Ever since I had Squally, I felt like I had let myself down because we didn’t use cloth diapers with her. I wanted to, but since I wasn’t sure where my help was going to come from and that I was already set on breastfeeding, I didn’t want to make obtaining childcare, if we needed it, any more difficult. Guilty is a pretty good word to describe how I felt about not cloth diapering, because I’m all about natural parenting and being economical and resourceful; on the contrary, I felt obligated to comprise and I am much more passionate about breastfeeding!
I said all of that to say this: when I started blogging about our potty training journey, I got quite a few recommendations to just use cloth diapers instead of pull-ups. Although I had heard that before, I wasn’t exactly eager to build of a cloth diapering stash for a child who shouldn’t be potty training that long, but after several long nights thinking about it and stressing myself about the next best thing to try, I remember this store called Bohemian Baby in the West Town Mall here in Knoxville and decided to check out some cloth diapers in person, rather than looking online. That’s where I first saw the training pants that look like panties slightly more padding. I asked one of the associates several thousand questions about them and finally bought three– but if I planned on being serious with these, I would need at least 8-12 to get us through one day, and still need a cloth diaper or disposable pull-up for naps and nights.
Over the next couple of weeks, I continued researching cloth diapering and pricing and catching sales and ordering more training pants. And as of this Wednesday past, we made the switch: Blueberry Training Pants during the day at home, Grovia All in One cloth diapers for daily outings, and Grovia One cloth diapers for overnights. Just making the switch made me feel more in control of my baby’s upbringing, because I was finally diapering her the way I so chose!
Buttttt day one was a pissy, poopy mess! And I have to take a lot of the blame for that. The instructions on the blueberry trainers says to wash them 4-6 times before use to increase absorbency, definitely- I did not do that and we struggled more because of it, but Squally is also only 14 months, so no real damage done because of it.
Wednesday we went to the mall, where she immediately peed through her training pants, so we switched to a cloth diaper and changed outfits and that was perfect. We went through several more pairs of training pants when we finally got home, but she used the pop more Wednesday than she has our entire 2 months long potty training journey! (Seems like forever right- not wrong) Friday, we drove to Memphis, so active potty training was put on hold for a while, but she seemed much more comfortable in her fluffy Grovia cloth diaper and was much more compliant for this drive than she has been for others! She also started waiting to use the pot when we got to our destination and went less than Wednesday. Is that a real improvement, no, not really, but everything is progress and I love it! Saturday was another day spent mostly out of the house, so she was mostly in cloth diapers and didn’t spent much time on the pot, but I’m telling y’all, this already happy baby seems even happier without her disposable pull ups!
I still have so much learning to do about adjusting the cloth diapers and the best way to wash them and changing in public and the many other unpredictable parenting chronicles, but I can’t even begin to put into words how empowered I feel by making the switch to cloth diapers and training pants. Call me crazy, but there’s something strangely satisfying about scrubbing breastfed baby poop out of diapers!
