Liliana started waking up every time she went pee in her diaper because it was uncomfortable to her. I figured that we were waking up anyway to deal with that, so we might as well start the potty training. At the same time we decided to stop letting her crawl in bed with us every night. We love snuggling her so much, but we have to make room for co-sleeping with Baby Brother sooner or later and neither of us wanted to wake up soaked in pee while she got the hang of things. It was hard for her (and me, being pregnant and having trouble sleeping anyway) for a couple weeks. I would put her on the toilet before I went to sleep around 10 and she would pee while half asleep. Then she would wake up 2-3 times after that to pee and ask to get in bed with us. Adam and I were exhausted and frustrated. Lately it has been getting better. More often than not she still gets up once a night and Adam has to go help her pee (she won't go by herself at night) and she has had the very occasional accident, but for the most part, she is doing well. I don't wake her anymore for half-asleep potty visits and I am not good at restricting her liquids before bed (how do you tell a little kid they can't have something to drink when they are thirsty?), but she is still improving. We trust her so much that we let her sleep in our bed one night on the weekend. We are hoping the day comes soon that she always sleeps through the night or gets over her fear of peeing by herself in the middle of the night so that she can take care of it herself, but we are proud of her progress. I am so excited that I won't have to buy 2 sizes of diapers when Baby Boy is born! From experience nannying, I have to say that I prefer to only have 1 child in diapers at a time.
Speaking of diapers for Baby Boy...we are planning on doing cloth diapers with him. I figure if I declare it here on my blog I am more likely to stick with it when the going gets tough. :) I had big plans to use G Diapers (they are a hybrid where you can use either a biodegradable/flushable insert or a machine wash cloth insert) with Liliana, but I got a job nannying sweet Layla when both of the girls were 6 months old and I thought it would be too much to care for 2 infants and deal with cloth diapers in the Tollack's home. So, I copped out and used 7th Generation brand disposables with her instead. People often asked about why Liliana's diapers were a tan color as opposed to white and I am sure I will get a lot of questions about why I am cloth diapering.
My reasons for not using traditional disposable diapers are for the health of the planet and my babes. When I was pregnant with Liliana and started my research I admit that I was just looking for a safer way to diaper for the planet--traditional diapering leaves behind 2.7 tons of non-biodegradable waste per child that takes approximately 500 years to decompose--YUCK! But then I learned some facts that disturbed me even more about the safety of traditional disposable diapers on my baby's bottoms--they contain dioxin which is used to bleach them (a highly carcinogenic chemical that is banned in many countries), sodium polyacrylate which is used in the absorbent gels (which caused toxic shock syndrome in tampons and was subsequently outlawed), and a chemical called TBT that has been linked to hormonal problems and infertility. Its true that these chemicals are used in small amounts and deemed by the distributors to be safe, but reading that freaked me out, so I looked for alternatives.
Let's see if I will stick to my plan of G Diapers on Baby Boy or if I will fall back on my trusty 7th Generation brand. Another bonus of cloth diapering is that it saves a lot of money. Wish me luck!
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