These are sized diapers, which means if used exclusively, you'll need to purchase different sizes as your baby grows. My first experience with these was for my older baby. We purchased one of the size large diapers - it is a great fit, and I loved having it in the diaper bag. (It got points with Daddy, too, for being velcro/aplix, and ready to go without any stuffing or prep work!) At that point, the majority of our stash was one-size, and we had another baby coming along. I knew I wanted to cloth diaper the new baby from birth, but also realized life was busy and knew I'd have help with diapers. For simplicity, I purchased the bumgenius AIOs in extra small. The rise on the extra small is intended to fall below the cord on newborn babies. I was really pleased with the fit of the extra smalls, but by two weeks of age, our heavy-wetter was occasionally sleeping 4 hours at a time, and the absorbency was not enough for that length of time. Here is a photo at 10 days old, 8'8", 20.5 inches long.
The next step for us was to move up to the size smalls, for babies 8-16 pounds. Our family could probably have used the size smalls initially if we had waited until the cord was off. While the extra small size does not have a pocket to add extra absorbency in case the sewn-in microfiber is not enough, the sizes small through large do have the pocket. The size smalls worked really well for our heavy wetter through about 8 weeks of age, at which point I needed to add an additional newborn insert first at night, then all the time. This photo was taken today - the fit is still great with room to go, and she is just under 14 pounds at just over 3 months of age.
Here is a photo of the inside of the diaper. The material against baby's skin is microsuede, which is considered a stay-dry material. The wetness is drawn through the microsuede layer into the microfiber pad which is hidden in this type of diaper design. Toward the front of the diaper you can see the outline of where the microfiber pad is sewn to the stay-dry lining. At the back, you can see part of the microfiber pad as well as the pocket formed by the microsuede/microfiber pad layer and the cover with the PUL waterproof coating.
As a generality, I find that all-in-one diapers take longer to dry, just by the nature of their design. During the heat of the summer, I have been able to get them completely dry on the clothes line. They do take about 3 times as long to dry as some of the faster drying diapers, but they are not the last of my AIOs to dry, either. With the days getting shorter, I have had to throw them in the dryer for just about 7-10 minutes for them to be completely dry.
I really couldn't ask for a better fit from this diaper - cottonbabies has this part down! In the all-in-one diaper category, it is what I would consider to be middle of the road in terms of the "trimness factor". It has a simple and easy to use design. The fact that it is an all-in-one but still has a pocket to add extra absorbency is an added bonus for a mom to a heavy wetter! Many won't need this option, though, as I didn't with my older baby. These have served our family well as a transition for our new baby into her older sister's mostly one-size stash, and we also love the larger size AIO for it's trimness and ease for on-the-go.
Need to try this diaper? You can purchase it here at Mami's and Papi's online store, or ENTER TO WIN ONE BUMGENIUS 3.0 AIO HERE!!! Entries accepted through 7 pm Eastern Daylight Time on 9/28/10.
Until next time,
~Prima~
Disclosure: the opinions of this review are my own. The diapers reviewed were purchased by me.
