Wanted to add my two cents to the conversation, not only from the perspective of being a mother, but also from remembering back to my younger years when baby siblings were being raised (yes, I helped a lot), and, all of the standard babysitting I did for countless mothers in and around the neighbourhood.
We also prepared baby formula using evaporated milk and Karo Syrup. Remember sterilizing bottles and nipples, and heating bottles on the stove in a pot of water, then testing by shaking a few drops of milk onto the inside of my wrist to test the temperature.
Both plastic and glass baby bottles in our house... did the same with my own kids, too.
Of course when my siblings were babies, it was cloth diapers and rubber pants (used the same for my own kids). I put in lots of time stooped over the railings of their cribs changing their diapers. My mom double diapered day and night, meaning we always used two diapers every time we changed a bottom, and as the old saying goes, like mother, like daughter. I did the same when it came to diapering, always two diapers used when doing a change.
Then there was all the folding of the diapers. One fold for little ones, a different fold for older ones, and yet another different fold for those that wore diapers at nighttime. I walked many-a dirty diaper down the hall and to the bathroom after changing someone, where I'd rinse the diaper in the toilet before putting it in the plastic diaper pail. Up and down you'd dunk the diaper while flushing the toilet. The swirling water helped pull the poop out of the diaper.
Need I mention how nasty the diaper pail smelled? And how heavy and awkward it was to lift, carry, and empty on diaper-wash day?
I remember the routine when checking diapers when they were cloth. Finger inside the elastic leg-hole of rubber pants was my usual method, or pulling back the elastic waistband of rubber pants and taking a peek inside. You knew long beforehand when baby did a number from the smell! Those rubber pants used to stink so bad!
And trying to stick those pins through double diapers, what a chore that used to be when pins were dull! Wiggling and working said diaper pins through all of the layers of folded fabric. Also remember how I used to hold open diaper pins in my mouth when changing diapers.
I remember how I used to powder the inside of rubber pants to help them pull-on and off easier when changing diapers, though if a kid had sopping-wet diapers and the leg hole elastics of the rubber pants were wet, pulling the rubber pants off could (at times) be a chore, especially on a hot summer day when rubber pants acted like a greenhouse.
And when it came to toilet training, it was reusable thick-padded, cotton waffle-knit training pants (soakers we called them). A pair of soakers with rubber pants over was the daytime routine, then back to diapers with rubber pants for bedtime until said kid showed signs of staying dry.
How many bottles I warmed and diapers I pinned in my day!
As for disposable diapers, I've changed very few in my day, but do remember occasionally babysitting for mothers that used them, but never did learn to like them. Always felt more at home changing the cloth ones. All but one or two of all of my babysitting jobs I ever had was cloth diapers. Everyone used cloth diapers. Changed a few baby cousins along the way, too, and they too wore cloth diapers.