The Natural and Cheap Baby

I had been neglectful of this blog, so much has been going on. DH got a job at a church 18 hours from where we live now, both exciting and stressful as we are cleaning out our home and getting it ready to sell as well as taking care of 3 kids under 5.
I have been giving away a lot of my stockpile of items, I don't want to move them and I'm not sure where I will put a new stock pile as our new home is much smaller, there is also a limited selection of stores to shope at a Wal Mart Superstore a Walgreens both of which I'm familiar with and a Winn Dixie which I've never shopped in before,that will be an adventure. I will miss CVS, Rite Aid and ALDI! As well as the salvage stores.

Anyway, my post about cheap, natural babies. With all three babies I have had a natural birth, with the last two a homebirth. After insurance baby #1 (hospital, midwife) cost us about 2k, #2 &#3 were both $300. I realize not everyone can medically qualify for a homebirth but I enjoyed them more and they were a lot cheaper, plus the midwife came to my home for the prenatal visits and there was no office co-pay (everything was covered under one price) so an even better savings.
With all 3 I tried to breastfeed and cloth diaper. This is however the first baby I've had who's never had formula. I've not had to supplement at all like I did for the other two, I think I finally know what I'm doing : ) drinking 3 quarts a day of liquid has really made the difference in my opinion, and nursing on demand the first 2 weeks....which is pretty much constantly, despite cracked nipples. I have also tried to cloth diaper each child with varying success, I have come to realize that cloth diapering an exclusively breastfed baby is very easy, formula or supplemental baby, not nearly so much. I've not had to dunk diapers since the baby receives no formula or solids the stool is easily washed out in the washing machine. I've tried many different diapers, prefolds with covers, prefolds with plastic pants etc. what has finally worked (meaning I can do it and do it easily) is using BumGeniun 3.0 and a disposable during the night. The 3.0 is an all in one diaper and is as easy to put on as a disposable. I also use cloth wipes which are just baby wash cloths that I bought 4/.98 from Wal Mart, I have a solution with 1 cup water to 1/2 teaspoon baby shampoo, a little squirt is all I need, most homemade wipe recipes use some form of oil, either baby, tea tree or olive, which as you all know is death to cloth diapers, cloth diapers exposed to diaper creams, Vaseline or oil will then repeal liquids and take on a nasty smell.

I do all my diapers- wipes together right before bed and hang to dry. This has cost me $60 for the diapers and $3 for the wipes. I use the SUN detergent that is free of dyes it's $3 for 84 loads. Cost is only one factor, I am not a tree hugger by any means, but every disposable diaper ever made is still sitting in a landfill....meaning they take 100+ years to breakdown.