About two weeks ago I packed up some shorts, some bathing suits and about half of our stash of Thirsties Cloth Diapers and Cooper and I flew from Colorado to Florida to visit my parents for a long weekend. As promised, I used cloth diapers on the plane and the whole time we were there. I packed my little bag of soap nuts to launder them with, thanks to a tip from a reader, and I was ready to go. And so was Cooper–to go Number One or Number Two, that is.

Our flight left before eight so we were up before dawn and driving in the dark. I had Cooper sleeping in his traveling outfit so I just woke him up, popped a clean Duo Fab Fitted and a cover on him and right on time, my sister and her 6 month old pulled up and we headed to the airport.

I checked Cooper’s diaper as soon as we had checked our bags. It was still dry, no surprise since he had only briefly nursed before getting into the car. I had packed four clean Duo Fab Fitteds and two extra covers, as well as two emergency disposables. Amazingly enough the flight was not full–not even close–and both my sister and I each got a whole row of three seats to ourselves. That’s the one plus to open seating–if you have a baby on your lap, many folks keep right on walking and though they might smile or tell me how cute Cooper is, they’d much rather sit next to a quiet stranger who is planning on reading, sleeping or working on his laptop for the whole flight than seemingly charming toddler.

I changed Cooper only one time on the flight, right on my lap since I was alone in the row. It was like any other diaper change because it was only wet. I tossed the wet diaper into my wetbag and cinched it tight, thankful that I wasn’t going to be the “lady with the funny smell” coming out from under her seat.” I suppose if it had been a poopy diaper I would have dumped the solid waste in the airplane toilet like I would have a home, but thankfully, I didn’t have to worry about it.

At my parents’ house I did a full load of diapers on Saturday–which meant all of Fridays dirty diapers and all of Saturdays except for the last two. Then I did a smaller load Sunday night as we packed up for our return trip. I put the wet diaper Cooper had slept in in a wetbag and stuffed it into the suitcase to wash when we were back home in Colorado.

All in all, traveling with cloth was much easier than I had anticipated. Sure the diapers took up room in my suitcase and diaper bag, but other than that, there wasn’t a single reason why I wouldn’t do it again. Of course, I failed to mention Cooper’s behavior, not to mention lack of sleeping on both four-hour flights…so cloth or disposable, I’m not in a rush to get back on a plane with him anytime soon.

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