Yesterday after talking with the Daycare Center about some issues my husband and I have been having the director and I came to the conclusion that Adysen will move up into the the Toddler 2 class. Most of the children are 2 or older in that classroom and are potty training. The other classroom does not have a toilet thus doesn't even address the issue. After asking the teacher if she thought Ady was ready I felt better about moving her up, she said if she had to move a kid up it would be her, she is a great listener, works well with the other kids and is big enough to not allow herself to get knocked around. (Although I suppose that does not include getting bit, which is what happened yesterday.)
So our newest adventure will be POTTY TRAINING. She is very good at knowing when she has wet and pooped in her diaper and now wants it gone as soon as possible. We are working with her on pulling her pants up and down and are showing her where to go potty and what we do with our excrement. I am very happy we switched to cloth because it gives her a better idea of when she is wet (although some do not because they are just really good at wicking the moisture away) and bonus(!) allows us to dump her poop in the toilet and explain that this is where we should really put our poop and then we wave goodbye as we flush it away!
Now my mom, who is the most qualified person to go to for early childhood situations in my opinion, is not too thrilled about our potty training endeavors. So you know that mom is not just a mom, the following are her credentials. She is a mother of five, got into the home daycare business when she was on child number 2, began schooling and working for a preschool, earned more than enough credits to have a masters in Early Childhood Development, but avoided the basics (math, science, history) and as a result is now working towards her degrees. She has directed (ran) multiple child development centers and has taught Early Childhood Development classes at the college level. So when my mom says something about children, I perk up and listen.
Now studies have shown that if you potty train too early or too late or in the wrong way for the specific child you could leave them with a lot of unaddressed stress that will manifest in their older childhood years, ages 5-9-ish. Mom has seen this happen many times so she is worried that I am going to stress poor Ady waddy out.
So I guess we will have to see. Lord willing we do right by Ady and let her start using the toilet on her own time. But for now I have to do all the research I can to make sure I am knowledgeable on the different situations that may arise over or next adventure.
Oh and if you want some interesting good for cloth facts try getantsy.com, right there on the front page is some great information on cloth and potty training. And they sell a pull up cloth trainer. (If you decided to venture out on this road with us)
Thursday, December 30, 2010
Cloth BABY!
My cloth history is as follows. When I was pregnant with my first child I was going to breast feed and cloth diaper because no matter how uncomfortable or disgusting either might be I am all about saving money, and I was not about to pour money down a drain that was already clogged with profit. So I bought a boppy and about 20 or so prefolds and a pack or two of the flats. I also bought some of the little plastic pants in various sizes up to a year old. All of which were likely purchased at babies r us and the Gerber brand. Not that anything is wrong with either, but I most certainly did not do my research. After about a day of having my baby girl at home I decided to try the cloth diapers. I was so afraid of sticking her, or myself for that matter, with a clothes pin that I think I only attempted 5 or less cloth diapers. I had no experience, couldn't get it to fit right or stay on for that matter that I decided huggies weren't that expensive for our dual income. But on a happy note, she never once drank an ounce of formula, not even when I had to leave for 17 days. But that's a whole other story.
So she was in huggies, disposables, and the cloth diaper supply was banished to a cabinet. Then, shortly after her 1st birthday a mom at her home daycare and I began talking about her beautiful cloth diapered baby. She had the neatest little designs and colors. I was amazed that these were cloth diapers. Purples, and oranges, and greens, and designs, and characters! And the best part, no pins! They were all fastened with plastic snaps or velcro. So one day a little while later she told me about a sale on babyhalfoff.com (a great place to get great deals). Once a day they have a new product and on this particular day they had Dreameze diapers by GroBaby (now known as GroVia). So I bought 3 for about $10 each. Green, orange and Cream, sadly they were out of the purples and are now discontinued (replaced with a more friendly design, which I have and love). So after buying these diapers I realized there was no point in cloth diapering part time, 1) I will never have a full load of diapers, 2) I don't like to do anything halfway, and 3) I wanted more kids so why not start stocking up now.
So I got on craigslist and began searching, I bought a good amount of used diapers of the next few weeks and months and got some Charlie's Soap for the laundry. Since I've begun cloth diapers I have travelled by plane and in the car with them, and have never really run into a problem that could not be remedied.
Now as you know I work full time, so my routine in the beginning when I only had enough diapers for one day was to come home get her in the bath, start the diapers put her to bed around 7p (which is still her bed time and I LOVE that and hope it never changes) put the diapers in the dryer on low do some cleaning or reading or whatever (at this point my husband was still deployed so I really had NOTHING to do) and then before bed start the dryer again on either low or medium and be ready for the morning.
When I first started out I realized how simple the designs were so I borrowed a sewing machine from a friend, got some supplies and made my own wet bag, a wet bag is a water proof bag that is used for transport those dirty stinky diapers from one place to the washer. I also have attempted making my own diapers a few times but still have not had too much success, still working on it, but since I moved I'm working on getting a sewing machine first :)
So that is the basic history of my cloth diapering experience thus far.
So she was in huggies, disposables, and the cloth diaper supply was banished to a cabinet. Then, shortly after her 1st birthday a mom at her home daycare and I began talking about her beautiful cloth diapered baby. She had the neatest little designs and colors. I was amazed that these were cloth diapers. Purples, and oranges, and greens, and designs, and characters! And the best part, no pins! They were all fastened with plastic snaps or velcro. So one day a little while later she told me about a sale on babyhalfoff.com (a great place to get great deals). Once a day they have a new product and on this particular day they had Dreameze diapers by GroBaby (now known as GroVia). So I bought 3 for about $10 each. Green, orange and Cream, sadly they were out of the purples and are now discontinued (replaced with a more friendly design, which I have and love). So after buying these diapers I realized there was no point in cloth diapering part time, 1) I will never have a full load of diapers, 2) I don't like to do anything halfway, and 3) I wanted more kids so why not start stocking up now.
So I got on craigslist and began searching, I bought a good amount of used diapers of the next few weeks and months and got some Charlie's Soap for the laundry. Since I've begun cloth diapers I have travelled by plane and in the car with them, and have never really run into a problem that could not be remedied.
Now as you know I work full time, so my routine in the beginning when I only had enough diapers for one day was to come home get her in the bath, start the diapers put her to bed around 7p (which is still her bed time and I LOVE that and hope it never changes) put the diapers in the dryer on low do some cleaning or reading or whatever (at this point my husband was still deployed so I really had NOTHING to do) and then before bed start the dryer again on either low or medium and be ready for the morning.
When I first started out I realized how simple the designs were so I borrowed a sewing machine from a friend, got some supplies and made my own wet bag, a wet bag is a water proof bag that is used for transport those dirty stinky diapers from one place to the washer. I also have attempted making my own diapers a few times but still have not had too much success, still working on it, but since I moved I'm working on getting a sewing machine first :)
So that is the basic history of my cloth diapering experience thus far.
Wednesday, December 29, 2010
My First Comment!!!
Alright!! So yesterday I put up my very first blog AND I got my very first comment! So quickly and briefly I would like to explain ERF (Extended Rear Facing, in case you missed it) and how it works for me and my family.
When my daughter was still in the traditional car seat for newborns-1 yr/20 lbs I had a couple of great friends who were able to shed some light on the damage that could be done to a young child whose fragile body is not strong enough to withstand a car accident/crash. If you think about it our adult bodies still get pretty banged up from any sort of crash, imagine your baby, toddler, child in that same crash. Your whiplash becomes their spinal cord realignment surgery. Or something horrifically unimaginable. Go to youtube.com and look up a few crash test that are done comparing rear facing and forward facing.
I have also talked to a friend whose friend was in an accident with her 2 kids, the mother didn't survive, the forward facing 4 year old got pretty banged up and the rear facing 1 year old, slept through the whole thing. Now that is what I want for my baby girl, just sleep though it.
To address my curious commenters questions about how it works with my family, my daughter has never known it any other way. Except for on a plane sitting in my lap. Everywhere I go she has her Radian XTSL with us. She even has one in her dadda's car, I will post some pictures tomorrow, it is too cute seeing her in the front seat (it's an '86 and doesn't have airbags) facing the back window in his car, that is really the only reason I am jealous of his car :)
To address my curious commenters questions about how it works with my family, my daughter has never known it any other way. Except for on a plane sitting in my lap. Everywhere I go she has her Radian XTSL with us. She even has one in her dadda's car, I will post some pictures tomorrow, it is too cute seeing her in the front seat (it's an '86 and doesn't have airbags) facing the back window in his car, that is really the only reason I am jealous of his car :)
As for her legs, her car seat has a low side clearance so she can just swing them over, and she loves pushing them up against the back seat and "bouncing" to the music. She gets so excited! Sometimes she wants to see whats going on in the front seat and will fight momentarily but this never lasts long and she still has her mirror. She can also see out both side windows and the back window, and with her reclined position I think she gets a better view of trees and the sky rather than buildings and cars zooming by, and if she wants to see them, she can just look out one of the side windows.
Lastly i should give the car seat we use some credit because with out them we wouldn't be able to rear-face as long. The Sunshine Kids Radian XTSL is our car seat of choice. It will rear face up to 45 lbs and then will go on to forward face up to 90 lbs, all with the 5-point harness.
I tried to upload a few pictures of my girl in her car seat but am not able to just yet. SO I will add them as comments or post to a blog at a later date. Please let me know if anyone has found this information helpful. I know that car accidents are unlikely, but they are also dangerous. And I don't want my babies caught up with out the right and best protection in one.
Lastly i should give the car seat we use some credit because with out them we wouldn't be able to rear-face as long. The Sunshine Kids Radian XTSL is our car seat of choice. It will rear face up to 45 lbs and then will go on to forward face up to 90 lbs, all with the 5-point harness.
I tried to upload a few pictures of my girl in her car seat but am not able to just yet. SO I will add them as comments or post to a blog at a later date. Please let me know if anyone has found this information helpful. I know that car accidents are unlikely, but they are also dangerous. And I don't want my babies caught up with out the right and best protection in one.
Tuesday, December 28, 2010
MY FIRST BLOG!!!
WooHoo!! Finally I have chosen a blog website, went through all the setup hassles and have come out victorious. This is my very first blog. To start I would like to explain my title for my blog "I think I Qualify" I used that because I believe every good blog has a good reason to be on the internet, or read at all. I think I qualify to write blogs because I am a mom, who cloth diapers her 20 month old, is pregnant once again, due in May, and works full time (really thats an understatement) for the US Army as a...soldier/NCO. For those of you who don't know what an NCO is it stands for Non-Commissioned Officer, basically I've been in long enough and worked hard enough to be given more responsibilities. Yay me!
So in my opinion I think I qualify, oh and did I mention I practice the taboo art of Extended Rear Facing with my baby girl? Don't let anyone see you put your 30 pound, walking, talking gorgeous almost toddler in the back seat facing the back window. You will inevitably get a comment, if not the opportunity to share your reasons and be dismissed. I have heard "isn't she too big?", "can't you turn them around at a year, is she not a year yet?", and my favorite response after I am given the opportunity to share my reasons, from my own brother once as well, "oh, NO! Don't tell me that, I don't want to hear all that bad stuff that could happen!" WHY? Because you might actually see the bright side of ERF (Extended Rear Facing, if you haven't figured it out).
But enough about all that. The big accomplishment of the day is that I am finally a blogger and have my very first blog on my blog space, or spot, or site? Who knows :)
So in my opinion I think I qualify, oh and did I mention I practice the taboo art of Extended Rear Facing with my baby girl? Don't let anyone see you put your 30 pound, walking, talking gorgeous almost toddler in the back seat facing the back window. You will inevitably get a comment, if not the opportunity to share your reasons and be dismissed. I have heard "isn't she too big?", "can't you turn them around at a year, is she not a year yet?", and my favorite response after I am given the opportunity to share my reasons, from my own brother once as well, "oh, NO! Don't tell me that, I don't want to hear all that bad stuff that could happen!" WHY? Because you might actually see the bright side of ERF (Extended Rear Facing, if you haven't figured it out).
But enough about all that. The big accomplishment of the day is that I am finally a blogger and have my very first blog on my blog space, or spot, or site? Who knows :)
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