Friday, August 10, 2012

Diaper Fit Testing - Round 1

My son is here and ready to test out all of his newborn diapers!  He weighed in at 8lbs 8oz.

I plan to update with fit info for the first days/weeks when baby has skinny legs and still has the umbilical cord stump.  Then I will do another round of updates once baby plumps up a bit and loses the cord stump.  I will also try to note when diapers stopped fitting him.

He is a kind of big newborn, but I will try to take note of whether the diaper looks like it has growing room for larger newborns, or whether it looks like it would work well for smaller babies.

Please keep in mind that all of my diapers were fitteds made with stretchy materials.  If you make fitteds out of non-strtetchy fabric or AIOs made from PUL, then I would expect them to have smaller weight ranges and fit snugger.

A couple of notes about features that I found that I have and have not liked when diapering a newborn during the early days:
1 - I find that I prefer the umbilical snap vs. umbilical scoop.  The snap seems to do a better job of keeping the diaper away from the stump, and it seems gentler if it does rub the stump.  It also looks cute :)

2 - For diapers that don't have a snap or scoop, I like snapping diapers better than hook & loop because you can tuck the front under on a snapping diaper, but that doesn't work with hook & loop because it is too stiff and then the loop tape can rub the stump.

3 - For covers, I prefer fleece or wool because if they rub against the stump they seem much more forgiving than PUL.  I also don't like FOE bound covers because the FOE is stiff and seems rough if it rubs against the stump.

So, go ahead and check out the various diaper pattern posts to see if I've tested them yet!  If they don't fit properly during this first round of testing, then I'll get them in the next round.  I have action shots of some of the diapers...depending on whether or not baby was in the mood for modelling!

I almost forgot to mention - I am loving cloth diapering a newborn!

Wazoodle PreMe

Wazoodle released a free preemie pattern after I had already finished sewing diapers for my blog.  I haven't sewn one up myself, but people often ask me which diapers would work well for a premature baby, and this pattern looks like a really nice one.  If you sew one up, please leave a comment so that other mamas can know what you thought of the pattern!

The link to the pattern is here:

I was confused at first about how to download the pattern.  Just add it to your cart and go through the checkout process.  The pattern is free, so you don't have to put in any payment info.  Then, go to your account and click on the "My Downloadable Products" link, and you'll be able to download the pattern from there.

Rocket Bottoms Newborn Pattern

Rocket Bottoms released a free newborn diaper pattern after I had already finished sewing diapers up for my blog.  I haven't sewn one up myself, but want to make sure that people know that this free pattern is out there.  It looks like a nice pattern, and Rocket Bottoms has lots of great paid patterns; so I'd be confident that this pattern is worth a try!  If you sew one up, please leave a comment so that other mamas can know what you thought of the pattern!

The blogpost about the pattern, along with brief sewing instructions, can be found here:
http://rocketbottoms.blogspot.com/2012/08/newborn-fitted-diaper-free-pdf-sewing.html

The link to the pattern is here:
https://docs.google.com/open?id=0BxYtVipoYIdTeENZOTNkU0cwXzA