My g baby

I recently read a blog post from a friend of mine who had made the decision to cloth diaper her twin girls that were born in May. It got me thinking about switching Ryan over to cloth diapers. I figure if she can handle cloth diapering twins which means twice the laundry then surely I could handle doing it for one baby I mean toddler.

My husband was less than thrilled with the idea and informed me that he would not be washing them. I assured him that I cold handle the laundry duty associated with the cloth diapers. He is big on trying to trim our budget so he was on board when I mentioned that we would stop spending $40+ a month on diapers. My babysitter said that she doesn't have a problem using them so everyone was on board with the switch.

I did some research and decided to go with gdiapers. I liked that the pants were reusable and that they had an option to used a disposable/biodegradable insert should the need arise. Theses diapers got some great reviews and really did not seem all that difficult to use ant lets face it they also look cute. I only ordered a few covers to start with and figured it was worth giving them a try.

When the covers and the cloth liners came I had to condition the liners by boiling them for 30-45 minutes and then washed them in hot water. I stayed up Friday night to get this done so I could start using them on Saturday. My husband though it was strange that I was cooking fabric but he just rolled his eyes and reminded me that I had chosen to do this.

Saturday morning I put Ryan in a gdiaper for the first time. The first time I put one on him it took me a little while to get the fit right, infact I was having issues witht the snaps on the liners leaving red barkd on his legs. I called the customer service line and they helped me get a good fit, I was not pulling the diaper up far enough. The one thing I was dreading about cloth diapers was the he would have a bubble butt, however these diapers are almost less bulky then disposables. I had him in the gdiapers all weekend and was impressed. I didn't have one leak even through the night (I doubled up the cloth insert at night) I was half expecting him to wake up wit wet pj's in the morning.

I keep asking myself why I didn't switch to these sooner? We could have been using them for over a year already. Think of all the money we would have saved on the disposable diapers. I guess I had myself convinced it would be too hard. I will say that using them at first on a newborn may have been a bit overwhelming. There are so many adjustments in the beginning, around the clock feedings, lack of sleep, and everything else that comes with being a new parent. If I had tried them then I may not have stuck with it, but at this point I am thinking the IF there is a third child in our future I will use these.

No more

When Hailey was born I had this perfect vision of nursing her. Boy was I wrong, she had a mind of her own and was never interested she would scream (turns out it was because she is tong tied) so I ended up pumping for 3 months which was exhausting. I got to a point where I was miserable and starting to resent her which made me feel like a horrible parent. On top of that feeling there are so many people who make you feel that if you do not nurse your child you are somehow less of a parent. ( Not getting into that debate right now) At 3 months I stopped pumping and switched her to formula. That was the best decision I could have made at the time. The minute I switched her to formula she was a happier baby and I was a happier mommy.

When Ryan came along I was determined that things would work out differently this time, I would be able to make it work. I knew what had not worked the first time and I was not going into it with a romanticized vision of what how perfect it was going to be. Form the beginning he was totally different than Hailey had been but there were still challenges. We had switched pediatricians to a new office that had am amazing LC on staff ,we met with her when Ryan was 3 days old and she was such a great help.

I went back to work after 12 weeks and kept pumping at work and sending bottles to the sitter at one point my deep freezer looked like a milk bank but eventually it all got used up. As Ryan approached a year I decided that I was not ready to stop nursing him like I had originally planned but would keep going for as long as he wanted. I stopped pumping at work  just before his first birthday and just nursed him in the morning and at night which seemed to be working out. My husband kept asking when I was going to stop doing that but I wasn't ready to quit yet.

When we went home for the funeral last month Ryan decided he was no longer interested in nursing. I don't know if the disruption in his schedule is what did it or not but every time I tried to feed him he would just bite me and push away. After three days I decided that maybe it was time to stop and while it was hard for me Ryan never really seemed to miss it.

It has been almost a month since the last time Ryan nursed and I feel like it was harder for me to quit when the time came. I still feel a twinge of sadness every time I hand him a sippy cup full of milk and he smiles a take a huge gulp and runs away.

Potty Training Progress

We started attempting to potty train Hailey back in February using the 3 Day Potty Training Method a program my sister in-law had sent me. So I read up and was on board and excited to no longer have to buy diapers, well at least not for 2 kids anymore. Hailey unfortunately had other ideas. She didn't care if she wet herself, she could be running around with poop in her Minnie Mouse panties and still dell me that she was clean. I kept at it figuring that maybe she just needed more time but sadly it never got better. After several months we gave up. I felt like I was so obsessed with Hailey going pee pee on the potty that I could no longer enjoy the time I was spending with her.

After taking a little over a month off we decided to try again this weekend since I would be home with her for three days. The first day was a disaster he kicked and screamed when I would put her on the potty, I felt like her underwear were constantly wet and I thought "here we go again".

Day 2 went much smoother but she still had several accidents during the day. On Monday which was day 3 I knew that she was going to be a 3 Day failure yet again. That morning she refused to wear her 4th of July shirt because it was not pink. She wanted to wear a pink shirt with her favorite skirt. Now I know that according to the method she is not supposed to wear bottoms but I know m daughter and the fight that would have ensued over wearing this skirt would have lasted virtually all day ( I am so screwed when she is older) So I let her wear it. Sure enough she peed on it however she actually got upset that her pretty skirt got wet.

I rinsed it out and threw it in the dryer. Hailey refused to put on new underwear and then it happened while she was running around with a naked bum. She just started going over to the potty and using it when she had to go. She never said anything until she was done and she proudly proclaimed "I did it" with a huge grin on her face. When her skirt was dry she wanted to wear it again and sure enough again she peed on it. She spent the rest of the day naked from the waist down and only had one accident.

So Hailey may not have been potty trained in three days she is making progress. We are currently letting her wear dresses every day so she can not have to wear underwear and she just goes. The last two evenings she went 3x on her own both nights with no accidents, but she still has yet to tell us she needed to go. We have decided that for now we will focus on going on the potty and worry about the underwear in a week or two.

Mommy fail #343

We have two dogs that bark at everything including leaves, plastic bags, and people 100 yards down the road. I am usually quick to throw out a "shut up Rocky" or "shut up Ruby" at them. Unfortunately " shut up" seems to be Hailey's new favorite phrase. Every time Ryan is crying or making noises I hear "shut up Ryan" Great! I keep telling her that it is not nice to say that but obviously I have been a bad example. Lesson learned.