Life Here In The Commune

Life in the commune continued as usual today. By late afternoon I had three naked boys and one girl clothed just her underwear running around my yard.

In my defense, we had the sprinkler on, and swim diapers are expensive man! Not as expensive as designer poop catchers, but still. I hate paying for them when my kids are just in my yard. Besides, as I learned early on in my journey of motherhood, and often remind myself, urine is sterile. And sunscreen is cheap. But I am grateful for spray sunscreen. It makes taking care of all those bare bottoms a lot easier! 

As for Amelia, she has brothers, so she just wants to wear her "trunks" when I pull out her two-piece swimsuit. (Thanks, Aunt Mary. Didn't consider that, did we?) Undies, swim trunks. It was six of one, half dozen of the other, so why argue?

Actually, being naked in the yard is part of our potty training efforts with the boys. One of the things we've done that seems to have helped is to line the boys up to pee. Alex will go every time, and sometimes Isaac and Sam follow his lead.

We do try to keep in mind that our neighbors are selling their house, so we have the boys pee near our garden instead of their treeline. I'd hate for my potty training efforts to lose them a sale. On the other hand, whoever moves in may as well have a realistic picture of what they are getting into.

Isaac is really starting to make progress on the potty training now. He got M&Ms three times today -- a record for him -- and once he even asked to go and his diaper was still dry. Yay! Alex would go as many times as his mommy would put him on the potty, but some days that's more than others. Now that we've got two out of three taking a lot less time on the potty to get results, maybe I'll get them there more often.

This afternoon I watched Jeff try to get Isaac to pee near the tree just off the deck. I had to laugh because Isaac, true to his training to sit on the potty, kept sitting down on the ground. Thankfully he didn't pee, because while urine might be sterile, mud still makes a big mess.

Tomorrow we've got a playdate, so I guess I'll have to clothe the children for a change...

© Trippin' Mama 2010

Seriously, Designer Diapers?

Is it just me, or have the diaper manufacturers lost their minds?

First Huggies introduced their Jeans Diapers. They say, "HUGGIES® gets fashion forward with new denim diaper design to help your baby stay trendy while keeping dry."

Perfect, because what every baby needs is a little more trendy in his or her life, right?

I'll grant you they are cute, but at 44 cents a pop? A pair of jean shorts is cheaper than a 25 pack of these diapers. And pretty stinkin' cute, too, without the actual stinkin' part.

Then yesterday I was flipping through this week's Target ad and I saw that designer ("and mom!") Cynthia Rowley has teamed up with Pampers to offer 11 colorful patterns for boys and girls.

"As a mom, I wanted other moms and dads to have more options in every part of their lives -- even diapers," said Rowley. "It's the first piece of clothing your baby will ever wear, and it should be special."

Thanks, Cynthia. I was just thinking the other day that what I need is more options. And at 65 cents a piece, these limited editions are quite the pricey option.

Triplets aside, I'm sticking with Target's Up & Up diapers at 12 cents apiece, and making my way through the potty-training minefield as quickly as possible.

Really, people. Let's focus. These are DIAPERS. That your child will poop in, and you will then THROW AWAY.

And since there seems to be an inverse proportion between the cost of an item and how long it lasts in my house, you can guarantee that every time I would put one of these trendy little wallet emptiers on one of my boys gastrointestinal distress would instantly ensue.

I guess this gives a whole new meaning to the term "disposable income."

© Trippin' Mama 2010

Works-for-Me Wednesday: The Poop on Diapers

Sorry for the terrible pun in the headline. Well, not really, but it just feels right to apologize. Today I'm playing along on Works-for-Me Wednesday over at WeAreThatFamily.

I have always loved a good bargain, but a good bargain in diapers has become an absolute necessity now that we're covering three little bottoms. 

After extensive research, I've got two things that work for us to share with you.

The first diaper deal I love is Target's new Up & Up diapers. These are great diapers, and you can't beat the price. A package of 96 size 3s (our current size) is $13.96, or 14.5 cents per diaper. It is even cheaper if you get Target's Up & Up coupons. Compare that with a typical Huggies price of 22 cents apiece, or even Luvs at 16 cents apiece and it adds up fast around here.

Even with coupons and sales I can rarely beat the Up & Up price. And, the Up & Up diapers run big, so while my guys really need a size 4 in Huggies or Pampers, they can still wear a size 3 in Up & Ups. As any experienced diaper buyer knows, you get more value the smaller the size, because you get more per package. So that's a plus for us too.

Now I must confess that I tried the old Target brand diapers when they were on clearance because they were switching over to the new branding. I hated them. They were short, everyone peed out, and my guys got rashy. A fellow triplet mom convinced me to give the new Up & Up diapers a try, and what an improvement! Target really hit this one out of the park.

As a bonus, Target is running a stock-up sale right now online. If you buy three baby items you get 15% off. Buy four and get 15% off. You have to purchase $50 to get free shipping, but four large packs of Up & Up diapers will get you there. The sale is so good that my purchase worked out that I bought four packs of diapers for the price of three.

The second diaper deal I love is Diapers.com. Actually, I love Diapers.com in general. We ordered three car seats from them and when they didn't fit well in our van, we returned them -- for free and with NO hassles. I simply called Diapers.com, said we needed to return the seats and the rep emailed me three labels, one for each box. They even called UPS to arrange the pickup. It could not have been easier. Talk about great customer service!

But on to the diapers, which is why we're here today. Diapers.com has pretty good sales and free shipping on orders over $49. If you're buying diapers for multiples, you know that $49 worth of diapers doesn't last long! Your diapers come to your door within two days, which is a real bonus in those early days when you can't even get a shower let alone get to the store. They will even take your coupons (details on the site).

First-time customers can get $10 off their order by entering the promo code: TRIPPIN at checkout. Right now you can get a real deal by printing and submitting a mail-in rebate within four weeks and you’ll get $14.97 back. (The rebate link looks like it’s only a free magazine subscription at first, but scroll down and you’ll read how you can actually just mail it in for a $14.97 check.)

Diapers.com is a great way to send the most practical of gifts to your favorite mom of multiples or any other mama whose daily routine includes lots of diaper changes. It's fast and easy, and if you go through diapers they way we do, hitting the $49 minimum for free shipping is a piece of cake.

Disclaimers: I received nothing from Target or Diapers.com for this post. I am simply a happy customer.

The TRIPPIN promo code is my referral code from Diapers.com. Anyone who orders from them can set one up. You will get $5 in credit for each person who uses your referral code. So if you use the code to save yourself $10 you'll be helping us out, too. I and my three little diaper-wearing bottoms thank you.

© Trippin' Mama 2010

The Dark Side of The Moon

(With apologies to Pink Floyd for the title of this post.)

It's time we talk about one of the less desirable aspects of parenthood: Diapers. And in our case, diapers times three.

Hoo, boy do we have diapers around here! Fewer than in the early days when we often topped out at 36 diapers a day, but we still average 21-24 a day. More depending on the reaction to new foods.

If you're keeping score at home, that means we go through a Costco-sized box of 200 size 3s in less than 10 days. That's a $40 box of diapers if you really want to do some math that will make your head hurt. And your wallet.

Of course there was that one bout of gastrointestinal distress that led us to go through an entire package of 96 diapers in 12 hours. And then there was the time that I had one constipated baby so I fed all three prunes. POOPAPALOOZA!

But diaper cost and contents aside, my real problem with diapers these days is the actual changing of them.

Back in May I wrote about Isaac's skill at flipping over on the changing table. Turns out he was just warming up, and he's been sharing notes with his brothers.

I'm quite certain it would be easier to milk a wild cow than to change this trio of bucking broncos, especially now that they've had months of practice.

Talk to them to keep their attention? They were over that months ago.

Distract them with a toy? HA!

Tell them "No," firmly, but lovingly? I hate to admit this, but that only makes them grin and laugh. (I know, I know. I'm in trouble.)

Hog tie them? Ah, then we might be getting somewhere.

Since they employ a number of world-class wrestling moves, I've decided to employ a few of my own.

Now if I only had an extra hand to actually change the diaper with once I've succeeded in wrestling the little buggers into submission.

Oh well, I'm sure I burn a couple hundred calories at every diaper changing session. So bring on the ice cream!

Bottoms Up!

Once they mastered the art of rolling, all of the boys started to pull the trick of flipping over on the changing table. Alex and Sam don't do it very often now, but Isaac...oh, Isaac! That kid is FAST, and he'll roll over almost before he hits the table. I swear somehow he's actually turning over in midair.

When all the boys were rolling, I did so much wrestling every day that I thought I was in training for a greased pig contest, or Worldwide Wrestling's Smackdown. Thankfully, Alex and Sam gave up that trick pretty soon. Now it's just Isaac who does the bottoms up on a regular basis.

There...

goes...

Isaac!

If you hold Isaac's ankles to keep him from turning, he'll arch his back and still work out a way to turn himself over. Honestly, it's like diapering a slinky!

But he's such a cute slinky!

Diaper Duty Cubed!

I have changed so many dirty diapers today that I'm beginning to wonder if someone is secretly feeding my babies Indian food.

I'm not sure if this is the tail end (pun intended!) of the bout of sickness we had last week, or a result of the teeth that MUST be coming soon based on the amount of drool we're seeing. Our diaper count is WAY up, as is our laundry volume.

Someone recycle something to offset our environmental impact, please!

Three on One

This week I've been mostly on my own with the boys, so I am perfecting my zone feeding technique. The hardest part is fitting in nursing at the same time I'm propping two other boys and trying to get everyone burped. If they will cooperate and let me start their feedings 10-15 minutes apart, that helps a lot. But sometimes, everyone is hungry all at once!

Yesterday I tandem nursed two of the babies for the first time. It went pretty well. It certainly went better than I ever hoped, considering the fact that I had to work pretty hard to teach each of them to nurse in the first place. Even now, they don't always cooperate with me, but if one won't cooperate, there's always another baby to try!

Right now the babies get breast milk for about half of their feedings. Some of the time they nurse, and the rest of the time they get a bottle of either breast milk or formula. Beside the fact that breast milk is the best food in the world for the babies, if you've purchased formula lately, you know it's well worth the time and effort to nurse and pump for the savings alone! We go through a $25 can of formula in about 4 days, and that's with me providing half the feedings in breast milk. We're investing the savings in their college fund. HA! Maybe once we're done buying diapers.