I didn't start cloth diapering my oldest child until he was 2 months old, but from what I'd read online, I assumed I knew it all when it came to diapering my second baby in cloth right out of the shoot, er, so to speak. I thought newborns, though while they wet more frequently, wouldn't wet as much - and while that may be true, I was surprised at how quickly a tiny 8 pound baby could soak through the little newborn diapers I'd so lovingly prepared for him.

Some newborns don't wet that much and new mothers sail through the first two months with not even so much as a damp spot on the mattress, but others, like me, have babies who seem to pee with amazing force and surprising quantity. Preparing for a super soaker is your best option when accumulating diapers for a baby still inside your womb. It's better to have more absorbency than you need than not enough!

How Many Newborn Diapers do You Need?

Expect to change a diaper after nearly every feeding. Newborns eat frequently - every two to four hours around the clock, that's about 12 diapers in a 24 hour period! Unless you have a helper or a partner to throw a load in for you during those early days, I'd plan on having at least three to four dozen newborn sized diapers. While some skip the newborn size altogether, rationalizing that they simply don't wear the size for very long, you'll soon wish you had some tiny diapers because there is nothing worse than a frequent little peer leaking out of a too-big diaper.

Expect to do some extra laundry

I'd been doing laundry every three days or so with my toddler's diapers. Add a heavy wetting newborn to the picture, and you'll be doing laundry every day. Don't worry, it's not the end of the world. Put your newborn in a Moses Basket on top of the dryer. The hum will lull him to sleep while you sort and fold. Laundry smells good and can be relaxing with the right attitude. It's one of my favorite chores.

Keep Supplies Close By

Having diapering supplies close by is essential, especially during those early days when you're still healing and recovering from the birth yourself. I had a good breastfeeding wedge in bed with me and the baby, extra blankets, and a Universal Co-Sleeper (you could use a pack 'n' play with a bassinet) set up next to the bed on the highest setting. On the co-sleeper mattress, I kept wipes, a squirt bottle of wipe solution, stacks of infant sized prefolds and covers, fitted diapers, aios, and wool soaker pants along with stacks of clean onesies, baby socks, and infant hats. A wet bag hung on its draw string on one corner of the pack in play. I tossed wet and soiled diapers in there right along with leaked-on-onesies and sheets for my husband to dump in the wash for me. Later when I felt like moving around more, I could change my baby at the changing table, but for those first few days, having everything close by was so important, otherwise I would have been getting up to change a soiled diaper every couple of hours and my tender post-birth girly bits just didn't feel like walking for a while.

Waterproof Pad

Buy or sew a couple waterproof pads for your baby to sleep on - that way, even if he sleeps for a few hours straight, you won't have to worry about mattress wetness or changing sheets in addition to getting that little frog baby into a new diaper and onesie when he wakes up. Waterproof pads can be purchased in advance at baby super stores, or you can make one yourself out of soft wool interlock or jersey. I made a couple out of a layer of waterproof PUL and two layers of soft burley knit terry. Absorbent and waterproof to boot!

Disposables Don't Work

If you've got a super soaker, you'll likely experience some frustration as you work through your newborn diaper stash to see what works and what won't. Disposables were no better, in a fit of frustration I sent my husband out to buy a pack of Tushies from the Health Food Store. I'd forgotten about all those runny poop blowouts I had with my first baby before we switched to cloth. With some cloth diapers I was battling a little wetness around the waist and legs, with disposables I had runny breastmilk poop shooting up his back and down his legs. Cloth at least keeps the messes where they belong... but some fluid can leak out during those first 5 - 6 weeks when they seem to be a peeing-machine.

Meconium

For all you hear about it, meconium (baby's very first tar-like poop) is not that big of a deal. It only lasts for a couple of days and cleans up fairly easily. If you're worried about staining - just don't. When you feel up to it, you can lay the diapers stained with meconium out in the sun to bleach naturally. You've got bigger fish to fry than fussing about stains when you're bleeding and trying to figure out breastfeeding and just keeping baby clean and dry. Worry about stains later - or don't worry about them at all.

Umbilical Cord

Lots of newborn diapers come with a notch or a snap down to allow for the umbilical cord to heal. While this is nice, and cute - I found that it wasn't really necessary. My baby peed. He peed a LOT. Whether there was a notch there or not, he seemed to be constantly wet. The umbilical cord didn't get infected, it healed and the stump fell off whether it was covered with a diaper or a cover or not. Keep the area clean but don't worry too much about whether or not it's covered.

Some Newborn Babies Just Pee Through Everything

One of my babies sure did. It was so hard to keep him, myself, and the sheets dry for the first couple of months. If you've got a super soaker, here are some tips that worked for me.

• Try some doublers. I didn't think a newborn would wet enough to merit having a doubler. But they do. I whipped up a bunch out of three layers of sherpa knit terry and a few more out of hemp fleece. They added bulk where there wasn't a lot of room to begin with - but they helped. You can also try double diapering. Two prefolds together instead of one. Again, it's bulky, but bulky is okay when it means dry sheets for everyone.
• Stock up on a variety of covers. Babies come in different shapes and one style or fabric might work better than some. Proraps with gussets worked well enough, but wool pants worked even better. Knit or buy some wool pants and use gussetted or fitted diapers underneath. Forget the onesies that snap under the crotch and either leave them unsnapped or buy the half shirts instead. Snapping onesies around wool pants or wool soakers can cause compression wicking. Polartec fleece pants work well too!
• Experiment with other fabrics. If your'e baby's wetting through those soft chinese prefolds too quickly, experiement with hemp or bamboo, organic cottons, or different weaves.
• Gussets are great - especially when using wool pants. While you can angel fold a prefold and keep the runny breastmilk poops relatively inside the diaper... a diaper with gussets or nice fitted elastic does an even better job. I'm usually a prefold gal, but I surprised myself with how often I reached for fitted diapers with this wee one. The snug fit kept messes where they belonged and allowed me to air out and re-use covers more.
• Give in. During the day if you're awake and close by, lay your naked baby on a soft changing pad with just a towel loosely pinned or snappi-ed on. Without a cover, you can easily see when she wets and change her into a new towel immediately. Hand towels, prefolds, flat diapers are fabulous for this.

Newborn Diapers that Worked Well for Us

• The regular PooPockets made of all diaper flannel with a hemp doubler. The regular size worked very well and for a one-size diaper, was not bulky at all on my 8 pound baby. All of the other "one-size" diapers were far too bulky and poofy and made for huge leg gaps for poop to run out of. I used PooPockets with wool pants and had the least leaks with this combination.
• All hemp newborn Very Baby diapers fit really well and with a wool pants or a gussetted cover, leaks were few and far between.
• Doubled up infant prefolds with a doubler. It makes the biggest diaper bum, but it worked and I had a lot of prefolds to use. Again, wool pants were the only thing that fit over this and kept wetness in.
• I had wool jersey pants that I'd made myself from the Baby Essentials pattern along with knit wool soakers that I'd purchased online.

The first two to three months can be challenging in more ways than one. Try not to stress too much about cloth diapering. Just be sure to have a fairly wide variety on hand to try. See what works set aside what doesn't. The most important thing is to enjoy your babymoon!

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