Plan B

Yesterday was officially day 2 of potty-training and by mid-afternoon I was ready to throw in the towel. I started on Wednesday - very gung-ho and with a plan in mind. As a side note, Micah's been using cloth diapers part-time since he was 1 month old and somewhere I heard a rumour that cloth-diapered kids tend to potty-train faster (since they can feel the "wetness" more). The problem is that Micah has never cared about being wet. His diaper can be sopping and he'd still be happy as a clam. Anyway, my plan was to put Micah in a cloth diaper, but without the extra absorbent liner or plastic cover, so we'd both be able to tell right away if he was wet.
I set him on the potty very consistently but with no success. We'd hang out in the bathroom for slots of 20 minutes or even longer - reading books, singing songs, naming body parts - until I was sure his bladder must be exploding. But inevitably he'd want to get off and within 5 minutes he would have wet his diaper. The only sign of progress was the handful of times he ran to me clutching his diaper declaring "wet!" Most of the time he didn't even notice.
However, I kept my spirits up and hoped we'd at least have some luck with going #2. On the morning of day 2, Micah was overdue for a "movement" :) and generally early in the day is a prime time for him. I planned to watch him like a hawk and not miss the opportunity to get him to the potty on time. I was relaying my plan of action to Erik while we made breakfast when suddenly Erik commented that Micah was awfully quiet in the next room. The smell was our second clue and the full diaper confirmed it. I guess all of our potty-talk must have put him in the mood or something. Once again, we were too late.
So, after a fruitless (& exhausting) effort, I've decided to scrap the potty-training for the time being. Or, at least back off and let Micah lead the way a little more. I just don't get the impression that he really understands or is interested - and I don't want to push him.
So, onto Plan B: moving Micah into a big-boy bed. Luckily we recently inherited Rosanna's old twin bed when her and Nathan got married, so we'll skip right over the toddler-bed phase. My concerns are a) how do you get a toddler to stay in a bed with no prison rails and b) how do you keep him from falling out of bed in his sleep? Micah tends to cram his body into the corner of his crib to fall asleep and I'm not sure how he's going to cope with all the open space... For safety's sake, we'll start with just a single mattress on the floor and go from there. I'm thinking we might try to set it up for him this weekend sometime.
I'm learning patience through all of this for sure, and when I stop to consider my urge to rush, I can tell myself that it's highly unlikely that Micah will still be a diaper-wearing, soother-clad, crib sleeper 2 or 3 years from now. He'll figure this stuff out eventually. Unfortunately by that time we'll be working on training the next one...
Hmmm, how many kids did I say I wanted??