Monday, June 8, 2009

Time to cancel the diaper service?

prefold cloth diapers rainbowWell.

Our cloth diaper service delivery guy knocked on our door on our most recent pickup day, thinking we had forgotten to set out our dirty diapers for the week.

No, we told him, we didn't have any. Not one single dirty diaper to wash in 7 days.

I had taped a note to the mailbox to let him know not to look for any, but apparently he hadn't seen it. Good thing, though, because he let us in on a secret: Our diaper service offers training pants as well! Same deal: You rent the number you need per week, put out the dirties once a week, and bring in the cleans. No lather, no rinse, but repeat.

So I called and signed us on up for the minimum number of training pants. I have the feeling it will be too many. If all continues along this trajectory, we might have to — gulp — cancel our diaper service altogether.

I love our diaper service. I love the convenience. I love how fluffy soft the prefolds are. I love having them handy for spills and a little wiping after a potty pee. And I love our colorful and soft wool covers and feel a little nostalgic laying them aside for big-boy underwear.

My sweet boy, who just turned 2.

Here's what I wrote a month ago about where we were in terms of elimination communication and potty learning.

It's funny, because not all that much has changed since then, and yet just enough to tip the scales over in favor of going diaperless full time. It's almost like I wasn't willing to see how ready he was even then, and the week we had no dirty diapers, it made it an unavoidable, surprising revelation. An "Ohhh..." moment. Mikko was ready. I just needed to get on board.

What has changed since I last wrote is two big hurdles crossed:

The biggest is that Mikko tells us when he has to pee by saying, and I quote, "Pee." It's so stinking easy! He'll also allow me to offer opportunities to pee, and so I try to honor his refusals when he doesn't need or want to go, because he can be trusted almost all the time to say yes if he does need to. I don't want to tarnish that mutual trust by forcing him to "try" if he doesn't feel the urge — isn't that what elimination communication is all about, after all? Letting our children stay aware of their own natural urges? (That was a rhetorical question.)

The second is that Mikko can wear underpants now without immediately peeing in them. He's been able to wear his undies out and about and come home dry. We were at a game with friends to celebrate his birthday, and one of our friends was holding him on her lap when I thought to ask him if he needed to pee. I bit my tongue before I said it, because I realized I would freak the heck out of her if she found out he wasn't wearing a diaper and was sitting on her nice summer dress.

In fact, the only misses he's had recently (I can remember three in the past few weeks) have been when he had just woken up from a sound sleep and, I believe, had been awake for longer than I was aware before I could get to him. With the heat wave hitting Seattle (anything over 70 degrees qualifies), we've had fans going nonstop, and it's harder for me to hear him right away.

Kalencom 2-in-1 Potette Plus portable potty plus trainer seatI still need to get him used to public restrooms. We just ordered a Potette Plus online (see picture), which is this clever little travel potty plus seat reducer. He's tried it out a couple times, in the sense that I've tried to convince him to sit down while he's screaming bloody murder in a restroom stall. So, yeah, no joy there yet.

But I have hope. Just look how far we've come in only one month!

Photo of rainbow-dyed prefolds courtesy Ja-nelle on flickr (cc)

3 comments:

Lisa C said...

Hey, congrats on the upgrade to training pants! Heh heh, I know what you mean about not wanting to tell people about the training pants. I told my husband not to tell his brother when we put Michael in his, but he did anyway, and his brother would not touch him after that. The other day he peed on our neighbor, though! Luckily he didn't care and is even willing to hold him when he's all naked-butt. Now he wants to do EC when they have a baby! Feels great.

Jenny said...

Congratulations! We are working with Suzi (also just turned two) to get there, but she doesn't always want to use the potty and we've learned there is no point in pushing the issue. We gently encourage her, and she has shown she has the skills to do it. She just doesn't always want to. That little "Potette" thing looks good. I'd been wondering what on earth we'd do when she needed to peepee on-the-go. I might have to get her one!

BeanMa said...

Wow. I give you credit just for *having* a cloth diaper service.

Related Posts with Thumbnails