Am I going to screw this up?!

Not only do I feel that way about parenting, but I also now see why people feel that way about cloth diapering.  At first these little guys were precious and small and perfect and required nothing but oooohs and aaahhs.  Now we are four weeks away from my due date and I figured I should go ahead and prep the diapers-- which means washing them.

Today I took the plunge.  Prior to this point I made fun of cloth diapering mamas who would leave the dipes in the package and just look at them.  Now I know why.  After you have taken them out of the package and washed them it makes them no longer sparkly and pretty, but functional and necessary.  But we didn't spend all of this money for nothing!

After going to Walmart the other day in search of a cloth diapering detergent (figuring I would strike out), I found this little gem.  No optical brighteners, no perfumes, no fabric softeners, and no dyes. Oh my gosh....I am becoming a hippie. No, but really.  Cloth Babies (the manufacturer of our diapers) recommends this kind of detergent.  When we first started exploring cloth diapering, it would actually void the warranty if you didn't use this kind of detergent.  And you know I'm not going to spend all that money just to turn around and void the warranty!!  In the past few weeks, they have changed that policy.  But, I had already purchased the detergent and it actually was relatively inexpensive.  $8.98 for 100 HE loads (64 regular) which brought a load price to $0.14.

For the first few loads, I separated out by color so I (hopefully) won't have any bleeding problems. Oh my goodness...there will be an infant wearing these in a month.  Many more loads of diapers to come :-)