I had to dig out some of my son's old prefolds and used them with Eliana when I didn't have all the additional inserts made.


  Above & below pics: Eliana 4 weeks old- 9lbs    

When to transition to "One Size" diapers. 

We started trying out the one size diapers on Eliana around 8lbs 8oz. She was 3 weeks old at the time.

We had the rise snapped down to the lowest setting of the one size diaper and she was able to use it with no issues. Since we have plenty of newborn diapers that fit a little trimmer we are waiting to transition her until she is bigger. However, if you don't mind a bit more bulk in the bum you can rest easy knowing that our one size diapers will fit your little one well before the 10-12lb mark.


  Above & below pics: Eliana 4 weeks old-9lbs