Potty training can go take a flying leap.

Posted on September 13, 2012 by Lacey

I hate potty training. I have mentioned it before on here and twitter. And everyday to myself. I feel like we have been doing this for-ev-er!

We got a potty chair shortly after Parker turned one so he could get used to it and it would be there if he wanted to try. I also had a delusional goal of having him potty trained by his 2nd birthday. HA! Oh, I had no idea what I was in for and we are just a couple of weeks away from his 3rd, yes 3rd and golden birthday.

The strange thing is that he does great and I would call him “potty trained” as long as he is naked, but the second I put underwear, pants, pull up, or diaper on, he seems to lose all interest. I don’t know if he just forgets or doesn’t care. I’m so over having a naked child running around and that awkward moment when you answer the door and your kid is standing there without his pants is SO not my cup of tea. Also, please don’t think I haven’t considered that he is peeing a little on my carpet that I’m just not finding it, before he realizes he needs to go. Because I have considered it, and it kinda gives me nightmares. I’ve decided that we are not replacing the carpets until both kids are potty trained and until then I’m just really thankful we invested in our carpet cleaner.

We have done the “3 day method” with no real success. We have potty treats. He has special underwear. We have the potty chair that plays music. He has made a lot of progress, and I’m so proud of him for that because we have reached the point where he will go in any toilet, any where. He has left the house in underwear and done great and stayed dry. He has even pooped in the toilet. But he really has NO INTEREST. No commitment. No desire to be potty trained. To be a big boy. He is happy as a pig in mud to use his diaper/pull up and even underwear.

He has a potty training prize. A bike. We always go and look at them when we go to the store. He gets to pick out the one he likes and ride it a bit up and down the aisle. The whole time we are talking about what he needs to do before he can bring it home. He knows what he needs to do and he desperately wants it, but no. It still isn’t giving him the motivation. I’m tossing around the idea of buying one and putting it up in the garage so he can see it all the time and then he gets it at the end of the day if he has used the potty? Maybe?

Our pediatrician recommended backing off if after pushing it really hard for about a week or so with no real success. So that is where we are now. Taking a break for a couple of days. I frankly needed a break from washing out underwear and cleaning up pee off the floor. I’m still asking him throughout the day if he needs to go and I always get the screaming “NO!” in response.

I think he is ready, and I know he can do it because he has shown me that, but he is just lazy. Blah!

Anyone have any tips?

Milestones

Posted on August 26, 2012 by Lacey

These milestones just keep coming faster and faster! I don’t know if I can keep up. Charlotte is rolling over (B to F & F to B) babbling, cooing, playing with toys, sleeping through the night, etc. She has been hitting all of her milestones right on track and even some a bit early. Which is great, I’m thrilled that she is doing beautifully and is such a strong and healthy little. I truly couldn’t be happier. But like every parent says, they grow too fast! Bah! I just try to soak it up every day knowing that in a few short months she is going to be running around the house after her brother.

She it another milestone today. We started solids. Now I was going to wait until she was closer to 5 months to start on solids but like most of the time, plans changed. After talking with her doctor, and having him say that she was certainly developmentally ready to start whenever I wanted too, and that it would probably help with her spitting up. (And oh goodness does that girl puke. Parker NEVER spit up, so having a puke-y baby was quite a change of pace, and don’t ask me why but she would surprise me every time! You’d think I’d get used to it but, no.) So that along with her trying to snatch my food from my plate and my drinks we decided that it was time.

Here she is in all her messy cuteness! And Yes, the bib does indeed say “tax deduction” 😉

our first few days home

Posted on June 5, 2012 by Lacey

Since I have been on a “maternity leave” of sorts. I haven’t told all of you about our first week home. Which frankly kinda sucked. I had been looking so forward to having my husband home with us as he had taken 8 days off but things were so crazy that I hardly ever saw him.

So what happened? Charlotte and I were discharged after 24 hours (Tuesday night) at my request since labor and delivery went well and I was feeling great, I was understandably eager to get home and be with my family. Little ones are required to stay for 24 hours due to blood test(s) that have to be done at 24 hours old. One of which is a bilirubin test. (Can you guess where this is going?) But Charlotte’s bilirubin came back at 9.6 which was normal at that point so we were discharged with no concerns and an appointment was set for her to see her regular pediatrician in a couple of days.

I knew (everyone knew) just by looking at her that she was jaundice. She was orange with really yellow eyes,( if you could actually get her to open them) it was obvious, as she looked like she had had a spray tan that had gone very, very wrong.

So our pediatrician checked her bilirubin levels again on Thursday, and she was at 16.8. Anything over 17 and local policy is to admit the baby and put them under the “Bili-lights” for photo-therapy. Since she was so high but still “okay” we had to go back for a third check on Friday morning to see if it had gone up anymore, and lo and behold she was over 18. Meh.

Now, if you must have post delivery complications with either Momma or baby, this is the thing to have. As long as the baby is being monitored and treated if necessary, jaundice is not a big deal, just a giant pain in the ass. That being said, if ones bilirubin level gets really high it can be extremely dangerous so it does need to be monitored.

Charlotte was then admitted to the hospital for photo-therapy. Which means I was admitted to the hospital because there was no way in hell was I going to leave my brand new baby, plus I’m breastfeeding so the food kinda needed to be there too.

For photo therapy, all that happens is the baby get stripped down, the eyes are covered, and put they are put under this special light which makes it look like a baby tanning bed and she had to stay under the lights unless I was feeding her. That was the hardest part. Not being able to hold my baby that I waited so long to meet… Ugh. I have no idea how premi Momma’s and Daddy’s do it, they have my utmost admiration for being so strong.

Then after 30 hours under the lights we were discharged from the hospital. Again. Pretty simple. Not that big of a deal, just a pain. The lights only brought her level down to 14-15 if I remember correctly, so we still had to go back to the pedi that following Tuesday. I love our pediatrician and all, but seriously we were seeing way too much of each other.

The biggest issue for us with Charlotte being jaundice is the fact that it makes babies so tired which leads to extremely difficult breastfeeding as a sleeping baby doesn’t nurse well. So it has been a long and frustrating breastfeeding road so far, and unfortunately we are still fighting the sleepiness because Charlotte has what they call breast milk jaundice but I’ll get into all of that in a different post though.

Since I didn’t have a whole lot to do while sitting at the hospital other than staring at Charlotte in the baby baker I decided to snap a few pictures. Although it was a less than stellar couple of days in her life (at least for me, I honestly don’t think she cared) it happened and it is important to record that. I must admit that the pictures are kinda neat too. (these picture are straight off my camera and I didn’t edit anything)