Going to far

Well I have done it. I have gone too far in my cheap crunchiness. I have converted the family to cloth wipes for the potty. I stay home all day with my son and I noticed that we go through a lot of toilet paper. Mainly this is my fault because being a pregnant women, I pee a lot. I started thinking about how much money and trees I could save if we did not go through so much toilet paper. Then I realized that I could just do what we have been doing with my son from the very beginning. He is cloth diapered so we have always used cloth wipes. It works very well for us because we just throw the wipes in to the hamper with the diapers when we use them. They just get washed all together, no big deal. Well why couldn't I do that for the grownups? So I went out to Target and bought 3 packs of 12 white wash cloths at $5 each (I did the same for my sons wipes). Then I bought a cute basket to put on the back of the toilet for 25 cents at Goodwill and away we went. We only use the wash cloths for pee and we use each one twice and then it goes in to the hamper with the cloth diapers to be washed. We use the cloth, then fold it in to its self and set it next to the basket so that the next person knows that it can only be used once before washing. We use white wash cloths because we don't use white for our body wash cloths so there is no mix up. I have to say it has worked out really well for us. My husband was skeptical at first and my mom just laughed at me but I was right. We have cut down our toilet paper use by 70% and I still do the same amount of laundry as before. It is just a bigger load now but still not a full load. So yes I have gone to far but it still saved our family some money!

It's a...

We just found out today that we are having a baby girl! We are so excited. My husband claims that he knew all along and I had been having girl dreams so maybe we did know but today we got the proof. The baby was very happy to show us the goods. She is a very healthy looking little girl to boot. I am almost 20 weeks now. We spent a very nice hour in Target's clearance section looking a girl cloths. So now we will have a boy and a girl, two years apart. This is our last child so we were really hoping for a girl. We could not be happier.

Foreign potties

We had a huge speed bump in our potty training. My son stopped going potty when we went out. He would go potty if we went to a house but no where else. He would just hold it until he couldn't and then pee all over himself. When we started potty training he would go anywhere. He even went potty at our county fair. Then out of nowhere he just stopped. I was talking with my mom about this and she said "Do you give him a treat if you go out?" I said no because I don't like carrying cookies around with me. She pointed out that that was most likely my problem. I realized that she was right. I tested the theory at the gym. He had never once gone potty there. It worked! I showed him a piece of candy corn before he sat on the potty and told him that if he went pee he would get the candy. He sat down and peed. I was so happy! No longer do I have to dread going out with him. I refused to put him back in diapers because I knew he could do it and I was right. I just needed the right tool. Bribery. I did spend a minute being worried about how to wean him off treats for the potty but I am sure it will be just like everything else with him. He weaned himself off the breast at 12 months, then the pacifier with out a fuss. I have still not figured out how to get him to poop in the potty. Maybe my mom will have another brain storm.

Next week we are going to visit my grandma in Phoenix AZ for a week so the potty training will go on the road! I am really excited that I don't have to pack diapers (cloth ones) for the trip. Since he only wears them at night, I will just use paper ones. He is down to one or no pee accidents a day and now that he will pee anywhere again, I think we can do this.

Naked buns

Potty training is turning out to be a much bigger learning experience for me then I had anticipated. When we started my son would stay dry better when we were out of the house then in the house. Now he rarely has pee accidents at home and about 80% of the time stays dry when we leave the house. His biggest undoing is when he is distracted when we go somewhere to play and he will not tell me he has to go until he has already gone. So I have found that when we go out it is best to watch the clock more then my son. When we are at home I let him run around with no bottoms because for some reason he does better that way. He went though a faze where he would have like 6 accidents a day in his undies at home but when I took them off that stopped. At home he is really good about telling me when he needs to go. I just need to watch him not the clock.

Poop is of course another mater. What makes me feel better is that it is clear that getting pee down before poo is very common. I have been trying to tell him that poop goes in the potty and letting him see when he does poop in the potty instead of whisking it away like I normally would. I think it may just take time. I do catch some poops (in the potty) but he will not tell me when he needs to go poop unlike when he needs to pee. He just stands there and gets a far away look in his eye. I call it his poop stare. I never did anything to get him to tell me when he had to pee so I guess that he will just figure it out on his own.

Day 14

We are still on the potty training band wagon. We have got it down to no more then one pee acadent a day. We are still working on the poo. My son poops mostly in his diaper at night or during nap time. Nothing I can do about that really so I try not to think about it too much. I am really quite proud of him over all. I am asked quite often how I know when he has to pee. At first I said that I didn't know, I just took him and I think it did start out that way but now I am seeing that more and more he is telling me when he has to go and when he doesn't. He will grab his crotch, point at the cookie box, or just go and stand by the potty when he has to go. I am also seeing that he is holding it longer and does not want to go early. He will often hold it for an hour now. This is really great when we go shopping.

For those that wonder if I have an advanced child I would like to point out that I don't. I (of course) think he is just the cats meow but he is really very normal. He did not start walking until 14 months, the words he says are so garbled that only I can understand him, he does not use a fork or spoon, and he only does two signs so far (eat and more). So he is really just a normal little boy. I think that putting him in cloth diapers really helped with potty training later because he knows what it feels like to be wet and what causes it.

Day 8 Poo poo problems

My son has been mostly going poo in his diaper at nap time and at night so I really did not realize that he does not want to go poo in the potty! These last two days, we take him to the potty and he goes pee, then he gets down, goes behind something and poops! It is very frustrating. I also understand that is is very common too. I knew I could not get out of this whole experience without some issue. I am not sure yet what I am going to do but I think the only thing I can do is to be more vigilant and try to catch him before he poos and put him on the potty. Oh well, the potty training continues...

Day 6

Today was a real test. We took our son in nothing but undies to the fair. He did so well! Not one acadent. We used the new traval potty that goes on top of the big potty and took him every 45 minutes to an hour. One time we went in to the bathroom and a lady said to me "There is no changing table in there!" I said "Its ok, we don't need one". Yesterday he only had one accadnt and it was with the liquid poo so I can't really blame him. Someone sugested that he might be drinking too much juice. I cut out his juice altogether a few weeks ago because the doctor sujested that it could be the cuase of the sores on his bum from his poop. It worked really well (his bum is healed!) and I have not givin him juice since, so I know it is not that. I have decided that he needs more fiber. I give him whole wheat toast but he can't eat many raw fruits or veggies because he has no molers to chew with yet. We eat a lot of beans but he hates them and won't touch them.

So I should review what we have been doing. We put him on the potty every 45 minutes or so and sign potty to him. Sometimes he tells us he needs to go but most of the time he doesn't. We give him a cookie if he goes potty but we are starting to cut down on the cookies. If he does not ask for one, we don't bother anymore. We only use diapers for nap time and bed time. We put undies on him because if he peed without undies he would not even feel it (only my carpet would). He goes on little potties and the big potty but if he goes on a little potty we put it up on a chair so he has to stay there for at least a minute. At this point I am sure that we will not be going back to diapers. It is all just fine tuning from here on out. Yah!