Hope i'm not jinxing it

But today marks the 5th consecutive day without any accidents. The only one to speak of was the incident with the diaper box and it was good because she recognized the trickle as it happened and stopped it, getting onto the potty and finishing.

So, yeah, i definitely think she "gets it". i'm so very, very proud of my girl! Less than 3 weeks at 18 1/2 months :). Go Char!

Backward pajama wrestling should be an Olympic sport!

Well, the potty learning has been going really well. Perhaps too well...

Saturday she had a very minor trickle while playing in (ironically) the last box of disposable diapers we ever bought. She likes to play like it's a boat. Anyway, the tiny trickle resulted in her newest trick: the super-melodramatic "Ohhhhhh nooooooooo!!!!!!!"

That's the background. Now, this morning she pooped in her diaper before DH got to her after she woke. She wakes quietly these days, and since she has a loud sound machine to shield her from noises from the dogs and the airplanes, sometimes it takes a few minutes for us to wake and realize she's awake.

Unfortunately, she used that time this morning to unzip her pajamas and remove her diaper. There isn't a diaper in the house she can't remove, from aplix to snaps to side snaps to disposables.

i'm really not sure what to do at this point. It's only a matter of time before she climbs out of the crib (i'm actually really surprised she hasn't yet!!!), but i fear for the trouble she'll get into in a toddler bed. We could put her in a toddler bed and put a portable potty in her room, but i bet she'd try to empty it. (World's biggest piddle pad, perhaps?) Someone suggested toddler-sized sleep sacks, which seems like a pretty good idea since they zip in the back, but i'll have to order them online.

Meanwhile, i decided to try turning her PJs on backwards. That was far more difficult than it sounds! It's hard enough to put them on normally before she takes her diaper off lol. First, she was NOT okay with putting the feet in backwards at first and rotating them. So i had to put the feet on normally (but opposite feet) and twist the PJ's. That could work with a skinny baby maybe. Oy! Anyway, i finally got it situated, and when she tried to do the usual nightly "snuggle" (read: her jumping on the bed while i read 2 books), she couldn't even stand up. So "Llama Llama Red Pajama" was punctuated regularly with "Ohhhhhhh nooooooooo! I STUUUUUUUCK!!!!!!" While i just tried not to laugh too much. Who knew LLRP was a comedy?

OK, loyal readers, any other brilliant ideas?

NOT about potty learning

i have to tell you about the crazyness that is Charlotte's newest trick. i'm telling you, if she lives to adulthood, she's going to be an Olympic athlete or famous ballet dancer or circus performer or SOMETHING. Her balance and motor skills are off the charts!

We have an exercise ball that we use/used for her therapy. Sit her on the ball, bounce her, sing "Five Little Monkeys" lol, fun stuff. Sometimes she pushes the ball or even attempts to roll on it. Friday she was sort of doing that and Alan held the ball. Wouldn't you know it but somehow the little stinker climbed up the ball and tried to stand! So i came behind her and sort of helped her balance but i didn't do much really. We caught about the third or fourth attempt on video:



We did it again Sunday and oh my gosh she is amazing! She actually started pushing my hands away so i couldn't hold her. So i made her hold my index fingers in each hand. Which apparently she took as an invitation to jump up and down and up and down on top of the ball! We didn't get that on video unfortunately (memory cards full) but trust me, it was about twice as impressive even as this video, which alone blows me away.

And here's where i confess a parenting secret. i get a little, sometimes a lot but usually a little, worried about what other people think of how i parent this kiddo. i try to find a balance that keeps her safe, but when you have a kid who knows no fear and is an even bigger adrenaline junky than you are, and is so focused and determined that you can attempt to redirect her 200 times in a row and she'll run right back to the scary activity undeterred, it's pretty hard to find that happy medium. i feel like other parents would see this video, or see her in action on a playground or whatever, and judge me for letting her do these things. But it's practically impossible to NOT let her do those things! And i figure these traits are part of her amazing personality, and we need to respect that. So, i do what i can to let her do things while keeping her safe.

More potty learning

i figured i'd go ahead and warn you with the subject in case it's not something you care about. It certainly wasn't something i cared about a couple of years ago. Right now it's foremost on my mind, obviously.

So in the last 7 days we had 3 with zero accidents (including today, YAY!), 2 with 1 accident, 1 with 2 accidents, and 1 with 3 accidents. Ugh! But of those 2 i can hardly blame her for as there were extenuating circumstances.

And, yes, full-time potty learning is a major pain in the butt! People think EC'ing, even part-time, is really difficult, but it's not at all difficult. Anytime you don't feel like being diligent (lik when you want to go out), you just put a diaper on. Or use diapers full-time like we did most of the time, but offer the potty a few times a day until they "get it" and ask for it themselves. Super easy! Certainly easier than changing a messy diaper.

Full-time potty learning, though, oh man is it way harder. Diapers would be a vacation lol. As my husband put it, "it sucks being held hostage by a 1 year old's bladder." BUT she really is getting it, she really has been showing major signs of readiness. Not to mention we only own one diaper that she can't take off, which means another however many months without dresses, which would make me very sad! i've also heard/read that there are a few windows of opportunity, and if they miss a window, you have to wait for the next one or it will be very difficult. Maybe the next one would come in 6 months, but maybe it wouldn't come for another 18 months! So, as long as things continue to improve over the next week or two, we'll keep at it.

Why does PL'ing suck? Because you have to be prepared (physically and mentally) for accidents. Even fully PT'd kids have accidents up to once a week for a while after being "potty trained". You also have to time things right. We waited almost an hour yesterday to go out for lunch because we wanted to leave right after she peed, but she didn't for a long time. Which meant that we were also bumping up on naptime (and planning around naptime is already sort of sucky, as every mom knows). And then there's the fact that she's too small to balance on the big potty, so i have to carry a donut ring in the diaper bag. (Ironically i stopped using a big diaper bag about a month after she was born, favoring a cooler that looks like a purse for her bottles and a couple of spare dipes, and now i have to carry the big bag because of the potty ring!) i bought a portable potty ring at Babies R Us but it is way too flimsy and Char is actually afraid of it. So, yeah, i'm the dork with the potty ring but no actual diapers in her diaper bag.

The irony is that she is begging for potty now as a stalling tactic. If she doesn't want to sit in her high chair, "potty". If she doesn't want to take a nap or go to bed, "potty". It's like "potty" has totally replaced "no". It's pretty hilarious but a bit frustrating as well.

On the topic of potty learning

So this week has been "naked baby week". It started Monday afternoon after her 18-month pediatrician appointment. Her pedi gave us the go-ahead, so we went for it. She had one accident Monday afternoon, one Tuesday afternoon, zero Wednesday, and one this morning already, but really i think that's pretty good considering she pees every 45 minutes and poops 2-3 times a day.

Tuesday we even drove 20-30 minutes away, went shopping at Target and then JC Penney, and grabbed lunch at NYNY Pizza. In Target she started saying "potty". She got urgent in JC Penney so i took her to the "family restroom", where i stayed for a solid 45 minutes. Poor thing WANTED to go but couldn't quite get comfortable enough. Thankfully i had tucked the donut toilet ring into the diaper bag. Weird or not, it was necessary! We ended up leaving and getting lunch, and we each made 2-3 trips to the bathroom before she finally peed. Yay!

Similarly, Char and i drove 45 minutes to visit my dad yesterday. She started saying "potty" about 10 minutes from his house. i brought her little toilet as well as the donut ring and she used each there. To say my dad was impressed would be a major undestatement!

Right now our tactic is to let her be naked at home (dress and legwarmers but no diaper or underwear) and wear training underwear when we go out in public or outside to play. This week so far that strategy has worked great! She still wears a diaper at night and for naptime but i think naptime may be unnecessary, but bedtime is necessary.

My hope is she'll stop having accidents or only rare ones by the weekend so that next week the nanny can continue this path until she's 100% bulletproof in a few weeks hopefully. She's not rebelling or upset at all, so far anywa, so that's awesome. If things continue, well, i'm thrilled!

Oh, and yesterday aftrnoon i did diaper laundry. i had done laundry Sunday so this was right about 3 full days' worth of diapers. There were 3 bedtime/nap diapers and 5 daytime diapers (which were probably all Sunday/Monday before we started the naked baby thing.

And a cute-ism... It's so adorable when she takes a doll or stuffed animal over to the potty chair and says "Ssssssss". OK, so it's the kind of cute a mom would recognize, but it's still cute!

Tickle Tickle Tickle

Cloth Diaper Snap Conversion Tutorial

As you may know, we've been using cloth for about 3-4 months now, and i adore it. i really prefer the natural fiber all-in-ones, as they allow Char to feel wet, which should facilitate potty learning (more on that soon). She's not a real heavy wetter, thank goodness, so AIO's are fine for us.

My favorite diaper for ease of use and how they feel (after a quick spin in the dryer on low for fluffy factor) are Bamboo Babies. However, they're also my very least favorite diaper because they have the worst worst worst velcro/aplix ever. i got one new and one used and within 2 months i couldn't tell the difference (and the used one was WELL used). Maybe this picture will show what i mean:

See how "fuzzy" it is? And see how the lime green PUL is also somewhat "fuzzy"? That's because the laundry tabs are terrible and it just picks at the PUL. And since the PUL is what makes the diaper waterproof, this is not good. Plus it's a PITA to pick apart a laundry chain every time i do laundry.

So, i asked for a KAM snap pliers kit for Christmas, and Santa delivered! i already "snappified" one of my Bamboo Babies diapers and decided to do a tutorial if anyone is interested. We'll start with the snaps:

The top and third rows are the caps. They are actually kind of sharp so watch out! The second row is the male part and the bottom is the female part. When finished, the male will snap into the female and each will have a cap. i'm using orange to provide a good contrast with the green diapers and the white rise snaps, and because white is more in demand ;). i don't plan to sell this diaper so no problem for me.

Here's the rest of what you need:

The pliers, the snaps of course (though you'll need many more), and the pointy awl tool that came with the pliers. Here's a close-up of the pliers. Can you see how one of the sides has a hole in the middle? This is for the pointy part of the snap cap, so make sure either the male or female is nestled in this side so the point of the cap will poke through into this hole. Otherwise, it's virtually fool-proof.

The VERY first step will be to remove all of the velcro or aplix from your diaper. Use a seam-ripper, but be sure to remove the threads individually to prevent pulling or tearing the PUL. You'll need to remove the tacky aplix from the wings and the soft aplix from the front of the diaper.

Most aplix diapers have a laundry tab so that you can fold down the wings and attach the velcro and *in theory* not have to worry about the velcro picking the fabric or creating laundry chains. some laundry tabs are better than others and the Bamboo Babies SUCK. But, they're not hurting anyone so my choice is to leave them there, but you can just as easily remove them. Removing the velcro actually takes longer than putting the snaps in!

To get started, mark the center of your diaper (i tried a quilter's white pencil but it didn't mark so i marked VERY lightly with a regular pencil, which will wash off). Then mark the horizontal line on the front of the diaper where the snaps will line up. We're going to have 2 rows of snaps and they'll be about 3/8" inside the outer edges of the former velcro. Then measure out and mark in 1" increments the width of the front of the diaper (the white snaps were already part of the diaper; used to increase or decrease the rise to make it a one-size diaper. Our snaps will be orange).

Also mark the wings where the snaps will go.

To put the first snap in, poke the awl tool through all layers at one of the marks.
Please note that i said "poke the AWL", not "poke the owl". Poking an owl could be very dangerous and really just isn't very nice. Please be kind to the owls and poke with the awl instead. i started on the wings.

Now place a cap through. Since this is the wing, the flat side will be on the outside of the diaper and it will poke out toward the inside of the diaper.

Now place a male piece over the point and place the pliers over both sides (remember the flat side of the cap should be against the shallow piece on the pliers so the poky part goes into the hole).

Now, some might say just squeeze the pliers, but really there's no satisfying noise that goes along with the squeeze. So i say squeeze the pliers and say "Ka-chunk" while doing so. It's a little like saying "Abra Cadabra" and supplies some of the magic to the process.

Repeat for both snaps on both wings. The front of the diaper will be exactly the same, except you'll use female pieces instead of males.

(This shot also shows the light pencil marks and the 2 snaps on the wing in the side). Now, to make it truly a one-size diaper, you should add 2 more female snaps pointing OUTWARD on the wings about an inch outside of the male snaps one ONE of wings. This way, when that wing is closed first, the other wing can be closed on top of it, making a very small waist (and when the rise is snapped closed, it should fit a babe starting around 9 or 10 pounds).

And there you have it! And just so you know, it took about twice as long to upload this to a blog post as it did to convert the diaper.