This was my first time cloth diapering a newborn and I had no idea what to expect so I bought a whole bunch of different kinds of diapers to try out. My son was 7lbs 9oz. when he was born. I wasn't sure if I should expect a small baby or a large one (My sister has 8-10 pounders). I mostly bought AIOs and a few hybrids. Everyone told me to not buy so many AIOs and to just buy prefolds and covers. I wish I would have listened to them. In total, I believe we had 25+ AIOs (XS BumGenius, lil Joey's, GroVia NBs, etc), 5+ fitteds (KissaLuv 0, Nifty Nappy, WAHMs, etc), 0 prefolds, a few covers, and a few hybrids (gDiapers). We had a few other sizes (smalls, mediums, and OS diapers) as well. I loved lil Joey's at first. They fit perfectly and were so cute! I had about 8 and we mainly used those and NB GroVias for the first few weeks. They both fit perfectly under her stump. Other diapers fit but went over the stump and I wasn't too fond of that. A lot of other cloth diapering moms who I've talked to have had no problems doing it though.
After about 2 weeks, my daughter started peeing a ton and most of her newborn diapers could not hold it all. I tried adding more absorbency to the diapers but she would still pee out of them in an hour. We did not get our money's worth out of all of our diapers. To be quite honest, most of the diapers were only used about twice. I bought a lot of them new and have lost a lot of money on them. If you are in the need for newborn diapers, BUY USED! Don't waste your money like I did. I ended up buying prefolds, covers, fitteds, and more size small gDiapers around this time. I stopped using our BumGenius AIOs (which didn't get much use out of them at all), lil Joeys, and GroVia NBs.So what were my all time favorite diapers? I would say gDiapers and RagaBabes were hands down my favorites. (They are also my favorites with my son too!) I've tried a whole bunch of different brands and styles and these are what worked best for us.
My daughter was 7lbs 4oz. when she was born. She was about 4 days old in this picture sporting a tiny gDiaper. They worked great! They never leaked for us. We used their disposable inserts in them. They even fit under her cord stump too! The only thing I didn't like about them was that they gaped a little in the front. It never caused leaks but I just didn't like it and just moved her into smalls.
About a week old in a NB RagaBabe. She wore the NB size for about 6 weeks before moving into size small. I don't really have any complaints about these diapers. They are wonderful!
This is an old style gDiaper in size small. These were great when smalls were too big and tiny's were a little too small. She was about a week old here. They fit perfectly under her cord stump as well.
My advice? Buy more of a variety. I had mostly all of the same brands and after 2 weeks, I didn't have hardly any diapers that worked for us. Skip out on the expensive diapers and go for cheap prefolds and covers. Only splurge on a few nice diapers for daddy or on the go. Buy size smalls and even mediums. My little girl has grown out of everything SO quickly! She started wearing OS diapers at 6 weeks old. If you have any questions or are wondering about a certain brand, feel free to contact me or leave a comment. We have tried a lot of different diapers so I might be able to help and let you know what I liked or disliked about that brand.
