Going Potty

Primrose’s latest project is ‘toilet training’ Buttercup.
‘Now, take of your nappy and do pee pee on the potty, see like this. Mummy, take off her nappy.’
I do.
Buttercup performs then excitedly grabs a bit of toilet paper to finish off proceedings.
There has, however, been an unwelcome development. Buttercup will now remove her nappy (if she can) just before she poos. No matter where she is. We’re seriously considering using duct tape.
Primrose transitioned from nappies to loo around her second birthday. It was a totally toddler led process; she just decided that she’d had enough of nappies. She’d been using the potty and loo on and off since she was about 10 months old and nudey bum time (kids only) had been a regular activity in our house since she was a wee thing and she rarely had accidents when her nappy was off. One day she started taking off her nappy because it was wet (one of the joys of cloth nappies is they can tell when they are wet) and wanted to use the loo so we just rolled with it. We bought knickers, just like mummy’s (maybe a little smaller). For the first week or so everything in the house revolved around the loo We didn’t go on any car trips or do anything out of the ordinary. And she was grand. Happy out.
The only training that had to be done was training mama and dada to pick up her cues early enough. Himself jokes that I could hear her whisper the word ‘pee pee’ from the other end of the house. If she hadn’t been to the loo for over an hour and half I’d gently start pestering the poor child. ‘Need to do pee pee?’ ‘Remember you’re wearing a knickers love.’ Of course there were a few little accidents, mostly when she was too excited, busy or tired to notice what was going on.

About six weeks on Primrose was going through an emotional time. She was going to bed a lot earlier with all the running around she was doing in the sunshine and she wasn’t getting to see her daddy in the evening. She asked for nappies again and wore them for about two weeks until she was happy and secure in her world again.

When we go on long car trips I’ll ask her if she wants a nappy. Usually she doesn’t but if she’s very sleepy she’ll wear one.
She continues to wear a nappy at night time and I trust that she’ll let me know when she’s ready to go without it.

In the meantime I’ll have to tune in some more to her little sisters toilet cues. At the moment this frazzled mama is relying on her two year old who’ll come running in.’B need a potty.’ or ’ B did a poo already.’ Now where is that roll of duct tape.........

Getting out there

Sometimes being a stay at home mum requires you to get off your butt and get out and meet new people.

Yesterday I found myself pushing open an unmarked door in our local shopping centre and entering a room full of mums and babies. Mums and babies I didn’t know (deep breath, smile, they’re all here to meet people). It was a gathering held by Cuidiú, the Irish Childbirth Trust, to celebrate National Breastfeeding Week.
I was nervous to say the least; I could only hope I wouldn’t come across as a total weirdo! Then I spotted another mum with a sling and she looked familiar. I recognised her from her profile picture on a Babywearing forum (sounds a bit stalkerish, I know). I tentatively approached, and not knowing her real name asked, ‘Are you Mrs. t?’
‘Yes,' she replied, smiling.
‘I’m tinygreenmama.’
'Oh, hi.'
So superhero identities confirmed we exchanged real names and chatted about babies and slings and she introduced me to all the other babywearers.
Then it was time to change Primrose's nappy, so I found a quiet corner near the door amongst the buggies and bags. Midway through the process another mum came over.
‘Oh, you use cloth too!’
And I then spent a happy 15 minutes nerding out on nappy talk.
By the time I had to leave to collect Buttercup from her play date with granny I had organised for us to join the Cuidiú group for family swimming sessions.

I’m so glad I braved it yesterday. It can be quite an isolated existence as a stay at home mum in this society and getting out and making connections feels good. We are social creatures and need to share experiences and learn from others. Us mums can be such a great support to each other when we get together. It’s getting through the initial nervous introductions and overcoming the fear of rejection that’s the tough bit.

Thank you Ciudiú, Mrs T, the babywearers, fellow nappy nerd mum and all of you who helped this tinygreenmama feel welcome.

Using cloth nappies

Our experience is of using onesize pocket nappies. We bought 12 before Buttercup was born, a nappy bucket with a sealing lid, a mesh bag for the bucket and a roll of paper liners to use inside the nappies to catch the poo, so it could be flushed down the loo. We used compostable disposables for hospital and the first week or so and then switched to cloth nappies.
We soon purchased some more nappies, and a second bucket, and found 24 a good number, meaning we only had to put on a wash on every third day and it was a full wash.
Storing and cleaning the nappies isn’t as icky as people imagine. Using the paper liners means that all the solids can be flushed, then the nappy is stored in the mesh bag in the dry sealed bucket (add a little tea tree oil or lavender to the bucket if you wish) until wash time. Believe me this smells a lot less than a bin of disposables full of poo!
To wash, just lift out the mesh bag and bung bag and all into the washing machine. Follow the washing instructions on the nappy but usually 60deg with a tiny bit of washing powder (and maybe some tea tree) does the job.
We dry our nappies on a clothes horse and they’re dry in a day. We do usually put a few in the hot press too for more immediate use.
Buttercup is now 15 months and the only further purchases we made were four extra inserts (the absorbent cores or boosters) as we double up on inserts at night now. She’s also using the potty a lot now so we only need to purchase a few extra for number 2, and if we’d planned it better we could have just passed them on, as the ones we have are still in very good condition.