When Chloe was born, I was 19 years old. We lived
in a small, one bedroom apartment, and did not have a computer. My only
exposure to cloth diapers was the advertising insert for the local
diaper service, and honestly, my thoughts about it then were "gross!" I
never gave anything but disposables a second thought.  

    I was 21 when Lily was born, and by then we had moved and had our
own washer and dryer, and a computer. I spent plenty of restless nights
towards the end of my pregnancy, and during those first few weeks after
her birth, reading parenting sites. I was intriqued by the idea of
cloth diapering, mainly for the cost saving issue. I had worked up
until a week before Lily's birth, and while my job had allowed me to
bring Chloe with me, it wasn't possible to do with a newborn and a
toddler in tow. So I was a stay-at-home mom again, and anything that
would save money was something I was interested in!

    I had been posting quite a bit at breastfeeding.com's forums, and
when I asked about cloth, someone suggested I check out Amitysworld.com
and their trading forum. I did, and slowly started buying a couple
diapers here, and a couple diapers there. Of course, being new to cloth
diapering, I ended up with some lousy products in the beginning.
(Anyone remember Didee Snugs?) But I was determined to make it work.
When we would have a little bit of extra money, I would buy new, cute
diapers, which I loved showing off. It was nice to show people that
cloth diapers weren't all flats and rubber pants anymore.

    From the time Lily was 2 months old, she was exclusively in cloth
diapers. And while there were times when I regretted not using cloth
with Chloe too, I am happy I had the resources to use them with at
least one child. I know that quite a few friends and family members
have used cloth with their babies after seeing Lily's, too. And though
Lily is now 5 1/2, and it's been about 3 years since I changed her last
diaper, I'm still fond of the expression "changing the world, one cloth
diaper at a time."

Amber Greule/Mommyof2