Thursday, April 1, 2010

Pull-Up Protests

Well, I wanted to add another little potty-training tidbit. Basically, one day, Claire just clicked with the potty thing. I have head other parents say that, which frustrated me because, I would be like, no, really...HOW did you potty-train your child. Well, I guess I did read her tons and tons of books. Some we have...some were library books. Now I add other things in the books when we read them, because she's still very interested in them. I add things like, wash your hands WITH soap...hang up the towel when you're done. Turn off the bathroom light, etc. etc.

I think the thing that really did it for Claire was that I let her pick her own princess underwear out. She carried it all around the store and was so excited about it. I'll have to remember that when I my current baby boy in utero is ready to potty-train. There was just something really special to her about seeing the different kinds of undies then getting to pick the ones she wanted. Then of course she wanted to wear them!

And the challenge was that she wanted to wear them at night, but wasn't waking up dry all the time. She's had 2 bed-wetting in the past like 4 weeks...and of course both times, she was really upset. She told Daddy, "I peed in the bed all night!" I was like, dear Lord, that's a lot of pee. So here's my question...when do you wake your kid up and sit them on the potty at night...or do you?

She hated wearing the pull-ups to sleep in and protest. Then in the morning, she would run to her dresser, take off the pull-up and put on her panties BEFORE going pee in the morning. I don't want to confuse her by going back and forth...but I don't want to be changing sheets more than ... say once a week with a newborn. How often do you change sheets anyways? Well...and the problem is that it's not just the sheets...it will require full jammie and undie changing. She will have been laying down, so the pee will get on the shirt. I've ditched the footie jammies because she can't easily go potty in those. Also bye-bye super-cute overalls for potty independence...

Another thing we are working on with all the little summer dresses is sitting like a lady...making sure the dress is pulled down, etc. No more cute diaper covers in her size anymore! Yeah, so in the middle of the library, she pulls her dress up. And I don't mean just a little bit up. I mean, up to her chest. And goes, "Mommy, I HAVE TO GO PEE!" Nice. Luckily, she didn't pull her bottoms down...that would have been far worse. So things to work on...we'll get there eventually. In the meantime, I'll try to post these things for your entertainment. ;)

Practicing Slacking

So I'm practicing slacking off on the blog here in preparation for the new baby. Well, my biggest news is that I no longer "hate" all the boy names out there. We have come to an agreement on a handful that we both like, but we are going to wait to see his little face before we make our final selection. That's what we did with Claire, and it worked well for us. Besides, we revealed the gender, so we have to keep SOMETHING a secret. So don't ask me his name, because we REALLY don't know. And with Claire, she was a different name for about 2 months before we decided we didn't like it. Ha!

So don't ask me for our top names either because I don't want to reveal them either. Basically it's because I don't want any input. I made that mistake with Claire. People asked the top names we had and then would proceed to tell me which one to pick or what they didn't like, or how to spell them, etc. My thought on this: have a kid or another kid yourself you want to pick names. I try not to give people name advice either because it's really a very personal thing.

Let's see...in other big news...the past 3 nights I have laid down on Claire's bed with her and then she has nursed very briefly then told me, "Go in your own bed. I wanna sleep by myself." Really? This AP stuff has paid off! After 2 years and 8 months...she can fall asleep pretty much alone. :) Ha...And she's been doing great sleeping in her own bed all night AND staying dry all night! (YAY!)

What more could I ask for? Well, even though she's potty-trained, there are a lot of other "things" that go along with potty-training that we have yet to master. And I do mean WE because it's my job to teach her things like...not to use the TP if it falls on the floor. She also wants to throw the TP in those little "white houses" in the public restrooms? Why? I have no clue? Something fun? Have I mentioned she's been going into a public restroom stall by herself for about a month. Yeah...I would have never thought.

I used to stand outside the door very nervously, waiting for her to fall in our something. Well...at some point she figured out how to LOCK the door. I never "showed" her...she just figured out that's how the door will stay shut. I guess this is one good thing about her being so tall. She can get on and off alone.

And somewhere I seem to remember hearing that dresses were great for potty-training. Not true. See, they are long. This might be good for dresses three sizes too small, so they aren't long. ;) If they are too long, they are going to fall into the toilet water...eww...or she will accidentally pee on the front or back of the dress if it hangs down too far. Yeah...that's not fun.

We had the fun time of her locking herself in a stall in Valpo when I went up for Holly's shower two weekends ago. Luckily, I just told her to crawl underneath it. Then an about 8 year old came in and I told her that stall was empty, but then while we were washing hands, she couldn't get it open either, so she crawled out when she was done. Then I didn't feel so bad that Claire had gotten stuck! Things to learn...like sometimes you have to jiggles locks, etc!

Speaking or locking out, earlier this week, I went out to get the mail on a cooler day...too. I asked Claire if she wanted to come. She said no, which was unusual. She usually jumps at the chance, but she was busy playing. Well I was outside for all of 30 seconds or so, she locked me out. I had no key (obviously) and no phone with me. I was momentarily panicked. I could hear her messing with the doorknob lock and the deadbolt. Luckily, she unlocked it for me after I told her to, and the whole ordeal was over in less than 30 seconds. But it was a good lesson to me to either take her with or take my key! Also...I must remember that for the car! Sometimes I let her play in there if I unload groceries in the garage, but then my keys are with me anyways.

Another fun thing...Claire dumped an entire bag of grapes all over the floor at the grocery store. Was I supposed to pay for something like that? LOL...I stuck her in the cart and quickly walked away. I did tell the nearest employee there were grapes all over, but I didn't say it was us. And I do mean all over...I've never seen so many loose ones in a bag. Why do they even have those dang zip tops if they never shut them!?! Silly.

I've just been doing too much to sit down and write. I've been trying to keep up on laundry (always a challenge anyways) and keeping food stocked up...but we keep eating it, so that is a challenge too! :)

Well everyone keeps thinking he'll be here early. We are now 10 days away from my "dating" ultrasound...if that date even means anything anyways. So what are your predictions? Height? Weight? Birthdate? Email or comment. The closest one gets a prize! :) Kidding, that would require some sort of effort on my part.

Yeah, so Claire's potty-trained, sleeping pretty much on her own...and now we get to start all over...YAY. I actually just read an interesting blog post about how the best spacing between children is about 3 years. So we'll be about 3 months shy of that, but I think that's a pretty good estimate. I just don't know how people do it sooner! I really admire that! I'm actually looking forward to not having to get up to pee 42 times a night. I get up to pee, then drink some water. It's a vicious cycle because then I know I'll have to get up and pee again between my next sleep cycle, but...if I try to just take a tiny sip to wet my mouth, I end up waking up with a huge headache probably due to dehydration.

Anyways, I'm ready to bedshare again, and I am so not wasting any time with the crib crap...seriously...I value my sleep way to much to get up and down out of bed. A good night sleep like someone else said, is when my feet don't ever hit the floor! I'll have to probably roll over at first to nurse the newborn, but eventually, I can just lean over! And if Claire crawls back in bed once in awhile, that's fine! That's why there are 2 side of me to lay on. So much easier than dealing with tears or early wake-ups.

Yesterday, I went to the OB. I told Claire to have fun with Christopher when I dropped her off, and she goes, "No. No go to Dr. Go to hospital. Get baby out of tummy." That was cute. She has also informed me that it's HER baby, not mine. She will be changing all the diapers and .... get this...she will even be feeding it her nummies. Ha. Here's the really funny thing about his due date. She's picked up on it. I guess enough people have asked me that today when I was at the bank and the lady asked when I was due, Claire answered her! I was really shocked. "She goes, "About April 11th." I mean, she even got the about in there.

Well, I've got the third trimester tireds, and I am also trying to keep up on my sleep ... if that's possible, so I'm off to bed.

Tuesday, March 30, 2010