Today I received an order of cloth diapers that I ordered especially for nighttime usage.  These diapers, and almost all of the diapers that I bought in the past were from www.clothdiaper.com – their prices are low and if you don’t care about getting a name brand diaper, you can get well made diapers for about half what it would cost otherwise.  (It’s not so good for resale, though, since people like to buy known names when they buy used.  But I wasn’t concerned with that.)  They have a sliding scale as far as pricing, with increased discounts depending on the amount you buy.  Not only that, they regularly have sales on seconds (almost always prefolds and doublers), and then you can get really super deals.  I have 24 large fitteds from them that I’ve used simultaneously since last year for my two youngest (24 because that gave me the biggest discount, and size large because it’s the size most babies wear for the longest time), as well as 4 dozen Indian prefolds, and I’ve been very pleased with them.

The diaper sprayer that we bought at the same time we made those purchases was still untouched in the box (after more than ten months), and in the name of trying to help him through his to-do list, I finally decided to forget about asking my husband to install it.  (I think he had totally forgotten about it, so he didn’t feel like it was one thing less, but I knew that it was! :))  (And since I’ve been using fleece inserts – which I love! – I really don’t feel a need for the sprayer, anyway.  Solids fall right off of them into the toilet, no need for swishing.)  And of course, it doesn’t make sense to pay for something that you’re never going to use – you might as return the item and get some of your money back. 

About a week and a half ago, late Thursday night, I was browsing the cloth diaper site to see about their return policy, and noticed that they had all-in-ones in the ‘seconds’ listing.  (All in ones -AIOs- for those unfamiliar with cloth diapering terms, means that they don’t require inserts or a waterproof cover – they are one piece and are most similar to disposable diapers.  They are the most expensive cloth diapering option, but generally considered the easiest to use.)  These weren’t actually seconds, but prototypes from the first production run.  The company decided after doing more research and getting feedback that they were too thick for daily wear so this won’t be the final design that is coming out in a month or so, but they would be good for nighttime wear (which is when I have been unsuccessful so far in using cloth).  The diapers were selling for the extremely low price of $4.95 each, which was so super cheap that it was too good a deal for me to pass up (I couldn’t make them that cheaply even if I wanted to!). 

First thing the next morning, I called the company to ask about the return policy and order some of these diapers.  I was going to do an even exchange (of diapers for the sprayer), but decided to buy the diapers right away rather than take the chance they wouldn’t have the size I wanted by the time they received the diaper sprayer.  That ended up being a really good thing, for two reasons.  It seems I was the very first person to order the AIOs- they had been posted after business hours the night before (right when I saw them), so the person handling the orders hadn’t even yet heard about it.  Anyway, I ordered 2 size medium, 4 large, and 4 toddler size for $4.95 each.  I checked back at the site two days later on Sunday (I placed my order on Friday), and they had raised the price to $5.95 each, so ordering right away meant I got a price that very few people got (I don’t know how soon after my call they raised the price).  Still a very good deal at that price, but I was glad to have saved $10 by ordering right then – if they had waited for my diaper sprayer to arrive, I would have been charged the higher price.

Not only that, but today I called to ask a question about how to prep the diapers, and inquired about if they received the sprayer yet.  They had received it, but not yet processed the return.  I asked her how many diapers there had been initially in the production run, and how many they had left.  She told me they were sold out of every size but small (they still have 90 of those left).  They initially had fewer than 150 diapers in each size.  I knew there was a strong likelihood that they would be sold out fast, and feel badly that I didn’t share the details in time for you to benefit from the full selection of sizes available.  It was because I don’t generally share about something until I’ve used it and am happy with it that I didn’t post sooner.  In this case, I still haven’t used them – we washed them a couple of times to prep them and will use them tonight on ds3- they look very soft and absorbent -but thought I should post this in case any of you would be interested in the small size.

Avivah