In the Fall of 2002 after learning that my husband and I were expecting our first child I began my extensive research into the various baby products. I researched everything from which car seats performed the best in crash tests to which strollers were the safest.
It was during this research that I stumbled across cloth diapers. I had always assumed that I would just use disposable diapers like everyone else. When I discovered fitted diapers with snaps and elastic I immediately fell in love. They were so adorable. It wasn't until then that I delved into the cloth diaper issue and learned that disposable diapers contained chemicals and to what extent they were harming our environment. I weighed the options between the diaper service and doing the cloth diapers myself. The choice for me was clear, I would wash my own diapers.
My husband was not too sure about my decision he just did not understand why I wanted to use cloth diapers so, I ordered a handful and when they arrived he finally understood. He was shocked. The diapers were so soft, so cute and easy to use.
My mother arrived from Alabama for a visit and I showed her the diapers. It took me 3 days to convince her to order the pattern to make the diapers for me. I began showing the diapers to friends and neighbors and they all had the same reaction that my husband did. They just loved the diapers. At that point mom and I began discussing buying the license to sell the diapers. After much thought we decided to give it a try.
We purchased the license that we needed and hit the fabric stores looking for the right material. Mom went home and I continued the task of researching the various materials and locating the best places to buy them since the majority of them could not be purchased in a traditional fabric store. I had the fabric shipped to my mother's in Alabama and she began the laborious task of making the diapers. Mom realized that the diapers could not be sewn with just any type of machine and therefore, ended up having to purchase a sewing machine specifically for this purpose. The pattern came with instructions that desperately needed some help so it was a time consuming process to finally get the diapers right.
After many months of hard work mom returned to CA two weeks before my due date of May 25th. We had a wonderful grand opening with all of our friends and neighbors. The diapers were a great success. It was a good thing that we had the grand opening when we did because I went into labor just a few days later on May 20th. John made his entrance at 10:19pm the same day.
We had packed two bags full of cloth diapers so as soon as he was born we whipped out his adorable little cloth diaper that we will keep forever. It was so funny the couple of times that the pediatrician and nurses came in to examine him they had no clue what to make of John's homemade diapers.
We sold this particular diaper for about 6 months as well as ordering and trying out about 4 other brands. None of the diapers functioned or fit the way that we thought they should. It was at this time that mom and I decided to design our own diaper. It was a trial and error process that took us a solid year to complete. We would make change after change and with every change mom would sew a handful of diapers to give away in exchange for feedback. I would put the modified diaper on John and email mom a picture so that she could see how it fit. It was a long and difficult process with the two of us across the country from each other but we finally made it and that is the Blue Cow Baby diaper which we sell today. In our opinion it is the best cloth diaper on the market.
It has been two years now and I am happy to say that my son has never worn a disposable diaper. We cloth diapered him through two plane trips across the country, including one which was supposed to be 6 hours and turned into 13, and a road trip from Gilroy, CA to Las Vegas, NV. John is now potty trained and we have packed his diapers away until the next child. My husband, myself and John all relocated to Alabama to be closer to family in July of 2004.