Month 5: Rollin’ Rollin’ Rollin’ – Day 128

Compare to Sister’s Blog:  Month 5:  We Have Mobility

The trick to EC in a mei tai is to respect the wake up wiggle and do not wait!

6/30 Day 128 S:   We are in the midst of rolling blackouts due to the force of the storm!    I am not prepared for a week with no electricity and I only brought half of my flats which are easiest to hand launder if necessary.   Let’s hope it doesn’t last as long as that.  Thank goodness for EC!   Even if I catch only half of the expulsions that is a lot of diapers saved!

It was hot yesterday but today it is 95 and humid with no air conditioning or fans.   Yikes.     I caught the 5AM pee when MM and I made a mutual pit stop.   It was a very good night and I only used two diapers! Itty Bitty was very restless in the night again.     Early rise at 7AM and a series of cluster misses, but we used the same prefold back up from 10:30 AM to 7PM!        Potty opps were given after naps and about every 45 minutes if not in the mei tai (I know it seems a lot but it isn’t, all the extra nursing makes for unpredictable pee!) when awake if he didn’t fall asleep first.    We spent a brief time at the farm and most of the day at Daddy Man’s Sister #2’s house because she lived near an electric substation and thus had power and air conditioning in this heat.   IB got to play with four of her cousins (three were elsewhere) aged 10, 6, 5, and 3.    IB was drinking so much water and had three epic pees.  She’s been asking for help to use “non home” toilets without an insert.   Her cousins kept her busy but she had no problems stopping play.   I made sure, though, to show her where the bathroom is whenever we go someplace new and always suggest a potty break when we arrive or before we leave as a precaution.  I respect the no if it is given.

Back at Home Base (the home of Daddy Man’s now deceased grandmother on his mother’s side) we got power back on at 8pm.   I immediately did a load of diaper laundry that I had already begun to soak for a hand wash because I was afraid it would go out again after the next storm predicted for that evening.   I wanted to be sure I was well stocked for a week without power just in case.    There were already crazy lines at the only working gas station for miles and Daddy Man’s family had to go on quite a trek that day to find gas and a place to eat earlier in the day (Daddy Man’s Mom, Uncle, brother, and brother’s girlfriend).

Month 5: Rollin’ Rollin’ Rollin’ – Day 127

Compare to Sister’s Blog:  Month 5:  We Have Mobility
See related entry from Sister’s Blog:    Month 3:  Traveling and Night Pottying, Month 9:  Increased Capacity (same trip made but not mentioned for some strange reason), Month 22:  TNT.

Don’t let the cuteness fool you. It was not a sleep-full night for Mommy.  I got up to go the bathroom and my center spot was suddenly not there.

6/29 Day 127 F:   At 5:30 MM woke me up for a giant pee.  I took him to the toilet because I had to go myself, then we went back to bed.  I missed the next two wees but I had the bed lined with towels and my wee pad so it wasn’t problem despite him being soaked.  We had the world’s worst continental breakfast at the Howard Johnson at 9AM and were on the road by 9:45AM.   At our first stop at around 12:00 we caught a pee.

We missed the pee at our lunch stop and Cabellas visit around 2:30PM.    We were making good time until we got stuck in road construction and had a miss because of the delay at our scheduled stop.   We also added an extra 30 minutes to our trip because of severe thunderstorms and Daddy Man took a longer route to stay ahead of it.   We, of course, had a soaked baby but we made it with five minutes to spare at around 6:30pm before the storm hit.

Even though MM was soaked he had a toilet pee just before we lost power and we missed the poop as G-Ma was holding him.       Itty Bitty had no problems, no meltdowns, and no accidents–she either slept, talked, sang, played with the hand held movie viewer, or played with her leap pad for the whole trip.  She spent the evening playing with old classic trucks that had belonged to G-Ma’s brother who pulled them out for her.    We spent an hour in the cellar in case the 70MPH winds decided to take out the bay windows and then we ate the best gas station corner subs I’ve ever had.    Small town!

Month 5: Rollin’ Rollin’ Rollin’ – Day 126

Compare to Sister’s Blog:  Month 5:  We Have Mobility
See related entry from Sister’s Blog:    Month 3:  Traveling and Night Pottying, Month 9:  Increased Capacity (same trip made but not mentioned for some strange reason), Month 22:  TNT.

6/28 Day 126 R:  (The entries from Jun 28 to Jul 8 have been copied and backdated from a handwritten travel log due to severe thunderstorms that caused rolling blackouts.)

Today I prepared for our annual car trip to Ohio that will take about 14 hours beginning with errands and then packing before we left.  This time we are planning to start in the evening to take full advantage of sleep hours.  I caught two very large morning pees after a long night of misses, then Mini Moose stayed dry for our errands at the mall (he was in the mei tai) and had a nice wee in the toilet when we returned.   By the way, quite by accident I discovered one or two weeks ago when I forgot the travel potty seat that Itty Bitty has grown physically large enough and developed enough strength to use any big toilet without a seat reducer if she is help to get on it.   She has not attempted to climb onto and use the toilet without the reducer on her own however.  After our errands, I decided that the best thing was to get all the monkey energy out and we spend the late morning and early afternoon outside.   I let Mini Moose wet down a nice bush twice.

Anyway, I missed all the “on the floor to play” wees while I was packing.  He just pees more when he is down there and I was running about trying to remember everything.   EC gear packed:    In our clean 8 gallon diaper pail with a large Bumgenius liner, put in our Free and Clear 7th Generation detergent and little Bjorn to save space.  I washed all of our regular laundry (so I don’t have to come home to laundry beasts), prefolds and flats and packed them in the kid’s shared suitcase along with two of my homemade wee pads.   I also brought our two semi-water resistant picnic blankets and potty bowl.

And…I found the missing potette potty, so now I have two and I found the missing favorite jacket that would have been perfect this past spring.  Where?   In my husband’s suitcase!     Do we even need to list all the reasons why that irritates me despite the fact that I probably put them in there last trip because my suitcase is smaller?

Getting out some monkey energy…

After we switched and reinstalled car seats for maximum comfort (and safety of course), did a mental checklist, left a key for the cat sitter, and had a potty break we left at 8pm which was an hour later than we planned.    G-Ma and Uncle were coming along also following us.  None of us has a car that is big enough for four adults and two car seats.   Mini Moose slept and stayed dry for our first regular rest stop which was at 10:30.  I took both Mini Moose (MM) and Itty Bitty (IB) to the ladies room and both had very big pees.   Our second regular stop was at 12:30pm and MM was asleep and dry upon arrival.   I went to get a snack and while I was gone MM woke up and Daddy Man took him out of the seat but didn’t take him to pee, so I returned to a sopping wet baby.  IB didn’t need to go.  At 2:30 we made another usual, scheduled stop but MM had awoke 20 – 30 minutes prior and was wet by the time we arrived.

At 3:30 AM we made our planned stop at a Hampton Inn (our favorite since they are very clean have an awesome self-made waffle station and breakfast buffet) but they had no vacancy!   We ended up staying at a Howard Johnson and the rooms left something to be desired (I’ve only stayed in one worse motel) and the continental breakfast was horrible (too sweet instant package oatmeal and coffee that can put hair on a floor).   IB and MM had nice big wees before we immediately went to bed (double beds).   IB didn’t want to sleep with Daddy Man and so I had both sleep with me.

Month 5: Rollin’ Rollin’ Rollin’ – Day 125

Compare to Sister’s Blog:  Month 5:  We Have Mobility

**SQUEE!** Baby Feet!

6/27 Day 125 w:  Our 7AM wake-up call today was the laying of tar.  Isn’t that special?    Yeah, that’s what I thought to.    On less homicidal thought lines. Mini Moose was dry all night long from 12:30AM to 7:00AM!   Daddy Man said he peed a ton before bringing him upstairs for the night and Moose refused a pottytunity at 12:30 and at 3:30 choosing to nurse exclusively instead.   I was dumbfounded.  He had a sizeable first morning wee, I missed the second, caught the next two, and missed the last.    His pees, I am guessing were 10-20 minutes apart — Itty Bitty had the same morning cluster pees.   I assume once the night hormone wears off the kidneys immediately make up for it.

I don’t expect this to happen every night, but it should likely be like growth spurts.

We are leaving for our annual Ohio trip tomorrow.  We are going to try a night journey this time to take advantage of long snoozes.  I’ve got a lot of packing to do and I planned o start today but decided to take the kids on a play date.   We went to see our new friends who live 5 minutes away after I ran an errand for work.   Mini Moose was dry for 2 hours for that errand.  I was sure he was going to be wet by the time we arrived to play since he refused a potty break in the car and I was gobsmacked that he wasn’t.    I immediately took them both to the bathroom peeing Mini Moose first before showing Itty Bitty how to use their toilet system.

I don’t think I mention it often enough how important it is to show a potty learned toddler where the facilities are in someone’s house and to show them how to use their set up.    For example, at our New Friends’ house they have a built in toilet reducer which Itty Bitty has never seen, a smaller step stool, and a lower sink with completely different taps.    Itty Bitty is still inexperienced with all of the toileting options so it is important to bring them to her attention when they come up.     I realized early on that accidents she had having over another friend’s house when she was under 20 months old were due to not “knowing the lay of the land.”

We had two toilet wees for mi i moose, a couple of belly pees, and a lap wee on a prefold (an expected prepared for miss).   New Friend expressed great excitement over the vast improvement of her son’s diaper rash, and how fun it has been so far.   I don’t think she believes she can get to the point we are currently in because she doesn’t really get to see our 125 days of mutual learning.   She’s still nervous about wee, but beginning to see how the “changing table” routine take a lot more time than holding a lightly dressed baby up to pee in a bowl, toilet, or prefold on a mat.      Even if she decides to stop, she will always be much more aware of when her baby goes even in a diaper!     Yay, EC!

Oh, the rest of our day was 50/50 hits and misses.  My misses were when I put him down to fetch our suitcases and travel gear, and our hits were the nice big after nap and after feed wees.

 

Month 5: Rollin’ Rollin’ Rollin’ – Day 124

Compare to Sister’s Blog:  Month 5:  We Have Mobility

Mini Moose is usually naked all day, but when he’s on my lap feeding and feel I might miss the wake up wee or we are having a long nursing session and he didn’t go beforehand, I use an unsecured prefold and a wee pad as a precaution.

6/26 Day 124 T:   I hate road construction at 7am.   Anyway, Happy Poop Day!    Mini Moose doesn’t poop on a schedule, rather it is Russian Roulette.   He was gassy yesterday and most of this morning so I knew it was on the horizon.     Having learned my lesson, I avoided the poop chair and made sure I had a prefold on my lap.      He was happily sitting on my lap this way while I was reading a blog post from Happy Hooligans and my nose registered that unique scented breastfed baby fart.   It’s not foul — I hesitate to say pleasant– but distinctive.  Just as the scent was rousing me from my reading stupor, he tensed his abs (I was holding him around his middle with my hand) and…     POW!    AGGGH!      Indeed, I yelp and he stopped going.     Boy was I glad I prepared!   It was quite a lot and some got on my pants, but 99% of it was on the prefold.   I had a feeling he wasn’t done so I put him on the potty bowl and caught the other half!       Zounds!

I am not sure if I conveyed the magnitude of what came out of his behind.     Had this been done in a diaper (cloth or not) it would have been one of those EPIC blowouts.  The ones that end up between toes, in hair, in ears, and under fingernails!        A teaspoon of plop on my pants was a piddly price to pay the Poop Piper.      (check that alliteration).          I cleaned up the mess on one of his butt cheeks with one cloth wipe and threw my already dirty pants into the wash that was currently going!  Yes, I am still trying to tame the laundry beast.

Our pee catches were 80/20 in favor of catches!    Most of them were after nap wees and after a super-long nurse wees.   The ones we missed were from belly time and when Daddy Man came home.      Oh, I think I forgot to mention yesterday that Daddy Man had insisted on me diapering Mini Moose before handing him over and Mini Moose wiggle wiggle wiggled until he created a pee tunnel in the prefold, felt the breeze, aimed, and fired.    So…Daddy Man got peed on anyway.   If I did well it is always funny to mention it again.   Hahaha!        We also had a small poop deployment just before bed (around 11pm).    Mini Moose doesn’t poop more than once every few days so it was a surprise.    A small pittance, hardly worth noting except that it was totally unexpected.  He had on a secured prefold on the floor at the time being watched by Daddy Man while I was folding laundry.

And sakes alive, Itty Bitty is Cling Wrap!    In my face, up my butt, on my leg, in my ear…  I thinks she’s trying to crawl back into my uterus! On top of that Mini Moose has been marathon nursing.   Maybe tomorrow we’ll go out to play.

Month 5: Rollin’ Rollin’ Rollin’ – Day 123

Compare to Sister’s Blog:  Month 5:  We Have Mobility

Diaperless in a Onesie

6/25 Day 123 M:   Big thunderstorms todayand I didn’t get my car until 3:00pm, but they dropped it of for me!  It turned out to be a faulty battery despite it being new.   Price tag stung a but but not the 500 smackers it could have been!

We  were awoken at 7am by the gravel leveler shaking the whole house, the wired toddler and cranky pants baby.   Really, EC seemed to be the only thing that wasn’t falling to pieces!   Only  a handful of small misses, and caught enormous after nap pees.   I managed to get regular laundry done (by done I mean the two loads I did, not the whole of it)and had the Destructo Girl help me make blueberry muffins in the middle of the day.   Yeah, we had muffins for lunch.   She ate three and then passed out on the couch with one muffin bite still in her hands.  I nursed Naked Boy until he fell asleep, and I got to take a cat nap!

Itty Bittuy got to amuse herself with a bin of rocks, some water, plastic eggs, silk leaves, and plastic dinosaurs.   I put down my favorite picnic blanket and a big bath towel on top of it so that she could have water play without my worrying about the floor.   She was very busy for a couple of hours.

Month 5: Rollin’ Rollin’ Rollin’ – Day 122

Compare to Sister’s Blog:  Month 5:  We Have Mobility

Because he likes to find his own spot. A hot day and a cool breeze on the tush…what’s not to like?

6/24 Day 122 Su:   I should find out the state of my car tomorrow, Daddy Man is out visiting a friend and I’m housebound.   For all our sakes, we spent all day outside.   Mini Moose was naked all day long until Daddy Man came home.   I left a naked baby on the play mat, took a nice shower, actually got to groom and preen, and when I came back out he was in a secured flat.   Daddy Man is a potty woosie.

Since Mini Moose was on his belly a lot, we had a lot of belly wees.  Nothing we can do about that right now until his muscles get stronger.   If he is on his back, I angle him on the picnic blanket so that his apparatus is aimed at the lawn and if on his belly I put a few prefolds under him.  He moves quite a distance with is wiggle wiggle wiggles so I have to keep replacing it.   I had a chance to type up a guest blog for Attachedmoms.com (it took all day–sometimes one handed–and even though I proofread, I am mortified at how many typos I missed).   No poops were deployed today, but we got the huge after nap pees just fine.

A few times last night he woke me up with his weewee kicks and he was dry.  Unfortunately, I keep falling back to sleep and then he wakes me up more urgently for a wet change.   When he wakes up he has to go right away and can’t wait.  My sleep cobwebs are thick!   I am sure that in the next month he’ll develop the sphincter strength.     I might try training pants to see if that helps us both.   I want to keep him diaper free all  night like when he was brand new, but his penis, bigger bladder, and back sleeping is a problem of sprinkler proportions.

Itty Bitty spent her time playing with the neighbor boy.  I allowed her a bit more wandering freedom between our two yards (no fence) because I can see between foliage breaks and hear them.  We have big yards.  Unfortunately, the 7 year old lacks any sort of judgement or attentiveness so he doesn’t look out for her like Daddy Man’s niece does on visits.  Itty Bitty follows him like a shadow and they wandered behind the neighbor’s shed and…     Itty Bitty sent up the FREAK ALARM.   With a sleeping Mini Moose in my arms I jumped off my shady beach chair, slid on the picnic blanket, sprinted across our lawn, leaped between two bushes, raced across their yard, and sprinted barefoot on rough gravel behind their shed.   I was ready to encounter blood, sprained ankle, deal with a bee sting or tear the throat of a prowling jaguar!

She calmed down when she saw me enough to make sense.    It turned out to be a huge sticky, dirty web.    I explained that,”this was why I said to stay where mommy can see you!”     Had I been able to see I could have judged the level of response better.    Mini Moose slept through it all…geeze!      The Neighbor Boy felt responsible I think and even though I said nothing to him and assured him she was okay– he slinked back into his house muttering about needing to take a bath!  I decided that was a good idea and took Sniffles into the house and let her decompress in the bathtub.   She amused herself with scrubbing the dirt out of  her nails with a nail brush for an hour.

Month 5: Rollin’ Rollin’ Rollin’ – Day 121

Compare to Sister’s Blog:  Month 5:  We Have Mobility

Adored by sister

6/23 Day 121 S:    I am so not liking the new wakeup hour.    A rise and shine of 7:30 for us is like 5:30 for most people.  When you work late evenings and go to bed late it makes sense.  I am best rested between 9 and 10am based on my current work schedule and routine.    I’ll get through it okay.  I just don’t like it is all.

That said.  Big smiles greet me every morning and our weekend began as usual with Daddy Man going out and bringing back blueberry muffins and “coffee”  (hot chocolate actually…but we call it coffee for the sake of Itty Bitty who gets good old morning agua).    We had a big wee catch just after getting up for the day and then we saw a matinee of Pixar’s Brave.    Ooooo it was goooood!   I looooooved it!    I was giddy like an 8 year old.  Technically it wasn’t Itty Bitty’s very first movie, but the first we’ve brought her two where she could understand it.   She giggled at the opening scene and then was restless.     Mini Moose slept, nursed, and was happy to watch the lights and drooled when awake.  I agreed to let GrandMaMa get her a not pretzel, though in the dark of the theater it was Daddy Man who discovered as we were leaving that it was a cinnamon sugar, not plain.    Ack!    Naughty Grandmama!   If we can’t get a plain we get a salted and flick the salt off.    Might as well give the girl a sugar bowl to lick with the Cinnamon Sugar one.   Le Sigh.        Grandmama bought us lunch and then we went home with Destructo Girl.

I was so distracted I forgot to give the poor boy a proper potty break, but we soiled only one diaper and we got back on track after his nap when we got home.      So not a big day for catches, but we did catch big ones and didn’t sweat the small stuff.

Month 5: Rollin’ Rollin’ Rollin’ – Day 120

Compare to Sister’s Blog Month 5:  We Have Mobility

Watching the storm rolling in.

6/22 Day 120 F:   Another hot one!   Had to have my car towed to a mechanic…alternator trouble, so we are housebound.   Mini Moose was left free all day and we had huge after nap catches and the baby-on-floor misses were numerous but quite small piddles.   We missed the lava poop, but I had his naked bottom on top of a prefold while I was eating dinner — a burrito Daddy Man brought–so it was a miss I was prepared for and only had to clean a little off his but cheeks and a thigh.  I had only two bites left and I was going to potty him properly, but the boy couldn’t wait.     Oh, well.   Preparation miss better than a miss unawares any day!

We had some severe thunderstorms and Itty Bitty and I watched it rolling in and she even played in it a bit until I saw lighting start.   I showed her how to count between flashes and rumbles.     It was such a nice breeze.   I lay Mini Moose on the kitchen floor while I brought a few things back inside and set Itty Bitty up to watch the storm in a window.  When I got back he had shimmied away from where I left him and fell asleep on the kitchen carpet laying on his side.  I guess the breeze from the door felt good on his bare tush!

Month 5: Rollin’ Rollin’ Rollin’ – Day 119

Compare to Sister’s Blog Month 5:  We Have Mobility

Ready for night. Two homemade wee pads, easy off flat with snappi / no cover.   Potty bowl off to the side next to more flats.

6/21 Day 119 R (Week 17):    Well, Happy Summer Solstice!    Hmm…well according to the data, it was actually yesterday.   Oops.

We are up early again today.  Bleaurgh.    It was an okay night.  We were cool from the air conditioner, but MIni Moose was up quite often to nurse and pee (we missed them all and he was soaking).  He must have been making up for the hot day and our busy play date.   Really our fist official playdate!   It was so hot still that I wasn’t going to invite anyone over, but luckily a new friend with a boy and a girl the same age as my spawn called last night and asked if she could come over.    I was so happy!

We were outside for maybe an hour but came in because it was hot.  The girls were happy playing in the giant sandbox built by Daddy Man under our big shade trees, but even they were happy to seek the coolness of the house.  I gave them a rock sensory box, some chalk and board, dry erase puzzle and markers, and frozen bananas.   Of course, their personalities were a little incompatible and that result in Itty Bitty getting bitten and conked in the head with a toy (tough cookie didn’t tell me she’d been bitten, her new friend admitted to doing it and there was a deep tooth mark in her finger).   Itty Bitty is very affectionate and is a Space Invader (hahahaha) and the other girl likes her Personal Space.  Itty Bitty hasn’t encountered aggressive rejections of her overtures of hugs and kisses and pats and hand holding and overall “in your space” behaviors.    I’ve had to talk to her daily about giving Mini Moose some breathing room because she wants to kiss him, pat him, hug him, sing to him, and has discovered she can make him laugh.       Of course, I’m not happy my Baby Girl got hurt, but at the same time it is an important lesson for her to learn about boundaries, reading body language, and accepting “no thank you” for an answer without crushing her loving spirit.

We got to demonstrate some EC and Mommy’s New Friend was surprised at how easy and casual it seemed.   We had two small misses and a catch.  Though it was a half catch since Itty Bitty startled him and he didn’t get to finish until 5 minutes later.    After they left, he fell asleep and had a huuuuuge pee after he woke that we caught.  The rest of the evening was 50/50.  This heat is just messing with timing.