Potty Training "Boot Camp"

OHHHHHH potty training. I had a HUGE love/hate relationship with the idea of starting you. I HATED to admit that my "baby" girl was already at this point in her life, but I LOVED the idea that we would soon be diaper free! (hahaha - did I say "soon"?!)

Around Sept of 2012 Miss K started showing signs of "readiness" for potty training, but there was absolutely NO way in heck that Derek and I were about to tackle such a huge project like that with her, just before a huge move across the state of Washington. We were up to our eyeballs in boxes and bubble wrap, adding potty training to the mix may have just put off the deep end. We told ourselves, after we move and get settled, we're going to start potty training her no matter what. Well, we got settled, then it was Christmas. We couldn't possibly handle potty training during such a busy time of traveling around, celebrating and not being able to give our child our full attention to accomplish such a big task. Once Christmas was over, then it was "as soon as we buy the next big box of diapers, we'll start talking to Miss K about potty training and get her ready. After a few months of buying new big boxes of diapers, along Miss K's 3rd birthday QUICKLY approaching, we knew we were making excuses.

Around March, we decided to just do it. We NEEDED to start the process of potty training. I did so much research, that I'm pretty sure everyone around me was getting sick of the fact that it was all I could talk about. What potty we should get, to what techniques we thought we might try, to oooooing and ahhhing over all the cute underwear out there that we could buy her. Out of all the research I did, the method that everyone seemed to rave about was "potty training in one weekend", or what I like to call "Potty Training Boot Camp". The main idea is that you have the potty with the child in every room, when something starts to happen, race the kiddo to the potty and by the time the weekend is over, they are suppose to understand the basic concept of what it's all about. Of course, there is A LOT more to it than what I just mentioned, but for the sake of not writing a novel within a novel, that's the jist of it ;-)

Here's the breakdown of how it all went...

Potty Training Prep
The weekend before we decided to do the boot camp, we had purchased THIS book for Miss K (which ended up being one of the best books I could find because she could really relate to it), talked to her all the time about how she's going to start using the big girl potty soon, etc. Then I got all the potties clean, stickers for rewards were ready, house vacuumed, area rugs were rolled up and stored away, and every night that week my mind was racing while lying in bed thinking of everything we still needed or forgot to tackle before the next three days began.

Day 1 of Boot Camp
Miss K woke up at 7:45am (which is not what I was hoping for, since Derek and I got NO sleep the night before because we were too anxious about it all). We stripped her down to nothing but her birthday suit because being bottomless was what the program recommended and K was going through an "I hate clothing" phase anyways, so naked was what we got. Next, we took her to the bathroom with us, showed her how it was done, celebrated when the adults used the potty, went through the steps (wipe, flush, wash hands, reward).

At breakfast, she sat on her potty seat while she watched Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood where it talks about "if you have to go potty, STOP, and go right away". We offered her any drink she would take to get fluids in her. Unfortunately, nothing happened in the potty during breakfast, which by then she was pretty done with the potty seat already and wanted to go play. She got up to play around and.....thank god for hardwood floors! She had her first accident. We tried racing her to the potty but we didn't make it fast enough to get even a tiny bit in there to make the potty sing to show her what happens. So, we went back to offering her all kinds of drinks - water, juice, milk, lots and lots of water. Then the waiting started again.

At 9:03am - first pee!!! This time we were ready and got her on the potty just in time for it to catch something! The look on her face was priceless when her potty started singing! PHEW! So far, so good. She thought it was hilarious.

At 10:07am - she ended up peeing on the floor so we raced her to the potty and out of no where she screamed so hard and we think it's because she thought sitting on the potty was a punishment or she was feeling anxious with us all watching her and wanted nothing more to do with what we had planned for her that day around potty training. We decided to stop immediately since we didn't want her to associate using the potty as a bad thing. I figured if we waited a couple weeks she would forget and not associate it with being bad anymore :(

We, not so patiently, waited those few weeks, NO ONE was allowed to mention anything about using the potty during that time and we tried again, but this time we didn't want to do the weekend boot camp. During those few weeks, anytime she has asked to sit on the potty, we humored her. However, the SECOND we would enter the bathroom, she's completely fall apart so we just told her that it was okay and that she didn't have to if she didn't want to, and we praised her for even telling us she wanted to try.

It was really hard to go through that because my husband and I felt that we failed miserably and we became disappointed in ourselves thinking we did so much wrong. We immediately started reaching out to other parents, friends, family members, asked for help on how to get ourselves out of this "hole" we created. My cousin gave us a DVD that she used with her toddler, she had a tough time potty training her daughter too so we gave it a try. Miss K liked it, but still could care less about toilets and what potty training was about. A week later we actually had a visit with Miss K's new pediatrician. She suggested that we just drop the subject with her altogether until SHE was ready, but at this point, she wasn't having it. I really hate to admit this, but I didn't really like that idea because Miss K turned 3 shortly after our first attempt and we both felt so pressured as parents to have a potty trained three year old. Thankfully we were reassured that it wasn't uncommon for girls to not potty train until almost 4 years of age.

While we waited, the guilt and pressure were killing us. There were moments where her 2 and 3 year old cousins that were potty trained were asking "why does she wear diapers" when they didn't. There were also our friends and family that wanted to have K over, or babysit but we couldn't bring ourselves to let anyone watch her because we didn't want them to have to deal with changing her poopy diapers. What we didn't anticipate was all of the support our friends and family gave us and how they helped encourage us that potty training happening at the age of three isn't unheard of and completely normal. A dear friend of mine had the best timing one day when I was feeling really defeated thinking I was going to have an unpotty trained preschooler for the rest of my life, shared this blog post she found from another mother and I died of laughter...

http://www.makeit-loveit.com/2011/10/potty-training-almost-sent-me-to-therapy.html

With my new found inspiration after reading that blog post, I was ready to tackle it all again when the time came!

ROUND TWO!
Well, it came WAY sooner and WAY more unexpectedly than we thought. I was at my sewing machine one afternoon when Miss K approached me, pointed to her diaper and said, "Mama, I pooped, change my butt". I said, "Okie dokie, let Mommy finish this one little part of her sewing and I will change you." It was almost like someone flipped a switch and she hit the floor and threw the biggest tantrum I've ever seen come out of her! It was shocking and kind of freaked me out because she'd never really done that before. It was at the very moment where I decided there was no more waiting until she initiated potty training. After our three year old told me when she went in her diaper AND had a super meltdown when I wouldn't immediately get up to change her when I was literally thirty seconds from getting out of my chair to do so, that night, we had a little ceremony where we told her diapers goodbye by throwing them in the garbage. I know our approach this time was a little "harsh" but there was just no way after that whole episode that we were going to wait until she told us she was ready. Once we "threw away" her diapers, I had a big discussion with her about how she's a big girl, that big girls wear underwear and use the potty. I asked her if she wanted to use her little singing potty or the BIG kid potty. She expressed interest only in the big potty. Just by her making that choice felt like progress.

As soon as Miss K went to bed, her Dad and I went into overdrive that night with a late night run to Walmart to get all the supplies and goodies we needed to start this adventure the next day. We actually started to have a lot of fun with it...so much fun, in fact...we're the kind of dorks that created "THE POTTY FAIRY!" Yes, The Potty Fairy. Like Santa, The Potty Fairy, left a present for Miss K to open the next morning when she woke up. It was genius! She thought it was the coolest thing ever that she was left a present from The Potty Fairy! And so potty training began....again!

What we did differently this time around.....

Instead of watching her like a hawk like we did the first time, we sat her on the potty every half hour or so. She was put in her brand new Angry Birds underwear during the entire day and wore pull ups at night, rather than just letting her run around bottomless and putting her in diapers again at night. Putting her in diapers at night was definitely not an option anymore since we said goodbye to them. There were a few times where she resisted and we still refused to force her, so we just stuck with what we were doing. Here is what our first day looked like...

Day 1 - Attempt #2 - late May 2013
Right when she woke up, she opened her gift from the PF and we explained every part of what was in the gift. She seemed super anxious to use her new potty seat that she received, it felt like we were off to a great start. She still initally resisted getting on the potty the first time, but after we bribed her with a new lap tray with brand new markers that she received for her 3rd birthday a few weeks prior, she decided sitting on the potty wasn't so bad if she had something to do.

Our Schedule:

- From 7:30am-10:45am we sat her on the potty about every 15 minutes but around the end of that time frame, she had her first accident of the day. She started to get a little upset, but we reassured her that it was OKAY, just to make sure that next time she let us know when she has to go.
- 11:00 am: Snacktime - gold fish crackers, raisans, banana
- 12:00pm: sat on the potty (we noticed her undies were a little damp, but that was all). Nothing happening during that potty visit.
- 12:40pm: sat on potty - nothing.
- 1:00pm: sat on the potty - nothing
- 1:25pm: another accident - I caught her midstream and I calmly sat her on the potty. She had a meltdown :-( For some reason, that meltdown was really hard for me to handle, I completely fell apart WITH her. I know I shouldn't have lost it like that and cried in front of her, but it really seemed to help us both at the time haha!
- 2:15pm: attempted to sit her on the potty again, she had insane meltdowns and tantrums for 45 minutes and NOTHING was calming her down. We hung out in the bathroom until she calmed herself down, she actually didn't even try to get off the potty during that whole time, I would have let her if she wanted to get off. Once she was done I immediately convinced her to get off because I'm sure her poor bum was totally sore. I felt like the WORST mom in the world for "doing this to her" even though I honestly just sat there when I realized nothing was helping. I was so upset thinking K was totally hating us for "torturing" her. I had another meltdown (out of sight) and I think we both needed another good cry because then at....
- 4:25: sat on the potty - SUCCESS!!!!!! We did a HUGE happy dance, celebrated, did the whole routine, she was so happy and proud of herself (and so was I haha!!).
- 5:10pm: accident
- 5:30pm: accident
- 6:00pm: dinner time
- 6:20pm: sat on the potty - nothing
- 6:40pm: sat on the potty - nothing
- 7:00pm: bedtime

Even though we only had one actual success on the potty that day, it was all that Miss K seemed to need. The next day, she hopped right out of bed, ran in to get us to tell us she needed to go potty! I was SO shocked that after just ONE day (a super rough day), that she was going to do that the next morning! It was like Christmas because Derek and I both jumped straight out of bed and ran to help her! It was great! After day one, every other day seemed like a cake walk. It took about 2 months of us talking to K about using the potty and getting her to learn about the sensation of having to use the bathroom when she had to go. I can honestly say that after 2 months of staying consistent and with lots of practice, Miss K totally had the concept and routine of potty training down. It was probably much sooner than that, but I'm being generous because I can't remember exactly how long it took.

Here we are, in August, and I'm relieved to report that our kiddo is POTTY TRAINED! Sure, we still have accidents every now and then depending on her mood but as of right now, the only time she has accidents are when she physically  just doesn't want to make the choice to get off her tooshie or come in the house when she's outside, to use the potty.

One other tid bit of information I wanted to share, that was shared with me, that I felt was so important to hear...DAYTIME and NIGHTTIME potty training are two COMPLETELY different concepts. Nighttime training usually takes a lot longer than daytime training. Most kids will usually have accidents at night well into elementary school. Training your body to use the bathroom at night is tough stuff for sure.

I hope that this insane novel of a post has helped someone out there that is either dreading the process or needing some encouragement because if you're struggling, YOU'RE NOT ALONE! It happens!!! I hope I didn't scare anyone about potty training but the biggest thing is to just be patient, expect ups and downs, and STAY CONSISTENT! It's all so very worth it and it gets to the point where all of you are celebrating all the time. I think the best part for me is when Miss K comes to "report" what she has done, and even though it's been a few months of training already, she still gets JUST as excited as she did on day one. It's adorable! It makes all those tough times seem like they were nothing.

I would love to hear any one's stories/fears/successes about their potty training journeys! You never know, there may be another Mama out there somewhere reading this that needs a little pick me up or some hope that she'll survive the process ;-)

I wanted to give a shout out to all of you that sat and listened to all the potty training talk I did (and still do from time to time), I know it wasn't easy, especially if you don't have kids haha! I'm sure this is how you felt....bahahaha! I still can't thank you enough for just listening, though!

Turning Daily Frustrations into Laughs

I'm not sure if it's "that age" where my almost three year old daughter has resorted to nothing but whining and crying as her main form of "communication" or if she's aware that in 6 short months she'll no longer be the only child, but this new behavior she's going through has definitely taken it's toll on our sanity. Don't get me wrong, I'm a Mom, I KNOW I'm a mother and what I signed up for and a little crying for Miss K here or there is NOT a big deal to us, it's expected since her communication skills are still evolving, but it's happening all. the. time. She's well fed, rested, interacted with often, etc. Again, I'm told it's "that age" but who really knows! ;-)

There are days where everything, and I literally mean EVERYTHING, will set her off into a tantrum or crying episode with me just standing there confused about why she's crying. A lot of times I'm frustrated because I HATE seeing her upset and not knowing what's wrong or the fact that she's already so upset she has a hard time telling me what's wrong but unfortunately we're not mind readers so we go through our list and "process of elimination" to try to help figure out what's wrong, but for those days we can't, I've been shown something that shines a little humor on this situation (I'll get to that in a minute).

An example of one of my daughter's meltdowns, today she fell apart because I wouldn't let her lick me. Yep, you read that right! LOL! 

My dear friend, Zoe, had the most amazing timing yesterday when I was feeling extra worn down by showing me the blog/site:

Reason's My Son Is Crying

And I'm SO happy she showed me because now I have a different view on my child's crying over the simplest things and this makes me want to start my own list of "Reason's My Daughter Is Crying". 

This site is a mother that has made a situation very similar to mine and turned it into something to laugh about!

Check it out for yourself! If you're a parent, you'll totally laugh and find yourself saying "YEP, my child TOTALLY does that!" ;-)

...and baby makes FOUR!!!

I'm BEYOND excited to announce that our little family is growing this year! We seriously couldn't be more excited for our daughter to be a BIG SISTER!! :-)

Instead of making NEW Resolutions....

I've decided that instead of making a whole new list of New Years Resolutions, I'm going to recommit to ones that I didn't quite accomplish in 2012! I'm having a hard time with the idea of making new ones when I didn't finish all of the old ones!

Here is my "new" list...

1) Recommit to my weight loss/fitness journey that I originally started back in May! Everyone can follow it at Cate Gets Fit!

2) Start tackling our debt with GAZELLE INTENSITY!! For those of you that are familiar with Dave Ramsey's program, you'll get this ;-)

3) Tackle a HUGE chunk of my 101 in 1001 list!

4) Spending more one on one time with my husband. This may seem like a "simple" one for a lot of people, but ever since we made our big move, the timing just hasn't allowed us to slow down and be with one another enough. We finally are getting into a grove of monthly date nights YAY! It's been SO long since we've had them on a regular basis! Love our time together when we are able to share it alone. 

To finish up this post, here are some of my "Greatest Hits" from 2012...

1. We made a HUGE move back to our hometown after living on our own away from family for 8 years.

2. Our "baby" became 2 years old.

3. My baby brother got married and a few months later announced that we were going to have a niece/nephew this year!

COOPER STUDIOS

4. My brother in law temporarily left us to serve in the US Army in Afghanistan.

5. My husband finished his college degree and walks this June. I'm SO proud of him!

There are SO many things that could have made the above list, but these are the ones that stick out the most.

Here's how we brought in the New Year:

I know, we're gross ;-)

Hope you all enjoyed celebrating the arrival of the New Year! May it be everything you hope for!!! :-)

Where are the Mom's!?

Admit it, most of you don't like having your picture taken...ESPECIALLY after just having a baby. I'm admitting it! Yes, more often than not, I'm shying away from cameras. When you become a Mother, it can be SO easy to get carried away with taking TONS of pictures of your kiddos doing everything. My poor child knew what a camera was and what to do when there was one in the room when she was just months old (whoops!) because I took it EVERYWHERE with us.

Someone shared this post with me and it brought me to tears.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/allison-tate/mom-pictures-with-kids_b_1926073.html#slide=1601547

I am guilty of being that Mom/person that didn't want her photo taken when I felt like I was an eyesore to the world.

And it's not just Mom's that are guilty of this. Dad's are too, but in a different way. Sometimes it's a struggle to get my hubby behind a camera because he doesn't like posing for pictures but he's a champ and humors me (I love you babe!).

I've made it my mission to be more vulnerable and get IN FRONT of the camera more and more instead of being the one behind it missing all the action. So, here's my husband and I, getting behind the camera more with our daughter. I hope this helps inspire some of you to do that same. Our babies grow up WAY to fast for us to be worrying how we look in pictures, instead we just need to let go and HAVE FUN with our kids to make some amazing memories! Our children could series care less about what we look like, start taking some photos! If you do, I'd love to see yours :-)

What I've Learned: Cloth Diapers

When I first started blogging back in July 2010 shortly after my daughter was born, a lot of what I started blogging about was my journey of switching to cloth diapers.

The decision we made to cloth diaper was extremely fast. Miss K was just two months old we decided that we wanted to get her in cloth as soon as possible so I just started ordering diapers that we could afford rather than what "the best ones" out there were. If you weren't following my blog back then, here are all my posts about cloth diapering if you wanted to see what my entire first experience was like OR if you're considering cloth diapering for your household, I have SO many posts with awesome info too! :-) I have my post listed below, in order (including cloth diaper reviews I did):

*If you don't want to read these posts, just skip down to "Lesson Learned #1: Research More About Cloth Diaper Brands*

My Journey of Switching to Cloth Diapers

Cloth Diaper Update #1

Cloth Diapers: Let's Get Started!

Cloth Diapers - Day 1

Sustainable Hemp Products Cloth Diaper Review

Cloth Diaper Update #2

Leg Warmers....Cloth Diaper's Favorite Accessory

Banana Bottoms Cloth Diaper Review and Giveaway
*Giveaway is CLOSED

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{Lesson Learned #1: Research More About Cloth Diaper Brands}

I don't 100% regret not taking the time to do more research on different brands, but this time we've definitely taken more time and care into researching.

The first time around, a huge portion of our stash were Nubunz diapers.

At the time, these diapers were the most appealing because they were only $8.00 each brand new or about $5.00 for "seconds" diapers and we loved the different color options. I ordered about 20 of them since the price was so reasonable. Unfortunately, these diapers maybe last a year. Maybe they fell apart because I did something wrong (after all, we WERE newbies at cloth diapering) but I strictly followed the care instructions and the PUL material in almost all of them started to get holes, leak, or detach from the outside fabric of the diaper making it almost impossible to put the terrycloth inserts in them. If it wasn't the PUL material falling apart, the next issue we had was, what I like to call, the "perma-stink" issue. When you use cloth diapers, after some time some of the diapers tend to start smelling and this is usually when the diapers need to be "stripped" to help get rid of the excess soap build up and what not. I stripped the diapers a few times and the smell remained. Sometimes switching cloth diaper detergent helps, but even after I did that, and received tons of help from the customer service reps at Rockin' Green Cloth Diaper Detergent (which to this very day is still my all time favorite CD detergent and you serious CANNOT beat the service you get from this company)...I couldn't get rid of the smell.

The reason I don't 100% regret purchasing Nubunz diapers is because even though they didn't last the entire time we cloth diapered Miss K, we still felt we got our money's worth out of $8.00 diapers. To only spend around $190 for a year's worth of cloth diapers vs spending WAY more for disposables for a 3 month old....I'd do it again tomorrow! haha!

The cloth diaper brands that I purchased that I still love more than ever to this day are the ones from Sustainable Hemp Products, Banana Bottoms, and Thirsties Duo Wraps.

Brands that we're interested in trying out that we've done more research on: Fuzzibunz, Charlie Banana, Rumparooz Lil' Joey Diapers, GroVia, and bumGenius diapers.

{Lesson Learned #2: One Size Diapers Aren't Really Newborn Friendly}

Miss K has really skinny legs from when she was a newborn until she was about 6 months old when she FINALLY started to fill into her one size diapers. We had quite a few leaky days and nights before her little thighs got big enough :-) I had a few friends and other cloth diaper Mama's tell me about newborn diapers. The biggest complaint I found about newborn diapers was the investment people were making in newborn diapers when kiddos weren't in them for very long, however it's still a much easier purchase to make because newborns go through the most diapers. Most newborn cloth diapers only go up to 12lbs and with the rapid weight gain the little ones have during that age, it doesn't leave much time to use newborn diapers.

{Lesson Learned #3: Purchase TWO Sets of Wetbags}

I had only purchased one hanging wet bag to store dirty diapers in at home and only one travel wetbag. The problem I faced immediately was that every time I had to wash the wetbags, I had nothing to put dirty diapers in for hours while I waited for the bags to dry :-( So I'm definitely going to be purchasing a second set so that this doesn't happen again. My hubby and I weren't too pleased about dealing with the smell of dirty diapers when we didn't have a wetbag to put them in ;-) 

.::What We're Doing Differently Next Time Around::.

#1 - Cloth Diapering From Birth

Since we had never thought about possibly using cloth diapers, we didn't get to start cloth diapering until Miss K was a little over 3 months old. For us, cloth diapering was not only about saving money but about not wanting the chemicals in disposable diapers to touch Miss K's bum. She ended up getting the WORST rashes frequently when she was in disposables and when we put her in cloth, they drastically dropped in frequency.

#2 - Trying Out Different Types Of Cloth

The only two types of diapers we used with Miss K were a large amount of pocket diapers and fitted diapers that required covers. Diapers we want to try out are newborn diapers, prefold diapers, all in ones, and we want to add more one size and fitted diapers to our stash.

#3 - Line Drying Outside/Sunning Diapers More Often

Since we've lived in apartments all of Miss K's life, we didn't really have the luxury of being able to line dry or sun our diapers as often as we wanted. We tried to do it once off our TINY back deck....but it was more work than we wanted to put into it so we never tried it again.

We ended up having to put our diapers in the dryer if we ran out of clean ones, which is okay, but only if your dryer has a low heat setting...and ours didn't so we tried out best to keep an eye on our diapers by putting them on the "cool down" setting on our dryer to make sure they didn't get too hot. It was definitely a lot more work than we hoped for but didn't have much of a choice because we didn't even think to check if our dryer had the low heat setting and if cloth diapers with PUL material get too hot, the PUL melts :-(

#4 - Buying More Diapers Second Hand

I know some of you might not like the idea of buying cloth diapers second hand, but if the previous owners really took the time to take care of their stash before selling, then there's no reason not to buy second hand. Owners that really take care of their diapers make sure that they're washed in cloth diaper safe detergent, use cloth diaper safe rash cream and sun/line dry their diapers to maintain the quality of them along with sunning out any stains they may get from being soiled.

I mostly began looking for newborn second hand diapers when the number one complaint I saw was that it seemed crazy to invest in brand new ones when kiddos weren't being in them for too long. A friend of mine told about cloth diaper "buy, sell and trade" groups on Facebook and that I should join a few to see what I could find. I joined a lot of brand specific cloth diapers groups such as Fuzzibunz, GroVia, Charlie Banaba, etc and started to keep an eye one what people were trying to sell. While monitoring those groups I did some research on reviews for different kinds of newborn cloth diapers and found that GroVia was one of the top 5 brands that had great cloth diapers for newborns.

Since we're having to practically rebuild our stash from scratch my hubby and I both thought it would be a great idea to buy a diaper here and there starting now, that way we won't have to worry about making a huge purchase for the rest of the diapers up front. We're spending the same amount either way, but it seems less harsh buying one diaper at a time :-)

We may have jumped the gun a little since we have no idea when we'll be having another kiddo, but we wanted to start working on our stash now for newborn diapers and GroVia's seem to be the brand I have loved the most. Here's the little stash we have right now...

How stinkin' cute are those?!?!

More often then not in these cloth diaper groups, people are selling brand new diapers still in their packaging or diapers that they only prepped for their kiddo but never ended up using so they're basically brand new. Now that we're taking the time to do more research on different styles/brands, I've been trying to buy a diaper from each of the ones I like or have heard great things about. I purchased this brand new Perfect Size Fuzzibunz diaper from a gal who's hubby didn't get the exact one she wanted and he didn't get a receipt so her loss was my gain! :-)

Yesterday I just purchased two All In One (AIO) One Size bumGenius diapers from a friend that didn't end up feeling that cloth diapering was for her family along with two Thirsties Duo Wraps (which I love). I don't have picture of those but I'm so excited to get them!!! :-)

#5 - Attempt to Make Some Diapers Myself

If you want to cloth diaper and do NOT want to have to wash diaper EVERYDAY, the best amount of diapers to have for washing every other day is to have about 24+ diapers in your stash. I squeaked by with 21 diapers in our stash, but I definitely want more next time.

Whenever we do have our next kiddo (which at this point we have no clue when that will happen LOL!), if we don't have the amount of diapers that we'd like to have for our stash, I really want to attempt to make a few. A couple months ago I invested in this pattern book...

All the supplies needed to make your own diapers are a bit of an investment as well, but the idea of being able to make or fix any diapers that I purchase makes it seems well worth giving it a try.

Even though Miss K has been out of cloth diapers for about 6+ months or so, it's fun to get back into the research and think about how we'll get to do it again next time and be more prepared to do it. I think I'm most excited about cloth diapering from birth. It was a pretty overwhelming experience when we started out but I think that it has been super important to go through what we did because we learned so much about what to do, what not to do, and what works the best for our household. I was super thankful that my hubby was so open minded throughout the entire process and ended up liking cloth diapers.

Do you have some cloth diaper stories, tips, tricks, what worked or didn't work for you?? I'd love to hear them! Thinking about cloth diapering and have questions? ASK AWAY! :0) I could talk about this stuff all day long ;-)

Glad to be back blogging today after my last in mid June (YIKES!) haha! :-)

Small Victories

Restarting my fitness journey has seriously never given me so much clarity! I know that sounds corny but to be honest, I'm almost really happy about the fact that I had to start over with my {One Year, 52lbs} goal because I have such a different mind set about everything involving health and weight loss compared to the first time I started back in July 2011. 

It all started when I saw this quote last month, that I shared in another recent blog post...

There was just something about this quote that "lit a fire" in me. It was almost of feeling of anger, because I was SO disappointed in myself for having to start over after working extremely hard to get where I had been. When I started my original goal of losing 52lbs in one year, I was down 18lbs by Halloween and once the force of holidays hit, I lost my focus, and discovered that I gained all that weight back when I weighed myself again on May 21st of this year. But what has turned into anger, has turned into drive, motivation, and commitment.

I wasn't sure HOW to start over...so I took a step by setting a goal to do the {No Junk Food Challenge & From Couch to 5K} Training Program on June 2nd. I've had absolutely NO cravings for any of the junk foods listed (which is amazing in itself because I had a nightly ritual of eating chocolate after dinner) and today I'm on Week 2 Day 5 of my C25K program.

When I started the C25K program on June 2nd, the very first day of the program you have to do a 5 minute walk, 2 minute jog, 5 minute walk. If it wasn't for softball, basketball or warming up for weight lifting back in high school, I never ever ran a day in my life. Period. I honestly used the word "hate" whenever people talked about having me go running with them. I was one of those people that just never did it for exercise because I disliked it so much. I hated the way I felt during running and how I felt after I had ran. My lungs would hurt, my shins would hurt, everything felt like it hurt. So, I started doing some research. My dear friend Kat, that you all have heard me talk quite a bit about (because I just love her that much!), pointed me in the direction of a looking at videos about correct running form so your body doesn't end up hurting like mine was.  I quickly discovered that I had the WORST running form, which caused my shins to constantly hurt. Here's one of the videos I came across if you want to take a peek :-)





When I headed out for my first run, I was crazy nervous but kept a positive attitude. The 2 minute jog was tough but I got through it surprisingly well, even if I was breathing like I was dying when it was over! HAHA! But, I survived! WOO HOO!

On Monday (Week 2 day 3) for my C25K run, I had to do a 5 minute walk, 4 minute jog, 5 minute walk. I was a little nervous again because when I had to do a 3 minute jog just a couple days before, it was tough, but I think the cold weather played into why it was so tough too. Derek and Miss K went with me to help me out/be my cheerleaders. When I started the jogging portion, before I knew it, Derek was saying "you're over half way done with your jog". I found myself smiling from ear to ear and kept smiling until I was done. Not only was that the EASIEST two minutes of jogging I had EVER done, the entire 4 minutes was cake! I was ELATED, to say the least. That was my small victory moment - realizing how far I'd actually come in just two short weeks - a two minute jog that I struggled with...was - - EASY! :-) What was even more fun was that the next day, I came across this...

Great timing for this, huh?! :-)

I just can't help but continue to celebrate because for someone like me that never would have run for exercise, I'm absolutely loving the rush I get from it. I know, who am I, right?!

So, after all this writing, what I'm trying to say to all of you is CELEBRATE THE SMALL VICTORIES! Please! You'll do yourself so much more good if you do. I've seen too many people (me being one of them in the past) have unrealistic expectations, set insane goals for themselves or expect immediate results and when they don't see anything happening fast enough, they get discouraged, quit or resort to crash diets, etc. If you want results, it takes TIME.

If you want to do it right, DO THE RESEARCH. If you're not sure about something, ASK! :-) If you traveled a mile, walking, jogging or running, celebrate! Don't be mad because it was easier for someone else or because some do it faster or travel farther than you. If you lost one pound, celebrate! Don't be made because it was "just one pound".

If you need help, ASK! Asking for help was the hardest part for me. I felt that I had some obligation to know more than I actually did before asking someone for help. Thankfully, someone from my hometown has made fitness his career and he has been so helpful...Tim with Tim Arndt Fitness.

I started out by signing up for his free newsletter where he gives free tips and advice to anyone who will read. I've learned so much just from those newsletters, but I wanted to get my hands on all the information I could, so I finally got the nerve to contact him through his Facebook page and asked him some questions and asked for recommendations for a nutritionist in our area. I felt bad about reaching out to him at first because I couldn't afford to hire him as a trainer so I didn't want him thinking that I was just trying to get what I could for free. I know that sounds awful but that's how I felt and that's why I was scared to ask for his help. With Tim, it was the exact OPPOSITE! He was SO willing to help, that his willingness to share his knowledge of fitness, blew me away. Shame on me for even thinking he would look at me as one of "those people" who abuse a good thing ;-) haha! What started out as just a recommendation from him has turned into something awesome. I mentioned to Tim that once I'm at a comfortable place with running, I'd love to get back into lifting weights again, but wasn't sure how to go about this since I don't want to be "just a runner" or "just a lifter" and he recommended this book to me..

Purchase Book HERE

I haven't found a negative review on this book YET! Check out the reviews for yourself but what I love about this book is that the author addresses questions that people ask and he backs up the answers with credible research. This book is amazing for people like me, that didn't know where to start, didn't know much about running to do or how to incorporate both cardio and weights in my life. It breaks down the questions to where they're an easy read AND it's also a great book for athletes who are more advanced with the exercise routines. The other big thing I like about this book is that you don't have to read it from cover to get the information you want. Find the question that you want answered, skip to that page and get it! :-) I was finding the answers I needed within 5 minutes of picking it up! I can only sit here and tell you so much about how awesome this book is, but you need to get it and see for yourself :-)

We all have to start somewhere, so for those of you too scared to go to the gym because you don't look like the rest of the fit people working out in there...they had to start somewhere, now it's up to you to take that step and go for it! If you feel like that by stepping in that public facility, that you'll be judged...bottom line: who cares! haha! It only matters what you think :-) Show those people that when you walk through the door, you're there to do WORK! And let me be the one to tell you, most people will admire you more for getting yourself in there to be a better version of yourself. Do it for YOU, not for everyone else :-) Just start somewhere.

By the way, if any of you are interested, Tim just started selling some very cute hoodies for women that he released two days ago. But once they're gone, they're gone forever. I love how they cater to the social media side of my generation :-) Pretty clever! You'll probably seeing me use the #transformation hashtag a lot through my fitness journey lol! If you want to check them out for yourself...

Go HERE for more info about these hoodies or to purchase one for yourself :-)

I just ordered mine yesterday! I CANNOT wait to get it!

If you were interested in subscribing to Tim's newsletter, go HERE. Just scroll down to the bottom of the home page and you'll see where to enter in your email address and info :-) Let me know if you do subscribe to his newsletter, would love to have new people to talk about it with! :-)

*I was in no way paid or compensated for sharing any sites or products in this post. All of the above is my own opinion and shared on my own terms*