Diapers, diapers, diapers

No matter what my college or graduate degree might be, I am totally ignorant in the way of babies. It's a specialized vein of knowledge that even as an aunt of nine I have been spared from... but now that I'm expecting, I'm stymied by the simplest of questions regarding choices I never knew I had.

Cloth or disposable?
At home or a service?
Brand and method?

I'm referring to diapers... I know I want to at least try cloth, not only because I can't quite shed my environmentalist past (the aforementioned college degree actually specialized in Conservation and Resource Studies; then I went to work making movies...) even though I am one of the many halfway hypocrites. But I like the idea of natural material on my baby's bum, and somehow it feels more real to have to really look closely at the output. My coach (mother to my two godchildren) used cloth, washed them herself, and she survived. So I had leaned towards trying.

Then, the latest Freecycle score. Responding to my solicitation for baby items, Kathy from Bernal Heights gave me FIVE LARGE BAGS of items ranging from clothes to toys - and a whole stash of cloth diapers! She had kindly cleaned (and I mean they are clean) and organized a stash ranging in sizes. Also included were some G Baby hybrids (cloth covers with disposable inserts) that I'd never heard about but think are ingenious. So now equipped, I am happily committed to trying to wash at home.

Of all the things to get ready for, I think diapers might have been the biggest necessity. The first few months I hear will be all about eating, sleeping (hopefully), and pooping!