Fitted Diapers

I had some Gerber prefolds I was not using for anything that came with an Ebay lot of Dappi covers I plan to resell. The Dappi's turned out to be too short in the rise for Julia.

Anyway, last night I decided to experiment and turn then into fitted diapers. I folded the sides in, measured 3.5 inches from each end and marked a dot, then drew lines about 1 cm wide from each dot. Then I sewed both lines, ran 6.5 inches of 1/4" elastic in there, and tacked it down. Last step was sewing one end shut and leaving the other end open for "flaps" or "wings."

I got the idea from this webpage.

Here's how mine look:

Inside diaper.

Folder diaper.

Back view.

Front view on baby.

Back view on baby.

Side view on baby.

Baby just for fun. :)

Paul liked them very much. Yay.

At Nana's and at Home

I need to either order another dozen prefolds or get on teh ball about making a dozen fitteds because I'm getting tired of laundry every other day. I liked it better on the 3rd day. (I have 3 dozen newborn prefolds and then only 2 of the next size.)

We took 12 to Nana's house on Saturday and put her back in cloth once we arrived. We did better than I thought. Not as good as at home, but better than I expected in a new place and with all the stimulus. Paul was also watching for cues and he made a good effort.

Sunday was varied and mostly in disposables or a swim diaper since we went to the pool and went to mom's birthday dinner.

Monday I'm so tired I'm just not on the ball. She's cueing me and I react too slow or don't trust my gut feeling that I ought to check. Hopefully I'll get some rest tomorrow and do better then.

Pee Spots

Before she was experimenting with her poo muscles and leaving little poo dots in her diaper. Those have gone and now we're having little pee spots. I'll be glad when she's done flexing and experimenting with them because we're going through a lot of changes even WITH pottying her.

Cloth diapers are cool though.

I try to be handy to catch her cues but sometimes I'm not available -- I'm distracted by something else. So sometimes she does end up going in her diaper. Julia knows when she is soiled and her yelling for someone to come do something about it means she's making a connection:

"The diaper is NOT the place to go potty in. "

I feel so proud!

And she woke up dry this morning and made a big pee in the potty, nursed, and is back down for nap. Woo!

Play cues/longer time sitting

Doing well so far today and getting every cue except two and a half.

The first miss was a pee during play time. Julia was playing with the gymini while I was off having a sandwich. When I came back she was crying and when I checked she'd peed.

The half? That was me not letting her sit long enough on the potty. She cued me to pee and we caught it with no problem. Then I was thinking maybe she had to poo, but then I second guessed myself and took her off. Shortly after she started to fuss and would have started to cry but I checked and it was a poo in her diaper.

The last miss was in the swing. I was taking a nap and Paul put her in the swing before he went to take his own nap. Julia napped in the swing and woke up yelling. It woke me up and I found she'd poo'd in it. If Ihad been awake I would have probably caught her whimpering in her sleep but I missed it.

Julia's holding her end of the bargain and def. giving me clear cues.

I have to work harder on my end and let her sit longer on the potty, and give her a chance to go potty before I plan to leave her to go eat in the kitchen.

I don't feel too bad about the ones I miss when I'm sleeping myself. It's going to happen.

Father's Day

Missed a lot of pee cues earlier today because I was distracted with getting stuff wrapped up for Father's Day -- Dad's matt boards, the frame Paul made, flan, etc. Then we had a lot of calls for Paul's Father's Day wishes. I got her changed, but not in time to get her on the potty.

We did get some down time for a nursing and I fell asleep. So tired. But Julia woke me with 2 farts and yowling at me so I rushed her to the potty and got a pee and a poo.

She's def. cueing... we just need to keep up with responding in time.

A Long Day of Cues

I believe strongly in two things:

• 1) That it's best to let the child set the pace because at this age it is easier for me to adapt to her than the other way around.
  
  
• 2) That children need consistancy, and a flexible schedule helps with that.
  

So far it's been pretty easy adapting on the sleep front.

When my milk came in, we moved to 4 hour blocks of nurse-nap. All I had to worry about was keeping her awake long enough for her to nurse for the full 30 min and I got my 4 hour block. That was easy to deal with.

Then she started sleeping longer stretches (8+ hours) if I let her at night. Depending on how well she ate that day or if she gives potty cues in her sleep I'd let her sleep on through or I'd wake her up for potty/nurse. This worked out fine too.

She's very consistant about waking at 7-8 AM. Lately 7 AM.

But for the last 3 or 4 days she's been up from 7 AM to 1 PM straight. And the closer we get to 1 PM, the more prone we are to having a meltdown from being overtired.

She fights me if I try to put her to nap at 11 AM where the old 4 hr block was, but if I let her keep on too much past that she sobs by 1 PM and cannot nap because she's too busy crying. Logically the nap ought to come midpoint -- noon. Will try that today.

For now I'm doing the ole' notebook thing and jotting everything we do by time hoping some kind of pattern emerges. Kid is wearing me out.

4 AM

Julia was rolling around in her sleep whimpering. I was struggling to decide to try to potty or let her keep on sleeping when she made the decision for me and lifted her head up. She was still asleep, but I figured if she was THAT active she MUST be having to go so I woke her up.

Sure enough, she peed quite a bit and then a few minutes later she grew very still and made a poo.

We nursed and I gave her the chance to go again (tiny pee) and we all went back to sleep.

7 AM

She was doing it again with the whimpers during sleep but I was too slow to respond and she'd gone in her diaper. Offered breast. We did catch the mid-nurse pee but when opened diaper saw a poo dot.

This started yesterday -- she's been having little poo dots in her diaper. No actual big poo -- just a dot. I think she's still testing her pee vs poo muscles. Eventually she makes the poo but in the meanwhile -- little dots.

7- ?? AM

No detailed notes as I eat breakfast, get Paul to work, etc. Missed a poo cue while I was eating and out of the room. She's crying about it. Wash out diaper. Put her in swing. Go feed pets and come back to her crying in swing. Check diaper, she had made a tiny pee in it. Potty her -- nothing. Should have offered potty even though poo'd in diaper to be sure that potty event was totally over.

11 AM

Not enthusiastic about nursing, more into thumb sucking. Teething? Check diaper. Made tiny pee in it, but nothing major. Offer potty -- nothing. Let her go diaperless. She gets excited and kicky. Why?

Happy with no diaper? (no)
Happy with Mom attention (no)
Turns out she is happy about the table fan -- the motion interests her. We watch it for a while.

11:14 AM

Offer breast again, she nurses. I'm a bit worried about her diaper free on the twin bed so I lay a changing mat and a diaper down to catch any accidents. Don't much care if she pees on me, just don't want it on the mattress!

11:18 AM

Pulling away from breast, fussing. Offer potty. She makes both pee and a poo. Happy, smiley, kicky in crib while I go empty potty. VERY happy. Pleasant to see. Back to nurse, very difficult with her so squirmy.

She's semi-sitting if I help "tripod" her with her hands and she's thrilled to sit but flops over and gets mad. She also likes to "stand" with help but gets mad if she wants to be standing and I'm getting tired of holding her up. It's rough on my breasts and my stomach with her kicking and flapping around wanting to be held to sit/stand. I know she's fighting sleep because she's so interested in these new things she is learning can do. But I can't let her skip meals. That's not good either.

Ugh. Frustrated.

11:25 AM

Farts while nursing, offer potty in case second poo is coming (tends to poo in 2 squirts) but nothing. Puzzled why baby keeps bending and hunching over on potty and realize she is playing with picture of bear in front of potty. Crazy baby. Thought maybe she had a tummy problem and it turns out she's fooling around with her potty bear!

11:45 AM

End diaper free time for today. Back in cloth diapers.

12:00 PM

Finish nursing at last! So much start and stop this round instead of just nursing straight through! We both fall asleep in twin bed without my noting time.

2:30 PM

Wake to her kicking me and squiggling around. Diaper is dry, offer potty. She makes a big pee and slight poo drip. MUST be practicing different muscles or something. Would teething cause poo dots/anal leakage or is she doing it deliberately? Look this up.

??? PM

Let her play while I go eat. Come back to check her, slight pee drip or diaper cream moisture in diaper. Unsure so change it anyway. Offer potty in case, but nothing. Didn't really expect anything -- she was not giving cues but figured since I had the diaper off anyway...

Let her play gymini some more while I get online.

4:16 PM
Come back to check baby. Offer right breaast. We nurse.

4:18 PM

Pulling away from breast, so offer potty. She farts in it. Go back to nursing, eye out for more cues since she is farty and that's the best poo cue. (She sometimes grunts for poo but not as relaible a cue as farts.)

4:40 PM

Suddenly very jumpy/bouncy and wails "mama" so offer potty. She makes the "missing" second poo and some pee. Finish nursing. Unusual that she said "mama" for potty. Normally only said when stuck on stomach and wants to be rolled over. Perhaps "mama" is becoming all-purpose "help me" cue?

4:57 PM

2 farts, check, but false alarm. Must have been last of that poo event. Gentle play.

5:26 PM

Thumb sucking, drowsy, falls asleep.

6:00 PM

Whimpers in sleep. Wake her for potty -- little pee. Paul gets home and they play for 30 min. but doens't sem interested in active play (riding the walker around the house, roll game, flying game, etc.)

6:30 PM
Offer to nurse left side -- doesn't want it. Paul plays guitar at her as gentle play. She looks sleepy but also kind of rooty. Teething or nurse?

6:55 PM

Missed small pee while Paul was with her and I was somewhere else. She'd been on her stomach yelling "mama" and I think he took it as "help me roll back over" rather than "help me potty." Have to remember to tell him it now may also mean diaper.

Nurse on left side.

7:25 PM

Check periodically for mid-nurse pee by looking for cues and feeling in diaper but nothing. Dry as a bone. She falls asleep.

SUMMARY:

My goal today was just to have a quiet "home observation" day and take lots of notes to help me figure out when to nap her now that she's changing from the 4 hr block sleep pattern we'd established. She seems to go back to it by evening but that first morning nap is hellish as she gets more and more tired. She's been up from 7 - 1 ish since Tues so I do not think it is a passing fad or a one time thing.

Got a lot of cues and missed only the one major poo while she was alone. The rest were little drips I could have let go but I wanted her super dry today so I can better tell when she successfully holds it between potty visits. Paul missed a pee cue but I forgot to tell him she's using "mama" to mean diaper too. She just started that today.

She's revived crying when soiled in cloth diapers -- doesn't do it in disposables. Probably too wicking and she cannot tell she is wet. Have to consider how to minimize disposables while over at mom's house. We see them so much I ought to just leave a stash of cloth over there.

Whimpering is a new cue.


Surprisingly not one accident during diaper free time and she seemed to enjoy it so have to make that more a regular part of the day.

Thumb sucking used to only mean she was rooting and hungry but now it's also teething comfort. A little harder to tell what to offer first -- boob or teething toys?

Day Log

6:00 AM

I wake up because Julia is whimpering in her sleep. Must have been dreaming something bad. I check her and she's wet, so I changed her and brought her to bed with me to nurse. We both feel alseep nursing so I have no idea how it went after that with her usual mid-nurse potty event.


10:00 AM

Paul leaves for work and kisses us goodbye. We nurse and Julia gets really still at 10:15 on the nose. She starts letting some out before I can get her on the potty but I catch the majority of it in it. Praise her. Change diaper, wash out slight dribble on nightgown. Tried to nurse some more but she's obsessed with sucking her thumb at that point. Put her down in the crib so she can get it out of her system while I eat something for breakfast.

[later]

Unable to log the rest of the day -- Karen called to ask me to come over because the burglar alarm went off while our parents were out and she was spooked.

Did EC over there, just couldn't blog from their house about it.

Julia is teething and it sometimes makes reading her cues harder. It's also wearing me out because she kicks me a lot when I try to nurse her. I got back home and got her to poo and I was waiting for the second round (She poos in two installments) when I accidentally fell asleep. She was kind of fussing which I attributed to teething since she was madly gnawing on her fist so I didn't check and when I woke up it turned out she'd pood again in her diaper. Felt bad about letting her sit in it so long. Asked Paul to remember check her if I'm asleep when he gets home.

On the Potty

Julia woke up this evening and I got her on the potty to go before we bathed her. Paul was fooling around with his new camera and got this sequence. Cracked us both up.

"Why am I sitting here? Whta is going on?"

"What a minute... something is happening. Gotta go!"


"All done!"

Pampers stink.

Weird day for potty training. Julia was up from 7 AM to 1 PM straight with no nap and I always have trouble reading cues when she plays. Because I don't know if she's getting all wiggly because she is happy playing or if she's all wiggly because she has to go.

Then we went out to do errands so I had to put potty training on hold.

When I got to Paul's office to bring him lunch I did try to get her to go in a stall, but she was empty so nothing.

One side note... I had a Pampers in the diaper bag that my SIL lent me when we ran out at their house by accident. Paul put it on her at his office because it was there in the bag.

While I was truly grateful to have my SIL lend me some, I don't like Pampers brand for Julia. It fits her kind of tight and they come scented. I'm sensitive to smells so I hate that. I never understand why they scent diapers -- change the dirty diaper and then there no odor to try to disguise!

On top of that, once she goes in one, the chemically smell/scent gets stronger. I don't think my nose ever recovered from pregnancy -- I started smelling things so much more then and it's yet to go away!

I'll stick to Seventh Generation when she needs a disposable rather than a cloth. Those are odorless.

progress

Julia woke up damp so she had peed in the night. However I got several pees and a poo this morning right after waking, 15 min into nursing and then 30 min into nursing. I gave her one more chance to go before putting her down for morning nap and she didn't make anything so we'll see if she wakes up dry or not.

[later]

Paul came home at 5:30 so I had him pee her then rather than waiting til 6 when I had mentally noted when 4 hrs would be up. I was pleased to see that she was dry! I'm considering breaking up her blocks into 3 hrs 30 min or 3 hours 45 min. I'm not getting enough reliably dry diapers at the end of 4 hours so I may be expecting her to hold it a wee bit longer than she can go just yet.

But overall -- a dream day. 4 hrs blocks all the way through for nusing/napping and not quite, but almost, on the diaper front.

Fitted Diaper -- Striped

Still experimenting with making fitted diapers for Paul and Julia. Here's one I did today in a striped/aqua flannel. Julia models it in her crib. From the back:

From the front:


I based the design on a disposable. I left the soaker pad unattached in the center and only attached the top and bottom edges to the striped cover part so when I dry it in the dryer it can open up and get more circulation around it.



It also has elastic leak guards to go around her legs. (Aqua)



The outer cover is about what you'd expect with Velcro to close up with. I did not do another round of elastic since the waterproof diaper cover has it already and I felt like three elastic rounds was overkill.



Another view of the outside:

Day 18: Holding it?

Had more dry diapers today and less diapers overall than usual. Perhaps Julia is learning to try to hold it til I get her on the potty?

In any case, today went well. She's getting quicker about going once she hears the cue sound.

Paul hasn't used one disposable diaper yet today and he's pottied her twice. I haven't been using disposable wipes at home. Just go with cloth ones and save the others for days out.

We were reading her bedtime story and Paul was teasing me that I was going to make her go because Julia started wriggling around. I took her and she peed. Then he laughed and said, "I know I tease you about thinking she's peeing every second but you are always right -- she does go. You are learning those cues really well."

I made her go into an adult toilet while at my parents' house the other day so it was good practice for going in public restroom stalls.

Tomorrow we go out with family, so EC won't be as structured as it has been these few days home but I feel good about how she's coming along. I'm glad we've started this early and she doesn't fight me. I've been reading the struggles other moms have toilet training their toddlers and it sounds like a really frustrating experience!

Poo Pockets

Toilet training continues par for the course.

Paul made a special efffort to use more cloth yesterday so I was pleased.

I got my Poo Pcokets pattern for fitted diapers and made a prototype form chopped up hospital blankets. There's no velcro, and my curves are a bit rough but I showed it to Paul and he seemed excited about it. He feels like he could deal with cloth diapers better if they were fitted instead of prefold so I plan to whip up a dozen especially for him.

If nothing else, my sewing will get practice.

Tired.

I've missed a lot of cues today. Only got one poo so far this morning. I'm just soooo tired I keep falling asleep when I'm supposed to be waiting to have her wake up from naps so I can take her to the potty.

I don't feel bad about it, but I do need to get her on a more structured schedule. We've been spending too much time out during the week. Apart from slowing me down on learning her cues, it wears me out and exhausts me.

[later]

Did better in the late afternoon/evening. Two poos, three pee.

One of her cues was so obvious it made me laugh. We were nursing and she pulled off, looked away, stuck out her legs, tried to sit up, and let out this "Unnnh!" grunting kind of noise. If that wasn't enough of a heads up she farted en route to the potty too. Made a poo shortly afterwards.

Busy, busy

Had a busy weekend with the wedding, pumping, babsysiiting, visiting. etc.

In between, we're still doing well with the EC thing. I've joined some groups online and one of them is local so I may get to meet local EC parents/families at the next monthly meeting.

My parents, my MIL, Whit, Paul's coworkers -- they all know we're infant potty training. The reaction has been pretty much the same. Initial surprise and then a sort of "Whatever works for you" thing. No negatives, which is a bit of a relief.

I had Julia at my parents' house today and while I missed some cues while napping, we got 4 or 5 of them while I was up and looking for cues. The newest one is looking away and kicking me in the stomach while nursing.

Pees come pretty much when I start the "Ssss" noise but poops take a little longer. I've noticed she's got to get 2 squirts to be done with those otherwise we're up and down on the potty seat for several minutes.

I've also noticed I have to go when she goes too -- that "ssss" noise is somthing I remember my parents doing to me too.

I'm thinking about sewing some all-in-one cloth diapers for Paul. He'd have an easier time of it with cloth that way. I may have to consult my mother on the sewing but we'll come up with something.

Julia's in medium Bummi's with the blue edge prefolds now.