a dark secret...

So you probably know I'm a big crunchy hippie when it comes to diapers.  I love cloth*, and I also practice EC with my daughter (aka Infant Potty Training.)

But I have a dark secret.

For many months now, I've been using - cue dramatic music - a disposable diaper on Katie overnight.  I didn't want anything to interfere with her sleep, since we were trying to get her to sleep through the night.  I wasn't sure if that wet-diaper feeling was waking her up.

Now that sleep is going pretty well, I'm inching closer to going back to cloth at night. Know why? Coz those damned disposables LEAK! I'm so tired of changing all of her layers of clothing in the morning, and sometimes her sheet too!

In preparation for the eagerly-awaited jump back to cloth, I bought my first wool diaper cover.  If my research is correct, wool is supposed to be the absolute best thing for night.  It sounds insane, not to mention itchy.  How can wool keep Katie dry with no plastic or laminated fabric?

The answer, I'm told, is in the lanolin.  When you buy a wool diaper cover, you have to "lanolize" it before using it.  The lanolin is antibacterial, neutralizes odors, and helps the wool absorb the pee.

But lanolizing is a pain in the butt and I *totally* screwed it up by using about 10 times more lanolin than I should have.  I've had to strip the darned thing repeatedly, and it still feels sticky.  Fail!

So we shall see.  I think tonight may be the night!  I'm going to put her in an Under the Nile fitted cotton diaper, with the sticky wool cover over it, and hopefully the whole thing will fit under her pajamas.  I'll post a picture if she looks like a stuffed sausage.

Fingers crossed!!!!

*Yes, the jury is out about whether cloth is really THAT much more eco-friendly than disposables.  I intend to post about this someday; for now, I think it's safe to say that cloth is at least a little better for the baby, if not for the planet.  ;)