Cloth Diapering: Newborn Diapers

Oh, you guys. Reality is setting in that this is my last week of maternity leave, and I am getting really sad about it. All I want to do is snuggle this little girl all day long.

But I’m also trying to cross things off of the mental list of things I told myself I’d do during my maternity leave (not that long of a list—I gave myself realistic expectations, ha!), and one of them is to post about our experience with newborn cloth diapers.

Now, if you’ve been following my cloth diapering “story” over the past couple of years, you may remember that with Nora, we used prefolds and covers for her newborn days. It was a fine system, but they were never my favorite and this time around, we decided to give AIOs (all-in-ones) a try. I did a lot of research and shopping around with the different brands, but as with all things cloth diapering, there are never any concrete answers. So many options, and so many opinions about which of those options is best.

My approach was to order a couple of a bunch of different brands—literally 2-3 diapers of each—and wait until the baby was born. Once she was here, I got her into cloth diapers pretty much right away (she was 4 days old), and after a few days of use, decided to order more of the ones we liked—which were pretty much all of them, for different reasons.

I had grand plans to take photos of Vivienne in each brand of cloth diaper, multiple times over the course of time so that I could show you what each diaper looked like on a 4-week-old baby vs. an 8-week-old baby, or whatever. But um… sorry. Didn’t happen. Still, I did eventually get around to getting pics of her in each diaper, and I’ll indicate how old she was in each pic as we get into it. So, here goes.

First up… the Blissful Booty AIO Diaper (Size XS/Newborn).

{Vivienne is 4.5 weeks old}

Well, first things first. Unfortunately, you can’t buy these diapers new anymore. SAD. These were made by a woman who started her own business doing this and late this summer, she announced that she was having health problems and had to close down. I saw rumblings on her Facebook page that she was possibly selling the company, but haven’t seen any update on that. So whether or not these will become available again, I don’t know. But if you’re interested in these diapers, your best bet is to hit up the online diaper swaps and find them used.

These were an early favorite. In fact, out of the 19 diapers that we ended up with in our newborn stash, six of them were these guys. They were great right off the bat. The fit on our teeny newborn (Vivienne was 6 lbs. 11 oz. at birth) was great, and I loved the convenient notch for her healing cord stump. Also gotta say that I loved that they were aplix closure. For the long-term, we’ve always been fans of snap closures with our one-size diapers, but with newborn ones? Aplix is cool.

Colors? Totally boring, but I was willing to look past it. They only came in the cream color (pictured above) and a celery color (light green).

The problem? These were the first diapers she “outgrew” (meaning she began to out-wet them….every.single.time. she wore them). Vivienne was only about 5 weeks old when this began to happen, so it was a bummer. However, we were able to use cloth wipes/baby wash cloths (tri-folded) as doublers inside to stretch these for a few more weeks, which was fine. Not ideal, but fine.

All in all, the Blissful Booty diapers were great newborn dipes, but our little one outwetting them so soon was definitely a negative. I do think Vivienne is a heavier wetter than a lot of babies, for what it’s worth.

Next up… the Bumgenius Newborn All-in-One.

{Vivienne is 4.5 weeks old}

These were another favorite early on. Loved the aplix, although the “laundry tab” was annoying on these since it’s in the middle of the back of the diaper and both sides adhere to the same “tab.” I’d rather each piece of aplix have their own laundry tab on each side. Easier for wash, easier for storage once they’re clean.

Good fit again with these. Like the Blissful Booty diapers, I liked how trim these were underneath her clothes.

These were diapers that I trusted to contain everything, even outside of the house. So if we were going somewhere? I often turned to the trusty ol’ Bumgenius.

I loved that these were available in the bright colors and a couple prints for variety. I’m a sucker for bright colors and prints, so that was a plus for these. One disadvantage of the Bumgenius is that there is not a notch or a snap-down to avoid the cord stump. We were still able to make do with these in the beginning by folding down the top part a bit before fastening the diaper, but it’s worth noting since that’s an extra step.

Vivienne did eventually start outwetting these, too, at around 7 weeks old. (For reference, Vivi weighed in at 10 lbs., 4 oz. at 6.5 weeks old.) At that point, we started rotating these out.

We had five of the Bumgenius diapers in our 19-diaper stash. These are really affordable at $12.95 each, even less if you buy from somewhere like Abby’s Lane and can use the coupon code. Or, of course, if you can find them used!

That brings us to the GroVia Newborn All-in-One.

{Vivienne is 4.5 weeks old}

I really wanted to love these, because hello, they’re adorable. But it wasn’t meant to be, at least not for us.

The first time I ever put one of these on Vivienne, she leaked like crazy. So I was annoyed right away. I tweeted about it, though, and GroVia got in touch with me and told me to stick it out. They said that these are diapers that REALLY have to be prepped—meaning they have to be washed (COMPLETE wash cycles!) five or six times before they’re absorbent. OK, fine, but really? What a pain. I don’t know about you guys, but I don’t like to run things through long wash cycles using lots of water… for no reason. I had already washed these twice before ever putting them on her butt, but it was not enough.

Sure enough, after going through the monstrous prepping process, I did notice improvement. However, there is what I believe to be a fundamental design flaw in these diapers that immediately sent them to the bottom of my list of favorites. In other words, these were by far our least favorite newborn diaper. And the design flaw? See for yourself…

Those little ruffled leg gussets that look adorable? Well, take a closer look. You can see the inside lining of the diaper, right?

There you go. That there is the problem, at least in my experience. When the inside lining part of that cute little ruffle is in contact with your baby’s clothes, you’re likely to experience some wicking. Vivienne’s clothes always ended up at least a little bit wet around the leg openings because the moisture was being wicked out the leg through those ruffles. So annoying.

With that said, some people absolutely love these. The fit was fine. Like the Blissful Booty and Bumgenius diapers, these were trim under her clothes. And the prints? To die for. And they just came out with some new prints that are even more cute. I just wish they would make adjustments to the darn leg gusset design!

These have a snap-down for the cord stump, so that’s helpful. Also, the “tongue” design that they have on the inside makes them faster drying than a lot of AIO diapers.

Fit-wise, we could’ve probably used these for a while, but honestly, they became “emergency only” diapers very early on. I only reached for them if all of the other diapers were already dirty or were in the wash. We had two of these in our stash. These are also affordable, costing right around $12 each.

And up next… Lil Joey by Rumparooz.

{Vivienne is 4.5 weeks old}

I ordered two of these (they come in twin packs) when I was still pregnant, and when they came in the mail, I almost died from the cuteness. These are the tiniest, most adorable little newborn diapers. And a Lil Joey was the very first cloth diaper I put on Vivienne at four days old. It fit perfectly. With the snap options on this diaper, you can REALLY snap these down so that they are REALLY tiny. If you have a preemie? These are the diapers for you, no question. I found that we were able to achieve a good fit with these at any time because of the number of snaps available.

The Lil Joeys have a snap-down on the front for the umbilical cord stump. They also have inner-leg gussets to help contain newborn, breastfed baby poo. They are thicker/puffier than some of the other diapers, which I found made them seemingly more absorbent than some of the other brands. However, that extra absorbency also meant that these weren’t as trim under clothes as the others, and it also meant that they took FOREVER to dry after washing.

Size-wise, these got very small on Vivienne very quickly. We used them until she was about 7 weeks (roughly 10 lbs.) and then rotated them out of our diaper stash.

We had four Lil Joeys total. They are available in a variety of bright colors and cute prints—it was so hard to choose! These retail for $29.95 for a twin pack (two diapers), making them roughly $15 each. More expensive than the others I’ve reviewed so far, but still not too bad.

Finally, our last diaper… the Swaddlebees Newborn Simplex All-in-One.

{Vivienne is 8.5 weeks old}

I liked these from the beginning, but I grew to LOVE them. At the end of the day, these were my absolute FAVORITE diapers. Why? Well, because they fit from the beginning… and they still fit now. Vivienne is currently 11 weeks old and weighs 11.5 lbs., and they still fit. They were a bit “fluffy” on her when she was tiny, but they were absolutely doable and if I had to do the newborn cloth diaper thing all over again, I would probably make these the majority—if not the whole—of my stash. Sadly, we only have two of them.

These are by far the most expensive diapers we had in our stash—they’re $18.95 each, though you can find some of the prints/colors a bit cheaper on Amazon—but from what I’ve seen, the resale value on them is pretty high because people love these diapers. And for good reason. Hey, they should fit longer than other newborn diapers, too, making them useful for longer, and therefore justifying the extra money.

These also have the snap-down for the umbilical cord stump. Good fit from the beginning, even if they do give tiny babies a bit of a fluffy butt. More adorable prints and colors, I would’ve had no trouble picking out a bunch of these to fill a stash. We had the giraffe print pictured here, and also the owls print, which I LOVE.

Aside from the long-lasting fit and the prints, the big thing that made these a favorite was how the inside of them is designed. There is a “tongue” of sorts—which I guess is really an “insert,” but attached on one end—that comes out for washing and drying, making these the fastest drying AIO we had. Once these are dry, you can tuck the insert back inside the little pocket. I found that this design made this diaper more absorbent than the others, too, which is why this one is still usable to us, even now.

Vivienne did have a poop blowout in this diaper for the first time this past week, which I think means that she is probably beginning to outgrow them. Still, though… FAVORITE. And cute, cute, cute.

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I hope this helps those of you who are looking to build newborn stashes. Again, there are so many opinions out there—and this is just another one! If anyone has any questions, feel free to ask in the comments and I’ll get back to you.

Also, I’m de-stashing our newborn stash, meaning I’m getting rid of everything. I’ve already sold the Blissful Bootys, but the others—5 Bumgenius, 2 GroVia, 4 Lil Joey, and 2 Swaddlebees—are all still available, so if you’re interested, let me know. I’d love to sell them in larger lots instead of piecemeal, so keep that in mind. I’m thinking if I could at least sell all of the Bumgenius together, all of the Lil Joeys together, etc., that would be nice. Or, if you want a variety of brands, I’d be willing to break apart the different brands if you’d still be willing to take 3-4 diapers at least. Let me know!