mistya- Did you throw your diapers in the dryer or hang dry? 

I cloth diapered for most of Ash's first year. I used a combo of fuzzibunz and Bumgenius and towards the end we used Prefolds with thirsties covers. I liked it but when we moved we got a HE washer and dryer and I could never get it to get the diapers clean enough without a huge process so we stopped. I intended to get back into it once I could devote more time to problem solving but never did because disposables are so so easy lol. With number two I thought for ten seconds about doing it again but decided not to since I know I will already be exhausted with two and I don't need anything else on my plate.

Honestly, I know myself and I know that this will be such a HUGE transition, that I don't think we will start off with them.  DH is not 100% on board, and he needs to be for this to work.  I am interested in it and not ruling it out, but as of the present, I think I'm going to pass.

Dh was cloth diapered so he is aware of the cost savings.  But I do have one box of pampers swaddles NB and one of 1s so we can ease our way into it.  And so far, I have only invested in newborn prefolds, flats and only 3 covers.  Avoiding the one size dipes until I know I can handle it.  If it doesn't work out, at least I have the flats and prefolds for burp cloths. 

Kristin- do you know why the HE washer was so different? We have an HE washer and I'm wondering what to expect. 

milkgal- we did a little of both. We live in Ohio, so sun and nice weather isn't always an option. I tried to line dry, when we could (mostly in spring and summer), but tossed in the dryer on occasion, especially if I needed a diaper right away.

Line drying does help them stay nice longer.

And most DHs jump on board when they hear about the cost savings and when they realize how easy they are.

Milkgal- HE washers don't use as much water so they just don't have the ability to do as good of a wash. Ours has a sanitize cycle which got them looking amazing but if my DD had the smallest wet diaper I could smell it a mile away- super gross. I was able to program it to do a presoak and hot wash and cold rinse and all of that but I was still stripping like every third wash at least which is a lot of work. I know some moms who CD with HE washers and it's totally fine but I've heard lots of stories like mine too. It didn't start happening for like a month either- so I thought we totally had it covered and I loved my new washer but then slowly we started getting the smell and also some repelling no matter what I did.

I absolutely love the concept of cloth diapers for environmental and cost reasons, but we're still pretty skeptical about it. I am willing to give it a try though so I'll probably do that trial run with Jillian's Drawers and see how it does for us!

We're considering it and possibly going the 50/50 route but I'm still looking into all of it. So much research!

On a side note, I love reading throught the BC Cloth diapering forums.  All the other birth month forums are such full of drama.