Potty Training

So my oldest, Michael, with be three in March.  My twins are going to to be two in two weeks.  I have decided that it is time to work on one of the things I am most dreading, potty training.  Today was our first day sans diapers.  My goal is for diapers to only be on for night time.  How did today go?  Total fail.  Not one time did he do anything on the potty other than sit.  I suppose that it is a positive thing that he at least wanted to sit on the toilet, but he was more interested in flushing the toilet than anything else.  Every pair of under pants that I put on him, he soaked through.  I have been cloth diapering for the last year and a half.  I thought that it would make potty training easier, but I don't think it's made a difference in that regard.  I am not ready to give up on potty training yet.  It's only been one day, and I am hoping that he will start to get it sooner than later.  The other thing that is spurring this on, is that he is going to be evaluated for public school pre-school and I don't know if they require him to be potty trained to go or not.  I am hoping that he will qualify for pre-school and not just speech services.  I think that he will benefit from pre-school and that it will really help his speech.  But I digress.  Back to the potty training issue.  I am basically attempting to go sans diapers furing the day with offering him the potty often and even just bringing him and sitting him on it.  I know that there are more formal ways to potty train, but for now, it's how I am going about it.  If anyone has any other resources, please, please let me know.  I have the info on the 3 day potty training guide and may do that if my way doesn't work out.  It's just so hard with 2 others.  I am not looking forward to doing this two more times!

Amy

Cloth diapering

About 4 months ago, we started using cloth diapers with my oldest son.  They seemed to work great for his issues with diaper rashes and it was nice not having so many disposables (and it wasn't even that bad with regards to laundry).  So, we decided to start using cloth for all 3.  I'm not sure why, but lately it seems that all 3 kiddos are getting horrible diaper rashes.  I started changing how I washed the diapers.  I used less detergent since less seems to be better when it comes to cloth diapers.  Also, I decided to try a couple of loads on the sanitary cycle hoping to strip the diapers of anything that may be defeating the absorbency ability of the diapers.  That seemed to work for the short term, but it seemed like the diaper rashes were back in full force.  I started being really conscientious about changing them every 2 hours or so (don't get me wrong, it's not like they sat in wet, dirty diapers for too long, you just have to change them much more often than disposables).  It's pretty crazy (sometimes I feel like all I do is change diapers), but isn't that what happens when you have 3 in diapers?  The kids' doctor wanted me to use desitin, balmex, or something like that, but that means using disposables for longer than I wanted to.  I decided to use up the few disposables that I had and I was going to buy more, but for whatever reason, the stars didn't align and I didn't get out to the store in time.  Because of this, I started back in cloth sooner than I expected.  I was going to go out later when the kids were better or my husband was home and get desitin (as much as I didn't want to use it, it does work great) and more disposables since you can't use desitin with cloth as it screws with odor and absorbency.  When I was changing diapers later on, the rashes seemed better especially since I was changing diapers often.  I also wrote to a cloth diaper list that I belong to and they suggested that I try fleece liners.  I had some fleece material at the house so I cut out some liners and it's amazing how much the fleece wicked away the moisture from the kids' bottom.  Since I no longer have any projects that I have to complete, my newest project is going to be making fleece diapers (almost like fleece underwear thanks to my husbands suggestion) to wear under the cloth pre-fold then a cover on top.  I'm going to keep the covers I have for now, but will eventually make my own fleece covers.

I really want to keep up with cloth diapering.  For me, it's a better choice and I also don't have to worry as much about running out of diapers (which can happen quickly when you have 3 in diapers, pretty much all the same size)

Looking forward to my newest project, but now off to knit a scarf and watch the Patriots!
Amy