Cloth full-time from 11 days old! Took me that long because my mother wanted to stay and help me and didn't want me to use cloth so bought disposable, and the hospital stay. (Sposies for hospital stay definately, or better yet have a homebirth so cloth full time from birth.)

I used flats only for over 4 months. Easy. Baby sleeps in the day so you can put the washing on then, it's not too much harder to wash nappies than it is to drag yourself to the shops in the pouring rain and they're a mile away and you have no car and you and bub get splashed and they're out of nappies your size... (OK, organising sposies was my biggest fear). At least if you realise you're down to your last clothie you can wash and use the tumble dryer quickly!

I've even used cloth on holidays - OK so take a binbag for the bucket on the way home because you need that airtight in a car.

More pro points are that if you take a (CLEAN) flat nappy with you in your bag, bubs has an instant playmat on floors you don't think are that great. All in one nappies are great for changes when you're out because they're no-fuss and don't need folding or more than one layer. And flats can be used as comforters. And no chemicals near the genitals - BIG thing with me. My DS doesn't like chemical nappies, if he has nappy rash it's gone within a week with cloth no problems, put a chemical nappy on a nearly-healed bum (2 days post nasty rash) and he got a fungal infection! But every baby is different and some don't like cloth nappies.

Um, I just love my cloth nappies! They look cool, they give DS extra padding (IMPORTANT in the case of car accidents and coffee burns, the cloth nappy meant no coffee got to his bum when he sat in a spilt hot drink), they are SO easy to use and even my DH prefers them to disposable ones, but we like different styles so that means we have a mix of nappies.

Also you're the mother, you get to pick what you do for your baby! Not your friends.