More potty talk...

It has been quite a year. I started potty training Kayden a year ago. A whole year. And...wow. There have been MANY loads of laundry and many moments of frustration. She seemed to catch on really quickly but soon regressed with renos then a new baby throwing our routine out the window. And she never seemed to recover. By November we were well into a new routine but things just weren't getting better in terms of accidents. And I knew she was smart enough/old enough to catch on...something just didn't seem right. So I started looking into medical reasons for why potty training would be a struggle and wouldn't you know, constipation was the culprit! She's been plugged pretty much since starting solid foods and we noticed that when she was especially plugged, she had trouble holding her pee. But it never crossed my mind that constipation could be the reason she didn't feel her pee coming ALL the time! Ugh! I felt so bad. Here we had been trying to train her for almost a year and she was obviously trying but simply couldn't feel the urge to go! So we continued training but with extra motivation to solve her constipation issues as quickly as possible. Diet changes didn't seem to help much so I took her to the doctor in December. He suggested "Lax-a-Day." We tried it and it did help but when we stopped for a few days over Christmas, so did her pooping. I didn't feel good about a laxative being a permanent solution so I started looking at other things we could try. Two weeks ago we cut out dairy (switched to almond milk instead) and, without going into detail, I'll just say that it was a very good two weeks! Best two weeks she's had since she was exclusively breastfed! But almost none of that "good two weeks" made it into the potty, unfortunately, because for the first time that she could remember, she didn't have to sit and strain for half an hour to get it out...it just came! And took her by surprise...and didn't give her time to get to the potty. But talk about encouraging! Kayden, on the other hand, has seemed pretty discouraged with the whole potty training thing lately. And who could blame her? It's been a year of more accidents than successes. She recently just stopped telling us when she had accidents, wearing her wet pants until we noticed, and that's not cool. So yesterday I suggested that we take a break, go back to diapers, and when she turns 3 (10 days), she will be a big girl and can go back to panties and we'll try again with the whole staying dry thing. She seemed very grateful for the break. (She often tells me "I'm just having a break, Mama.") I'm a little nervous that she will lose what little bit she was trained...but I've also spent most of the past year feeling like success is "just around the corner" and it never was. So at this point I'm willing to take a small step back in hopes of a renewed girl when we start training again. It's been a long road. It's about as different from Levi's training as it could be (he was trained at 21 months within a few days, nights too by 22 months). This experience hasn't made me doubt that early potty training is wrong. I will still try to potty train Maddie before or around her second birthday. But I will make sure that there are no medical issues standing in her way of success. I kinda feel like I've failed Kayden. How could I have missed that for so long? I just hope that, once we have this constipation thing under control, potty training will be fast and easy and that it will build her confidence right back up again!

Madelyn - four months

Maddie is four whole months old today! Yay, Maddie! It has been a wonderful (and so so tough!) 4 months with her.

Maddie is growing so much! She is about 14.5lbs already (the unofficial home-scale weigh-in a few days ago). She is wearing 6 month sleepers and mostly 3-6 month or 6 month clothes. She is a little doll. We just love her to bits!

Madelyn loves to be where the action is! She always wants to see what's going on and loves it when she gets in on the family fun. Too much action, though, and this little girl tends to get overwhelmed and let us know about it! Though this month has had fewer overwhelmed cries from her. Fewer cries in general, I'd say! She has possibly turned into our smiliest, happiest baby yet!

It's not hard to get a smile from this one. She will give smiles especially easily to me, Nathan, Levi, and Kayden. But on Sunday, we were at a potluck and she was apparently smiling at the grandmas who took turns holding her while I ate. For a little one who seems to play shy sometimes, she sure doesn't play shy at all at other times! I have yet to figure this one out! She also loves to giggle! Tickling and sudden funny noises seem to be the things to get her going right now. If the sudden noise is too loud though, she will look for reassurance. If she can get some eye contact with someone she trusts and we smile and reassure her, she will break out a big grin, even though she was unsure just a moment before. It's pretty amazing to see.

Maddie has learned to roll from back to front this month, just in the past few days actually. I will be cooking in the kitchen and hear her grunting and then turn and look and she's either on her stomach or halfway there, working with all her might to flip herself over. I'm convinced she does it so she can see more than just the boring old ceiling. The other day I heard Levi talking to her, saying, "You really like our ceiling, don't you?" When I asked him why he thought she liked it, he said that she spends a lot of time looking at it! I think it will soon be a lot less time as she starts to do more than just lay there on her back!

Madelyn is learning to sit right now! She loves to be on her bum and able to see even more of the things going on around her. I anticipate she might be sitting on her own within the next month or so. She still has to work on her little ab muscles a bit, and balance of course, but it's coming! And once she can sit, I don't think we will be able to lay her down ever again...

Madelyn has been introduced to the exersaucer and the jolly jumper this month. She doesn't really know what to do with either of them yet but it seems like she likes to be able to be upright and look around more. (Are you sensing a theme?!) She gets help jumping whenever she's in the Jolly Jumper from Kayden, who is quite sure that she'd rather bounce a little than spin in slow circles. It's not unusual for one of the kids to beg me to put up the Jolly Jumper so their sister can go in it. Kayden also had a turn in it this month and boy, did she remember what it was for!

Madelyn is starting to grab toys when we hold them out to her and, of course, they all go straight into her mouth. She doesn't seem to be drooling quite as much lately, but a bib is never a bad idea to keep the shirt from being soggy. She will suck on anything and everything. Toys, bibs, exersaucer seat, our hands, blankets...yup. It all goes into her mouth. She is still working on holding onto toys and manoeuvring them exactly where she wants them (unless it's her mouth), but we've noticed a big difference in how she grabs toys from last month to now.

Maddie's sleep is much improved since last month. YAY!! It's not perfect and just when I seem to think that we're doing well, she will resist sleep for a couple hours before bed again. BUT, it's not every night anymore which is making me feel so much more patient and human! Maddie now naps in her crib in her own bedroom which is much less stressful for me since you can hear almost nothing in there from the rest of the house. With all the bedrooms right off the kitchen, and our master bedroom with doors to both the main bathroom and the kitchen, I spent the first 3-3.5 months of Maddie's life shh-ing the older two and trying to get them not to even breathe next to our bedroom while Maddie was sleeping. I was walking on eggshells ALL the time because you can hear everything from our bedroom and how to you keep a 2 and 4 year old quiet all day long?! So I came up with the brilliant idea of napping her in her own room, since I'm not with her while she naps anyway, while keeping her in our room for nights. It is working quite well. We've also got a nursing-->diaper & pj's-->swaddle-->song-->bed routine going which relaxes her enough for her to put herself to sleep most nights! She is up usually 1-2 times a night to eat and goes right back to sleep. She naps 2-3 times a day and is awake for 1.5-2 hours between naps and 3-4 hours before bed. I feel like we're finally at a good place with sleep. Such a relief!

Madelyn is such a joy to have around. She lights up every time she sees us (even right after waking up!) and gets so excited about interacting with us. She is such a happy baby these days, only crying for food (if I don't respond to her complaints soon enough) or because she's tired or shy. But you know what? Even if she was still fussy and didn't go to sleep that well, we would still just love her to pieces because she's Maddie! Happy four months, little girl. We're so glad you're part of our family!

And because I have two other adorable kids who wanted their pictures taken today...

Levi being a goof...and a pesky fly beside him. 

Beautiful Kayden.

Happenings...

It feels like there has been a lot happening in the past month. It has made life feel a little busy but it has also made August feel quite long so that's a plus! I'm always good with summer feeling as long as possible!

Maddie has been growing and changing. She smiles so much and sometimes it almost sounds like a little giggle coming out of her. Around 7 weeks, she decided to be a bit more challenging in the sleep department and it has continued. She can fight sleep unbelievably well. You know she's tired and yet she manages to keep her eyes (or one eye at least) open so she doesn't quite fall asleep. Bedtime used to be a quick 20 minute change, swaddle, feed, bed routine and now it is often an hour or more before she's actually asleep for the night. She still gives good stretches of sleep at night, though, and I'd rather deal with a baby who has trouble falling asleep than a baby who has trouble staying asleep. She's almost doubled her birth weight at 2 months so she's growing well!

Kayden...we found out she needs glasses this month. They had to be ordered and then they were back ordered so we don't have them yet. I took it pretty hard when we found out she needed them, which I didn't expect. But I have since found out that it's actually quite common for parents to have a hard time adjusting to the fact that their young child needs glasses. Who knew? So she should get them in the next couple weeks and then we can start the fun of seeing if she will wear them. With Kayden we are also looking at potty training. I went through the three day potty training back in January and she caught on decently quickly. So she was doing really well from February to April. But at the end of April we started renos which threw our house and schedule into chaos. It didn't bode well for potty training. Then in June Maddie arrived and Kayden's  accidents just became more and more frequent. By the end of the month, if we didn't take her to the bathroom regularly, she would have an accident because she just wasn't telling us she needed to go anymore. She wouldn't even tell us after it happened. She would just keep playing. Talk about frustrating! So anyway, one day in early August she peed on the couch and didn't tell me and that was it. I put her in a diaper and neither she nor Nathan or I have said much about it. She uses the diaper and that's that. BUT...tomorrow is the day that we try again. My thought is that maybe a couple weeks in diapers will have "reset" her and it will all be fresh tomorrow. Levi will be in school because as much as he wants to help, Kayden just doesn't respond positively to his instruction (surprise surprise!). And Friday is Nathan's day off. I'm hoping that by Sunday we can go to church without diapers. Wish me luck!

Levi has started school! His first day of kindergarten was yesterday. He was excited and then I went to drop him off and he was scared but at the end of his first day he was excited to go back so yay! We have a school boy! 

Pictures

Painting Easter eggs:

Throwing stuff into water is always fun. This is the pond on our yard that shows up every spring:

Cuties getting ready for church:

That's just cute! Can you find Goldbug?

Thankful for two good travellers! This one knows how to entertain herself when her brother is sleeping:

Waiting for daddy to get home from work:

Visiting our sole surviving bunny:

And the latest. I've lost count of weeks. I think I'm closing in on the end of the 29th week? Roughly 10 weeks to go (due end of June):

And the pictures.

Kayden always asks to take a stuffed animal along when we get in the van these days. She likes stuffed animals so much more than Levi ever did. Thankfully she understands that her animals have to wait in the van for her to come back! I don't need animals being left everywhere or falling in the mud and slush outside. Ugh.

 

Me and my girl :)

Snack time! 

We only had one sand (snow, slush, mud, gravel) shovel this spring which became a problem now that we have TWO kids who want to dig ALL the time!  So we picked up a couple new shovels when we were at Ikea last week. Well worth the $3 investment to not have to referee shovel fights anymore. Here's to picking your battles! Hurray!

 I feel like this shirt suits Kayden perfectly!

Our little gamer!  Monopoly, Game of Life, Uno, Blokus, you name it, he will probably like it. 

Belly shot - 23 weeks (3 weeks ago) Boy, I didn't realize how tired I look! I don't feel that bad most days...honest! 

Belly shot - 23.5 weeks

Belly Shot - 24.5 weeks (I think I have so many because I took so few in the first half of this pregnancy that now I feel like I need to take a shot every time I'm wearing anything other than yoga pants and an oversize bunny hug (hoodie). And then I look through my phone and realize that I have a shot every couple days for a few weeks! haha) I just noticed that in this picture it looks like Kayden is pushing out her belly to join me in the big-belly-ness of this photo! ha!

Belly shot (see? There's lots!) - 26 weeks - this is the most recent shot...I'm now 26.5 weeks.

Lots and Nothing (at the same time)

So, I wouldn't start by saying that life has been crazy lately. It really hasn't been too too crazy. We've had our weeks of crazy busy-ness for sure, but most of the time I'd say we maintain a pretty manageable pace. That said, that pace for our family is different than my own personal pace. (does life as a mom to young kids ever really slow down??) Between potty training, cooking meals, keeping the kids entertained, keeping the house at least semi-clean and tidy, plus doing a bit of work with my business in the evenings...it keeps me going with, what feels like, very little truly free time! But it's good! It's really good!

With our 10 year anniversary coming up in May (and bundle #3 due in June), Nathan and I took a couple days to get away together to celebrate last week. My mom came and stayed with the kids while Nathan and I drove 6-7 hours to Edmonton AB where we hotel-ed, restaurant-ed, and relaxed! Together. Without kids. This isn't something that happens often for us...we probably average one kid-free getaway per year, not including the years I'm nursing the latest baby. So, this was probably our third kid-free getaway in the last 4.5 years of being parents? Yup. It was so nice. As we were driving there, though, we (mainly I) realized that we really had no shopping list for the big shopping attractions (Ikea and West Edmonton Mall) so we could have driven half the distance and still felt like we'd gotten "away." But we enjoy road trips too, so Edmonton it was. And in our super-duper 2000 Toyota Corolla, we only paid about $60-70 in gas for 15 hours driving so I'd say it was worth it...even if we could have stopped in Lloydminster and had less hip pain driving time. Bonus for the trip was that the day we left was Dairy Queen's free small cone day! So you better believe this preggo made her hubby stop in both North Battleford AND Lloyd for a cone. There was also a DQ in the same parking lot as where we went for supper in Edmonton so I was tempted to have a third free cone BUT...hours of driving was catching up with me so I decided to spare my stomach the extra (in)digestion and leave it at two cones for the day. But free is free! Oh my Mennonite will was tested...

I feel like I've found a great balance with my business lately. I can't remember if I've talked about this already here so I'll just repeat myself if I have. In December I took the month off, and then in January I announced that I was closing my business. I felt peace about that decision but the more time that went by, the more I missed it and wondered if I could find a better way of doing it so I could keep it and still enjoy it. I've stopped taking custom orders - orders where people show me a picture and ask if I can make something - and only offer the designs that can be found in my etsy shop. It has meant less local business, because I've also been doing less advertising in town, but I've had steady business online since starting back up! There's always something I'm working on for someone but I never feel rushed or frustrated because I just don't have time. It's been a lovely balance. I'm enjoying the pulled-back version of what I love doing!

The kids have been really thriving in this warmer weather! We spent a sad amount of the winter inside this year. With being in the country (fewer destinations means less motivation for me to leave the house every day like I did in town) and getting progressively bigger and more out of breath as the winter wore on, I found less and less motivation to head outside with the kids. Now that it's warmer and the kids have been able to spend more time playing outside, they have been less whiny and bored which has made my life SO much more pleasant! I was about ready to throw in the towel and move south. Those of you with young kids in a warm climate...you have no idea how nice you have it! Though I  remember days when we lived in California when the smog was so bad that it was recommended kids play inside. I remember breathing in clean Canadian air after living down there for 10 months and truly, it felt like I could breathe deeply for the first time in a long time! So I guess each place has advantages and disadvantages. But warm winters...what I would give to not be cooped up inside for 4-5 months of the year!

Kayden is such a talker, even more now than at Christmas! Her vocabulary expands every day and she just chatters away. She's not as shy as Levi was/is so more people get to hear her voice when we go out. We often get the comment that she looks like she's really young cause she's quite small for her age (about the same size as many one year olds) but then she starts talking and she's just like a little doll. You don't expect her to say much because of her size and then she just chatters away! She is now fully potty trained (daytime), though still has the occasional accident. She caught on really quickly when I started training in January. She still wakes up wet most mornings but stays dry during naps and most days. So we'll either work on nights or just wait and see what happens with time. I'm not totally decided on this one so for now we're just not doing anything special and seeing what happens. Our going away last week has made for more accidents since coming home but I think we're getting back on track now that it's been a couple days. I kinda expected that to be the case so it didn't catch me off guard or discourage me. With Levi, whenever he would regress, I would get discouraged and wonder if we had to go back to diapers, but truly, if you just stick with it and give it a couple days of being more intentional again, they just slip right back into routine. It's pretty normal to start having accidents again after no accidents for even as long as months at a time!

Levi is such a wonderful four year old. I hoped when he was three that four would be an easier age and so far it definitely is! He loves to learn and be challenged so near the end of this winter I started teaching him to read a bit and he has been sounding out words EVERYWHERE! It's so fun to see. He's also been practicing his writing, which he didn't care about at all just a couple months ago. And drawing! He's never liked drawing before and suddenly he will spend long periods of time with just markers and paper drawing pictures and writing words! And when Kayden sees him drawing, of course she wants to draw too. So fun :)

Pregnancy is going pretty well. I go through days of feeling like I'm stretching and growing way too quickly - today being one of them! And then other days I feel just like my non-pregnant self until I look down. I do notice that I get out of breath more quickly than normal. And obviously things like stairs and sleep are becoming more of a challenge with the extra 15 lbs and 10" around my waist! I'm 26 weeks now so about 13-14 weeks to go! It still feels so far away but I guess it'll probably go quickly! I feel so much movement...this kid is really a mover! Not significantly more or less than either of our other kids, though, so I wonder if that means we'll be blessed with another kid who isn't hyperactive? I'll love them either way, of course...!

Well, Nathan just walked in the door and that means it's time to get supper on the table! I'll try to add a couple pics from my phone when I have a few minutes but I make no promises!

More potty talk

Well, here we are at the end of day 4. I feel like we've made some progress, though we're still definitely not accident-free!  When she only goes 2-4 times a day, there aren't that many opportunities to practice!

Monday, the first full day, was spent watching Kayden constantly. Poor Levi kept asking to play games with me and I had to tell him that I needed to watch Kayden and not be distracted in case she peed. He was very mature about it but I could tell it was hard for him. Sometime on Tuesday I decided to put a little soaker in her underwear and let her play wherever in the house she wanted - not just on vinyl/laminate floors - and without being under constant supervision. It was a far more relaxing day for me and I think more fun for both kids. Then today was our first outing without a diaper! We were gone all morning. Yes, there was an accident. And yes, there was another one. And no, I didn't bring enough changes of clothes. BUT, there was nothing that needed more than a fresh pair of underwear and dry pants. Whew! I'd call that a success!

Tomorrow we have another home day and I'm hoping that we make some good progress since we're headed to the city on Friday. I really don't want to put her in a diaper and potentially undo everything we've done this week. But I'm sure it would be a mistake to just have her in underwear with no leak protection (unless tomorrow goes VERY well!). I'm sure I'll be able to come up with an in-between option that will keep the car seat dry and also not confuse her.

Speaking of the city, it's time for another prenatal appointment. I'll be 18 weeks on Saturday! And that means it must be almost time for another ultrasound! It feels like I "popped" early this time so I felt huge by 8 weeks for being only in the first trimester. But now I feel like I'm not huge for being almost halfway. I'll have to dig out some pics from my other pregnancies and compare. That's always fun :)

Top left - first pregnancy - 17 weeks
Bottom left - second pregnancy - 15-16 weeks
Right - third pregnancy - 17.5 weeks

 

These pics are why I usually just shake my head when people look like this at 38 weeks and say they are "ready to pop." Um. Please imagine being this big before you're even halfway. :) That said, I am feeling quite good most days. I don't FEEL huge and uncomfortable. The second trimester has been more difficult for me so far than the first trimester, though, as far as tiredness and sickness goes - seems backward as it's usually supposed to be easier once you hit 13 weeks. BUT, I still have it fairly easy compared to some so I can't complain. Still seems a little surreal that baby #3 is on their way. Who is this little person going to be and how are they going to change our family? What is their name going to be?! And how is it that at this point I can't imagine who is inside and by this time next year I won't be able to imagine NOT knowing this person?

Potty training - take 2

Well, I've felt for a while that Kayden has been ready for potty training attempt #2. But between bed rest in December, then Christmas, then having my sister out for a visit which was followed by a week away with her...well I just simply haven't had a good chunk of time! But today was the day. Kayden has been holding it for long periods of time, she can say "pee," and she hasn't pooped in her diaper in quite a while (her bout of sickness excluded!), usually telling us that she has to go #2 before it happens.

We went to church as usual this morning and the plan was to start training after naptime. She was a grump after nap but I started anyway and the undivided attention really turned her afternoon around! We said "bye" to the diapers, which went to the basement to be washed and packed away until they're needed again in June/July. We stripped off her pants. And then we started pumping through juice boxes and oranges and anything else juicy that I could think of! Sidenote: I would normally caution against the use of oranges during potty training as they can be quite effective in getting things going, making poops less predictable and more messy than normal BUT they don't have that effect on Kayden so we're safe. :)

Now, I'm sure you're all wondering how the afternoon went! Well, we changed a fairly wet diaper after church and put her in a dry one for lunch and her nap. She woke up dry. We took the diapers away and she has had no accidents since! But before you start cheering and jumping up and down, you must know that she also hasn't peed on the potty. She just hasn't gone in, oh, the last 6.5 hours. (This is crazy since I, pregnant, can't imagine going that long between bathroom visits!) This is fairly normal for Kayden, though, ever since our first potty training attempt, but it sure doesn't make for that many teachable moments! Oh well,  fewer messes to clean this way! The cutest part of the afternoon? I have been reminding Kayden to tell me when she needs to pee every few minutes all afternoon and at one point she started answering back in her sweet little voice, "ok." Gah! She's just the cutest thing ever.  Along with her brother, of course. He's pretty sweet as well. Love those two!

Kayden sure seemed to enjoy the one-on-one attention this afternoon! Nathan took Levi outside to play in the snow for about an hour and the two of us had lots of fun. It doesn't happen much that I get uninterrupted one-on-one time with either of the kids so it's always special when I do. We read lots of books and I set up the baking soda and vinegar activity for her for the first time - she loved it!

Well, I'm curious how the next hour before bed will go. Either we will have a massive "uh-oh" during night snack, a massive pee on the potty, or a very wet diaper in the morning! The three day potty training method says not to use diapers at all once you start the process but I learned from doing this three dsy process with Levi that it totally isn't worth the multiple night wakings and sheet changings when they aren't wearing diapers at night before they're ready. We found that Levi wearing absorbent padding at night didn't hinder his training and before a month was past, he was waking up dry on his own anyway.  So I'm not putting myself through that again; I'll just go with night diapers right from the start and be well-rested for the days of training. 

Well,  looks like snack time is over and no accidents yet! Time to put these kiddos to bed. G'night all!

Potty Training - day 3

I've always known that all kids are different. But the longer I have two kids, the more I just keep realizing what that actually looks like!

When I potty trained Levi, he was basically done with accidents by after his afternoon nap on day one. Day two was just spent practicing the new skill and by day 3 he was more-or-less accident free!

Here we are on day 3 with Kayden. She is a few weeks younger than Levi was when I trained him, but it is a completely different experience with her...and I'm sure it would have been even if I'd waited a couple weeks until they were exactly the same age!

Day 1 with Kayden saw the progress of not even noticing that something was happening when she had an accident at the beginning of the day to walking to the bathroom after the accident. She also learned the word "potty." Cute.

Day 2 started out rough because I was SO tired and Levi was tired of so much attention going to Kayden and not to him.  The day evened out behaviour-wise - yay! But as far as potty training went, we were in exactly the same place at the end of the day as at the beginning. There were some successes on the potty but they were no more intentional than the accidents on the floor. She just happened to be in the right place at the right time and distracted enough to just "let it happen." Of course we cheered and danced when she peed on the potty, but more often than not it was dribble on floor-->go to potty-->nothing-->dribble on floor-->go to potty-->nothing. (Continue trend until bladder is empty...)

Day 3 has been more of the same. There is just no bladder control. It's like she doesn't understand which muscle controls that action. Except that she has become quite good at stopping herself and going to the bathroom after an accident. But she can't make herself finish on the potty. The only time she pees on the potty is when she gets distracted and it just happens. So after a few accidents this morning and the realization that it wasn't going anywhere, I got out the diapers. I am confident that she won't refuse potty training next time because we got the diapers out this time - that's just not her personality. If we had gotten out the diapers again after packing them away with Levi (if he hadn't caught on so quickly), he would have been more likely to want to get the diapers out every time he got tired of peeing on the potty. But I think Kayden, in about 6-8 weeks, will be much more physically ready to be trained.

In the meanwhile, I am treating her diapers like panties, pulling them up and down instead of laying her down to change her (unless there's a big mess, of course!). I'm taking her pee before nap and bed...and throughout the day. I'll be doing my best to keep her in a dry diaper so she realizes how uncomfortable a wet diaper is. And I'll keep asking her to tell me when she needs to pee. I just couldn't handle any more messes on the floor with no progress to be seen! It truly is all about knowing your kid and following their cues. And if you're not sure, there's no harm in giving something a try and then backing off and giving it more time once you see the results. I'm glad I tried it. I'm excited to try again!

Potty Training - day 2

Yesterday was an excellent day of potty training. We mostly had accidents, but after supper there was a great success...well, maybe not great but enough to enourage me! 

Throughout the course of yesterday, Kayden went from being completely oblivious (not even noticing that she was standing in a puddle the first time) to, at the end of the day, saying "uh-oh" when she had an accident and heading for the toilet by herself. She also says "potty" now :) 

The second day of training this time around has just been exhausting. I didn't have a great night sleep (one unsettled kid at 1am and early morning) so I'm tired. And Levi is feeling the lack of attention on him and extra attention on Kayden, which is hard on him - and therefore hard on me. And Kayden seems to be in the same place as yesterday (uh-oh's after the fact and not much happening on the potty). All that makes me wish I hadn't started yesterday.  I could be enjoying a beautiful 20*C day at home with no plans but instead I'm inside following around my toddler, reminding her to tell me when she needs to go, and trying to distract her from her many "side?" (outside?) requests. I won't lie, I have thought about just pulling out the diapers and trying again in December. But...but. What will make day 2 more fun next time around? 

So I'm sticking with it. Yesterday was fun and exciting. Today feels like drudgery. Hopefully we will see some big progress by tonight so that tomorrow we can be a bit more back to routine. Oh the joys of potty training. Now you know, even I, who started out excited, have bad days in the midst of training. Here's hoping it pays off!

Confession: I may or may not have put my babe in the tub for a little bit of a potty training break just now. It's been a long morning :)

Potty Training - Kid 2

For those of you who don't want to hear about potty training, this post (and possibly the next couple) won't be for you. Now you can't say you weren't warned :)

First off, I just want to set a few things straight. I have heard people bash the idea of potty training early ("early" being pre-24 months) and the moms who do it. They say that the moms do it to show off. They say that the moms just want to make themselves and/or their kids look smarter...more advanced...more accomplished. Well, if this is you, listen closely: 

I am potty training my 20 month old because I did it with my son and it worked. Amazingly.

I am potty training now because right now she doesn't have an attitude that I know will be huge(r) while she's two and three. 

I'm potty training now because she hasn't learned to say "no!" and be completely uncooperative yet.

I'm potty training now because she still wants to help, to do everything to please me, and to work for my praise. 

I'm potty training now because I enjoy the potty training process and, frankly, I just couldn't wait to get started!

So, it was kind of a spur of the moment decision to start today. I haven't had a chunk of 3 uninterrupted days at home for months. I have been waiting for a window of opportunity to open up. This morning, Kayden really didn't want a diaper on so I mentally checked the next few days and realized that I have time! I told her that we were going to pack up her diapers and say bye-bye to them and only pee on the potty now. 

Levi took the box of diapers downstairs for us and Kayden kept saying "bye! Stairs..." all morning. I spent the morning reminding her to tell me when she needed to go and I feel like we've made some progress! The first time she had an accident, I took her to the potty and sat her on it and she was so tense/upset at being put on the potty. She didn't like it AT ALL. But by the end of the morning we had made 6 trips to the bathroom (yes, I'm pumping juice boxes through her like mad to make for lots of "teachable moments"!) and she was actually happy to sit there and "finish," then clean up the accident with me. 

She's down for a nap now. I use some cloth diaper liners/soakers inside her panties for sleeping to save her entire bed from needing to be washed a couple times a day/night. I call it her "night-night panties" so she doesn't feel like she's wearing a diaper. With Levi, this is all I needed to do for night-time training and within a month he was waking up dry. Crossing my fingers for the same luck this time because I have no idea how to go about night time training if it doesn't come naturally!  

So that's been the morning! It's actually kind of fun...it's an excuse to do absolutely no housework and pay undivided attention to the kids all.day.long!  It is usually tiring to do that because I have a list of things that also need to be done around the house. (I find it exhausting to feel like I'm constantly being pulled in two different directions) But when a day is set aside for a specific purpose, I don't know. I guess it just gives me extra energy to play! Here's hoping that a couple days from now we can say that we're officially diaper-free!!

P.s - if you want to read more about the 3 day potty training method that I'm using, just google it and you should be able to find some info on it. I know there's an ebook to purchase but you may find the gyst of it and maybe a few pointers anyway. Or you can keep following along here and ask me any questions you may have. I don't have all the answers but I have used it once before (though it was 2+ years ago already!).