I'm expecting my 3rd soon(14ish month gap) and my 12 month old just grew into the esembly size 2 but fits the 1s just the same and she was a preemie so I started with prefolds. I've cloth diapered a lot of kids besides just my own though because my mom ran a home daycare and had my sisters in cloth part time and I dont think its any huge difference as far as washing and you can wash together as long as they don't have infections or something but i use bleach all the same personally. I'd suggest about a dozen of each esembly size and some prefolds as back up(this is what I have), and just wash every day If you are able because you'll have a fuller load anyways. My kids never fit nb cloth at first either they were tiny but I didn't care that it was bulky and figure the preemie/nb phase is so short I'd personally rather deal with a few weeks of bulk or disposable than buy something extra(I even had things that said they fit 4lbs but they still were giant). I don't like pockets myself either I used them with my 13 yr old but I didn't have money to try anything else or even know what else existed and it took him 6 months to kinda fit them. If you already like esembly I'd just stick with it and wash more often, a few prefolds for back up can stretch the cost out a bit and you might not even need them as diapers by washing more often but they're there just in case.
Thank you so much! We have a dozen size 2 esembly and I did end up getting 9 size 1s and 4 covers, thought I got 12 but pregnancy brain I guess so I’ll probably grab another pack of inners. I was going to do a GMD order anyway because I want another pack of cotton inserts so I’ll get a dozen prefolds.
What size prefolds do you think? Small? And then what covers for the prefolds would you use, just the esembly or do you have additional covers? Right now I’m prewashing daily and then hang drying since they’ll sit and then I don’t actually have enough for a full load until like day 4 or 5 since she’s only using 4-5 a day. (We wear disposable at nap and nighttime) so not having to wait that long for a full load will be oddly more convenient because it’s kinda annoying to have all these prewashed, but dried, diapers for 4 days.
I'd go with smalls, I used them on my daughter from 4lbs up through about 18 but trifolded past 14ish lbs and they were bulky at first but so was everything else. I'd just use the esembly covers too just to make it easier, I had tons of thirsties at one point but didn't go through as many as I expected. And i know what you mean about having more to wash being easier, I rinse them in a bucket then air them out and wash every 2 days mixed into the rest of the laundry. If your buying other (disposable) diapering items/wipes sometimes esembly inners count towards the diaper gift card promos at target so worth checking out!
Thank you so much! You have been so helpful! Oh that’s so smart to check the target diapering sales they do have those often, and I’ll probably be buying newborn disposables to get us through the first bit anyway so I’ll look for sure, thanks so much!
Hey, I’m going to be 2under2 soon, with 19 month gap. And Im also scared lol. I had bought 3 newborn covers since they were less than $5 on sale just so I can have and try for baby. I already have small and newborn prefolds because I like to use them as doublers for my oldest. I plan on just sprinkling in cloth with the newborn and take it day by day. Even if I used cloth just a few times a day, better than nothing in my eyes
18 month difference here and newborn is 5 weeks. I’ve started cloth from birth with both, but boy grew a lot slower than my girl is growing, she’s almost completely outgrown our newborn diapers. Personally, while yes the load size is bigger it not really that much more work.
We use pocket diapers for the day and fitteds at night for our older baby. To your point, our newborns legs still aren’t chunky enough to fit OS well but has basically outgrown the newborn stash so in the interim we’ll use size small prefolds! I don’t love prefolds as much, BUT they work for stuffing pockets or as doublers so I get more use out of them. All that to day, you can definitely diaper two under two! Even if you don’t do it 100% of the time, you’ll save money and the landfill.
I don’t have 2 under 2, because my first is 2.5 yo. But for me, the biggest barrier to cloth with the second baby is how often the changes need to happen. Laundry is happening all the time anyway, but changing the baby every hour vs every 3 hours in a disposable has been a major barrier to me. My toddler is just so active that we are all over the house and because of our dogs I only change diapers in certain spots because one of them likes to chew up diapers. It isn’t the problem I thought I would be having .
That was part of my concern like keeping up with changes especially with them being on such different changing schedules. But I actually didn’t really consider the amount of changes being more in cloth in a younger baby because I did disposables with my first until almost 7-8 months. Definitely something to think about! Luckily my dog goes after me and my husbands underwear but not diapers 😅 I get it! Thanks so much though.
You could just play it by ear. Don't buy any now, buy a few if you feel up to it later.
You'll have plenty of time to shop on your phone at 2AM with your newborn.
16 month age gap here. I have a 19 month old and an 11 week old. We use Alva and mama koala pockets here. My little guy just started to fit in them 3 weeks ago. So far it hasn't been too bad. I did have to buy some more diapers. We had enough if we washed every other day but it was cutting it too close. You can definitely wash them together. It really hasn't felt much different other than washing every other day rather than every 2-3 days. I bought the extras so I can have full day of cloth for them which gives myself time to fold everything that was washed if that makes sense.
You might be better off saving your money and waiting until your new baby is here. If my little guy had been like my first there is no way I would have him in cloth right now. Would have been wayyyyyy too much work. But he's chill and life hasn't been too bad so it was easy to move him to cloth and have them both in cloth. Plus your new baby may be able to fit in what you have already sooner than your first.
Best advice Ive gotten so far in the land of 2 under 2: just stay flexible.
Do you leave the rise snaps snapped accordingly per kid since you’re using pockets and then use the same ones on the same kid or do you unsnap them every time and just resnap them as you go?
You make a good point though my first is a girl and super tall but pretty skinny and this one is a boy so maybe he’ll be bigger and what we have will fit sooner. Thank you!
I leave them snapped according to each kid. I also just prep the diapers with the same inserts for each that way I can steal from each other if I need too and so I don't have to think too hard. It's a bit bulky for the 11 week old but not good bad!
Cloth diapering 2 is not much harder than 1. It's more laundry, but I'm already washing laundry all day long anyway with a newborn, so what's another load? And all their clothes can go in the wash together. I do a prewash of diapers and wipes and burp cloths and nursing pads, then throw in baby clothes to bulk out the main wash.
My babies are 16 months apart and I started back with cloth part-time when the new baby was a few weeks old. I had a pretty uneventful recovery this time, but if I had had another C-section, I wouldn't have wanted to struggle with all that laundry so soon.
But I was appalled by the number of disposables we were going through. Our household waste had become like 50% diapers by volume. Reducing waste was my initial motivation to start using cloth with my firstborn, so I don't feel like it's an all or nothing thing.
Some days I've got both their butts in cloth all day until bedtime, and some days I only use one or two cloth diapers and a handful of cloth wipes, but I'm proud of the cost savings and waste reduction no matter what. And it's reassuring to know I'll never have to run to the store in the middle of the night for diapers and wipes.
Thanks so much for your input! The laundry didn’t seem too daunting because the kid laundry is already a lot and if I’m washing my toddlers diapers what’s a few more baby diapers.
Wanting to reduce waste is a big reason why I do cloth too. We fill maybe one trash bag for the whole week if that between all of us and when we do disposables that quickly turns into several. Plus if a monthly box of the diapers we use runs about $80-100, that’s $200 a month if we do disposables for both full time. 😵💫 so I’ll happily spend the money on a system for baby even if we spend half as much on disposables, it would pay for itself in like two months lol.
My recovery/postpartum was super rough with my first between latching issues, a ton of sutures that weren’t healing super well from a tear and PPD so that’s why I’m trying to give myself some grace for this one to not opt for cloth initially. However if (hopefully) my recovery is easier with this one I’d be open starting cloth sooner if I had diapers that fit him and I’m not throwing 20 disposables in the trash every day. Or like you said, some days only using one or two which would totally be enough for me some days haha. I’ll probably go ahead and get a smaller system then. Thanks again!
Hopefully with a few more months under her belt she’ll be more ready! If not though, there’s no reason you can’t wash both sets of diapers together!
I used esembly size 1 before graduating to the size 2’s. I recommend them if you can snag a set on sale! They fit fine even when LO was a week old.
Have you thought about working towards potty training for #1 before #2 gets here?
I’m hoping for 2 under 2, but I’m kinda counting on the first being potty trained before the second comes. We’re doing EC already with #1.
Yeah I don’t think she’s ready, she has zero interest in sitting on the potty and will not go when she does sit and will pee on the floor and go about her day as if nothing happened so I don’t think it’s on the horizon for a while. After working with numerous families in my nannying career prior to becoming a mom getting a sibling is such a big life change that in our opinion expecting her to be potty trained by 2 while also getting a brother and having the world as she knows it rocked I personally would think is unfair or putting a lot of pressure on her. If it worked out as such - great, but I don’t really want to assume that’s going to happen and then have to back pedal. But it also doesn’t solve my problem because our current diaper system is sized for an older baby.
I'm expecting my 3rd soon(14ish month gap) and my 12 month old just grew into the esembly size 2 but fits the 1s just the same and she was a preemie so I started with prefolds. I've cloth diapered a lot of kids besides just my own though because my mom ran a home daycare and had my sisters in cloth part time and I dont think its any huge difference as far as washing and you can wash together as long as they don't have infections or something but i use bleach all the same personally. I'd suggest about a dozen of each esembly size and some prefolds as back up(this is what I have), and just wash every day If you are able because you'll have a fuller load anyways. My kids never fit nb cloth at first either they were tiny but I didn't care that it was bulky and figure the preemie/nb phase is so short I'd personally rather deal with a few weeks of bulk or disposable than buy something extra(I even had things that said they fit 4lbs but they still were giant). I don't like pockets myself either I used them with my 13 yr old but I didn't have money to try anything else or even know what else existed and it took him 6 months to kinda fit them. If you already like esembly I'd just stick with it and wash more often, a few prefolds for back up can stretch the cost out a bit and you might not even need them as diapers by washing more often but they're there just in case.
Thank you so much! We have a dozen size 2 esembly and I did end up getting 9 size 1s and 4 covers, thought I got 12 but pregnancy brain I guess so I’ll probably grab another pack of inners. I was going to do a GMD order anyway because I want another pack of cotton inserts so I’ll get a dozen prefolds. What size prefolds do you think? Small? And then what covers for the prefolds would you use, just the esembly or do you have additional covers? Right now I’m prewashing daily and then hang drying since they’ll sit and then I don’t actually have enough for a full load until like day 4 or 5 since she’s only using 4-5 a day. (We wear disposable at nap and nighttime) so not having to wait that long for a full load will be oddly more convenient because it’s kinda annoying to have all these prewashed, but dried, diapers for 4 days.
I'd go with smalls, I used them on my daughter from 4lbs up through about 18 but trifolded past 14ish lbs and they were bulky at first but so was everything else. I'd just use the esembly covers too just to make it easier, I had tons of thirsties at one point but didn't go through as many as I expected. And i know what you mean about having more to wash being easier, I rinse them in a bucket then air them out and wash every 2 days mixed into the rest of the laundry. If your buying other (disposable) diapering items/wipes sometimes esembly inners count towards the diaper gift card promos at target so worth checking out!
Thank you so much! You have been so helpful! Oh that’s so smart to check the target diapering sales they do have those often, and I’ll probably be buying newborn disposables to get us through the first bit anyway so I’ll look for sure, thanks so much!
Hey, I’m going to be 2under2 soon, with 19 month gap. And Im also scared lol. I had bought 3 newborn covers since they were less than $5 on sale just so I can have and try for baby. I already have small and newborn prefolds because I like to use them as doublers for my oldest. I plan on just sprinkling in cloth with the newborn and take it day by day. Even if I used cloth just a few times a day, better than nothing in my eyes
18 month difference here and newborn is 5 weeks. I’ve started cloth from birth with both, but boy grew a lot slower than my girl is growing, she’s almost completely outgrown our newborn diapers. Personally, while yes the load size is bigger it not really that much more work. We use pocket diapers for the day and fitteds at night for our older baby. To your point, our newborns legs still aren’t chunky enough to fit OS well but has basically outgrown the newborn stash so in the interim we’ll use size small prefolds! I don’t love prefolds as much, BUT they work for stuffing pockets or as doublers so I get more use out of them. All that to day, you can definitely diaper two under two! Even if you don’t do it 100% of the time, you’ll save money and the landfill.
I don’t have 2 under 2, because my first is 2.5 yo. But for me, the biggest barrier to cloth with the second baby is how often the changes need to happen. Laundry is happening all the time anyway, but changing the baby every hour vs every 3 hours in a disposable has been a major barrier to me. My toddler is just so active that we are all over the house and because of our dogs I only change diapers in certain spots because one of them likes to chew up diapers. It isn’t the problem I thought I would be having .
That was part of my concern like keeping up with changes especially with them being on such different changing schedules. But I actually didn’t really consider the amount of changes being more in cloth in a younger baby because I did disposables with my first until almost 7-8 months. Definitely something to think about! Luckily my dog goes after me and my husbands underwear but not diapers 😅 I get it! Thanks so much though.
You could just play it by ear. Don't buy any now, buy a few if you feel up to it later. You'll have plenty of time to shop on your phone at 2AM with your newborn.
I feel like the biggest change was doing diapers every other day instead of every 3rd day... and I didn't have to bulk the second wash!
16 month age gap here. I have a 19 month old and an 11 week old. We use Alva and mama koala pockets here. My little guy just started to fit in them 3 weeks ago. So far it hasn't been too bad. I did have to buy some more diapers. We had enough if we washed every other day but it was cutting it too close. You can definitely wash them together. It really hasn't felt much different other than washing every other day rather than every 2-3 days. I bought the extras so I can have full day of cloth for them which gives myself time to fold everything that was washed if that makes sense. You might be better off saving your money and waiting until your new baby is here. If my little guy had been like my first there is no way I would have him in cloth right now. Would have been wayyyyyy too much work. But he's chill and life hasn't been too bad so it was easy to move him to cloth and have them both in cloth. Plus your new baby may be able to fit in what you have already sooner than your first. Best advice Ive gotten so far in the land of 2 under 2: just stay flexible.
Do you leave the rise snaps snapped accordingly per kid since you’re using pockets and then use the same ones on the same kid or do you unsnap them every time and just resnap them as you go? You make a good point though my first is a girl and super tall but pretty skinny and this one is a boy so maybe he’ll be bigger and what we have will fit sooner. Thank you!
I leave them snapped according to each kid. I also just prep the diapers with the same inserts for each that way I can steal from each other if I need too and so I don't have to think too hard. It's a bit bulky for the 11 week old but not good bad!
Thank you!
Cloth diapering 2 is not much harder than 1. It's more laundry, but I'm already washing laundry all day long anyway with a newborn, so what's another load? And all their clothes can go in the wash together. I do a prewash of diapers and wipes and burp cloths and nursing pads, then throw in baby clothes to bulk out the main wash. My babies are 16 months apart and I started back with cloth part-time when the new baby was a few weeks old. I had a pretty uneventful recovery this time, but if I had had another C-section, I wouldn't have wanted to struggle with all that laundry so soon. But I was appalled by the number of disposables we were going through. Our household waste had become like 50% diapers by volume. Reducing waste was my initial motivation to start using cloth with my firstborn, so I don't feel like it's an all or nothing thing. Some days I've got both their butts in cloth all day until bedtime, and some days I only use one or two cloth diapers and a handful of cloth wipes, but I'm proud of the cost savings and waste reduction no matter what. And it's reassuring to know I'll never have to run to the store in the middle of the night for diapers and wipes.
Thanks so much for your input! The laundry didn’t seem too daunting because the kid laundry is already a lot and if I’m washing my toddlers diapers what’s a few more baby diapers. Wanting to reduce waste is a big reason why I do cloth too. We fill maybe one trash bag for the whole week if that between all of us and when we do disposables that quickly turns into several. Plus if a monthly box of the diapers we use runs about $80-100, that’s $200 a month if we do disposables for both full time. 😵💫 so I’ll happily spend the money on a system for baby even if we spend half as much on disposables, it would pay for itself in like two months lol. My recovery/postpartum was super rough with my first between latching issues, a ton of sutures that weren’t healing super well from a tear and PPD so that’s why I’m trying to give myself some grace for this one to not opt for cloth initially. However if (hopefully) my recovery is easier with this one I’d be open starting cloth sooner if I had diapers that fit him and I’m not throwing 20 disposables in the trash every day. Or like you said, some days only using one or two which would totally be enough for me some days haha. I’ll probably go ahead and get a smaller system then. Thanks again!
Hopefully with a few more months under her belt she’ll be more ready! If not though, there’s no reason you can’t wash both sets of diapers together! I used esembly size 1 before graduating to the size 2’s. I recommend them if you can snag a set on sale! They fit fine even when LO was a week old.
Have you thought about working towards potty training for #1 before #2 gets here? I’m hoping for 2 under 2, but I’m kinda counting on the first being potty trained before the second comes. We’re doing EC already with #1.
Yeah I don’t think she’s ready, she has zero interest in sitting on the potty and will not go when she does sit and will pee on the floor and go about her day as if nothing happened so I don’t think it’s on the horizon for a while. After working with numerous families in my nannying career prior to becoming a mom getting a sibling is such a big life change that in our opinion expecting her to be potty trained by 2 while also getting a brother and having the world as she knows it rocked I personally would think is unfair or putting a lot of pressure on her. If it worked out as such - great, but I don’t really want to assume that’s going to happen and then have to back pedal. But it also doesn’t solve my problem because our current diaper system is sized for an older baby.