After 2 years... Trimsies

We've been cloth diapering for more than 2 years. We started when our baby was 10 days old. And she will be 2 years and 4 months old in 4 days. Therefore, I can say that we have been through a lot. At the beginning, I expected that my baby, now my toddler, Estelle would be like her older sister who was free from diaper before 2 years old. Unfortunately, no. Different circumstances, different characters, different me :D

So here we are, still having a close relationship with diapers, especially the cloth ones. And I haven't updated this blog for months since we were occupied with many things, including the moving to a new apartment.

My little girl started to understand about the use of potty and toilet after we made the first trial (see this blog). But she just sat on the potty without having result. There was one morning potty time that gave a pee result and I was so happy. It was when we were still at the old apartment. And then, couple weeks ago, she made a pee in a mini toilet during daycare time. The daycare assistant told me about this. Wow... Surprising... She made it at the daycare. A big thing, right?

We plan to put her into school next year. At that time, she's supposed to be free from diapers. I know we still have time. But me, personally, I am exhausted with this diapering thing. I am tired trying to catch her just only to put on the diaper. I am tired of being patient. I am tired of arguing the same thing every day. I am just... thinking that it's supposed to be finished. Two years of diapering is too much for me. So, we plan another potty training this summer, after our moving and after our holidays.

The problem is, our new apartment is covered with carpet, except the bathroom, the toilet, the master bedroom and the kitchen. So if we stick to the Gina Ford method, I can say, it will be difficult. Considering some accidents that usually happen at the beginning, how am I supposed to clean all of those? We do not have to tool for steaming and cleaning the carpet yet. Only usual vacuum cleaner. Not enough for pee or poop.

I thought, I would need more trainers. Yes, more. So if accident happens, it can be absorbed or protected by the trainer layer. The price for one trainer is quite expensive. Another option, how about secondhand trainers? I checked in eBay and Leboncoin, hm, still expensive. I might need minimum 8 extra trainers. It costs at least 48 EUR for the 8 secondhands. Hm...

Then I remembered that I had some fabrics for making diapers. I never used them because I did not know exactly how to sew with a machine (and my new machine, cheap one, was out of order!). Et voilà! I searched some information at one mailing list of 'sew your own diaper' and I found one recommended trainer pattern. Trimsies.

Cutting the fabrics with my little one around me was difficult. So many distractions (for an amateur like me, that's too much :). Finally I finished cutting for one trainer this morning. It will have layers like this:

• Outer in print cotton
• Inner in fleece
• Soaker in bamboo
• PUL will be put under the soaker

No snap or H/L for the first trial.

* I forgot about the details because I bought all those fabrics in 2009 except the PUL fabric which I cut from one unused diaper (homemade, bought in eBay, bad performance).

One thing that I like from Trimsies pattern: it provides variations. I planned to make the basic one but then because of my limitation, I switched a bit into one variation that is mentioned in the pattern.

I don't know the end result yet. I will try to sew it this weekend at my in-law's house (I'll borrow their sewing machine).

Any comment or suggestion? Allez-y... Silakan...

After 2 years... Trimsies