I understand that you pre-soak the cloth. I get that they aren't full of solid waste. Even just a bit of diluted urine in one of those, then in my washer, is enough to freak me out. I mean - I clean out my washing machine between each use. I like a clean washer. I get upset when Sean mows the yard and I have to wash socks with grass bits on them that I haven't been able to shake entirely clean outside.
So. That leaves us with hand washing (not going to happen) or a diaper service. I haven't been able to find a diaper service around our small town. Which means the winner in the great diaper debate, thanks to my need to have a pristine washing machine, is disposable diapers! Congratulations to Huggies - our diaper of choice due to cost, consumer ratings, and the points program they have. At least baby will be happy to have to be changed less often and possibly have more comfortable skin.
In other news, we went out to Babies R Us yesterday to start checking out what we need to get in order to prepare for a life with a little minion. Turns out having offspring can be expensive to start. I'm a big believer in breast feeding as the proper thing to do, but even if I wasn't, I'd still do it just for the cost savings. We decided to just register there and use the fancy scanner. I know that Lori is loaning us her cradle for the bedroom. Grandma Campbell has already started filling us up with clothing and receiving blankets. We figured we'd need breastfeeding stuff (bottles, pump, pillow, sterilizer), car seat and stroller (you should have seen us trying to figure out how these things work...that was a half hour of comedy), baby carrier, playpen (for use in lower half of the house and for traveling to visit grandparents - these things are fancy now; it's half change table and newborn bed, and half toddler playpen), diaper bag, baby room monitor, crib, dresser, change pad for dresser, baby swing (we have been advised to skip the little seats that rock and just get the swing).
We skipped the baby furniture (crib, dresser, bedding, etc) cause 1. it's so expensive we figured we can find a better deal somewhere else and 2. we couldn't pick bedding yet as we'd like to do a boy or girl colour once we know what we are having.
That leaves us with what we figure are the basic things we'd like to head into parenthood with. We haven't even taken into consideration the cost of diapers, wipes, creams, extra bottles, receiving blankets, clothes, bathtub thingy ... and still the bill is more than I was ready for. It was super fun shopping and dreaming, but we may end up making due without a lot of what we figured were the essentials. I don't know how kids in their 20's manage to do all this! Our friends were mostly late 20's when they had their kids, and I recall a lot of similar items being around at that time in their houses. Baby cost reality has hit me.