Early Potty Training Part 2

As I talked about in a previous blog post here, I'm potty training my almost 20 month old in hopes to have him trained before baby #2 arrives.  Which is in 7 weeks.  Eek!  My goals have changed some as I've gotten my feet wet (no pun intended) in the process.  We've been working on potty training somewhere between 4-6 weeks now.  Actually typing that makes it sound like a long time, but that's not every waking hour of everyday trying to sit L on the potty.  I've really tried to ease into it instead of a bootcamp approach.  I've learned that potty training early is more difficult because you have to help your little one learn the feeling of needing to pee & poo and take them to the potty every hour or so until they get it as opposed to them being a little older, knowing the feeling, but just refusing to do so on the potty.  I guess it can be a battle either way.

So the good news?  I think we are poop trained!  :)

The bad news - we are still working on pee training. :(

I have to say, though, as a cloth diapering momma I couldn't be happier about being poop trained!  It has been DAYS since I've had to clean a poopy diaper (or underwear.)  He poops 2-3 times per day and practically on command.  Well, I guess I've tuned into what times of day he needs to poop, but he knows what to do and really tries hard which makes me laugh everytime.

    *Another lesson I have learned is early potty trainers usually poop train first, later potty trainers poop train last.*

Pee is a LOT easier to clean up so it is fine by me!  On Sunday we were going to a friends house for playdate dinner and I decided to take L in his underwear, even though he's not exactly pee trained yet.  I kept telling myself if I always take him out in a diaper, he's never going to learn.  ::sigh::  Well, 2 underwear/pant changes later I put a diaper on him for the last hour or so of our playdate. (Sorry friend!)  I took him to use the potty 2-3 times but he seemed a bit scared and wouldn't use it so I guess that is a whole other challege.  Public potty.  I've decided I'm going to put one of those little potty seats in the car to use when we are out.  We have anywhere for a 30-45 minute drive anywhere we go so I'm pretty sure I will use it.  I've also made a point (for a couple weeks now) to sit L on the potty whenever we are out just to get him used to and comfortable with the idea of public pottys.  Let's be honest, I'm 33 weeks pregnant so I have to use the 'potty' every time we are out anyways!

I keep reading and hearing that toddlers tend to regress on PT when a new baby arrives.  I'm aware, but I'm also wondering if that is true or just something that people say.  If there's one thing I've learned it's that every tip/suggestion/old wives tale does NOT apply to every child.  I've also learned I tend to have lofty goals and get slammed with reality from time to time.  Ha!  No worries, I will post my successes & failures here for your reading pleasure!  I mean, who doesn't want to read about poop?

So my goal is still to have L fully potty trained by the time baby #2 arrives, however if he's not completely I'm not going to beat myself up over it.  I feel like he is making good progress and I'm taking it one day at a time in teaching him (and one day at a time with this pregnancy because I am SOOOOOOOOO DONE!)

And can I just repeat the best part about this entire post? 

 

No

 

More

 

Poopy

 

Diapers!

 

 

...at least for a few weeks. ;)

Baby Girl's Nursery Part 3

Well this isn't a breaking news or a major update on the nursery.  Just me getting all of my ducks in a row.  I think we have all of the necessities done so unless I get motivated to do a couple of projects I have in mind (button monogram framed for L & E or yarn wrapped letters) this will have to do.

The changing station is complete: 

 

The changing pad is secured to the dresser, the newborn diapers have been washed & prepped, and I hung these two shelves for a little extra storage.

They are about eye level, though they look higher in this picture. Sorry there's nothing pretty sitting on the shelves, just pratical things - Grandma El's Organic Diaper Balm, a couple snappis, a container w/cotton balls & qtips, newborn baby booties, baby wash clothes & a spray bottle. I was hoping to find a dark pink, or raspberry colored changing pad cover, but I was able to tie in colors from Landon's nursery so this blue works just fine. Clothes are all washed and put away!

I should label this picture as an epic fail but, eh sometimes you just have to work with what you have. 

 

We clearly bought the bins for this cheap, $20 shelf, too big. But, I only planned to use two bins, and have the middle shelf to store blankets or something else so I said the hay with it this will work just fine. I like the size bins we purchased so...there!

I think we are ready for baby!  Now I just need to survive the next 7 weeks!

Pink Diapers

If you know me at all then you know my love affair with cloth diapers.  I'm proud to say that the love affair is a healthy one. 

In other words - no, I do not spend hundreds of dollars on every single adorable diaper I see(as tempting as it may be!)  We have a healthy, mutual love affair where I buy just enough to cloth diaper my child and they do their job by keeping everything, ahem, 'contained.'

Among other reasons, I choose to cloth diaper to save money and I honestly have.  To date I estimate I've spend somewhere between $500-700 on diapering Landon and all of those diapers can/will be used on Baby Girl coming in October. 

But.

When a friend was selling her girly diapers she no longer uses and offered me first dibs, how could I resist?  For under $100 I added everything you see below to my stash. 

 

Yay for pink!  I've added 5 adorable diaper covers, 2 all-in-ones (the hand & owl prints) and 4 fitteds.  I really didn't use fitteds with Landon because prefolds are SO much cheaper that I never bought any.  They are, however, SO much easier so I'm pretty excited about these.  I'll probably use the fitteds when we are out and prefolds at home.  Easy while out of the house = happiness!  I also added a stack of newborn size prefolds (& of course one pink snappi!)

 

I have a HUGE stash of size small prefolds that I used with Landon but the newborn size will fit better during the first month or two.  It's fun to be adding diapers to my stash that weren't necessary but will make life a little easier and well lets be honest, REALLY DARN CUTE!!

Pirates and Projects

Chris managed to get a 4-day weekend before his training schedule winds up again.  It's also the last weekend we had with him before he takes off for just over a month of training so we crammed a lot of fun, projects, cleaning, and just hanging out into a short amount of time.

The dresser drawers provided a good race track for Landon's trucks while we waited for Chris to finish up some last minute work Friday morning.  We painted the first coat on the dresser & side table then relaxed the rest of the day.



Saturday was designated as a "fun" day so we drove up to Alexandria Bay for Bill Johnston's Pirate Days.  Landon was more interested in the kids pirate gear (like the little girl to the left of Chris) than the actual pirates out on the lake.  We caught up with some friends for lunch at the Bay and after watching the pirates we also had dinner with them closer to home.

Pirates!

 

Sunday we made another trip to Lowes.  I swear projects never happen with just one trip!

As a refresher, here is the before of the dresser.  I never did get a close up.  This was my dresser growing up and I think it belonged to someone in the family before me.  It's off white with gold trim and gold-ish handles that had been painted white - many, many years ago. 

Our second Lowes trip was to look for dresser hardware as I failed to take one of the originals on my first trip to get the proper size.  I had picked out glass/clear handles that I thought were just perfect for a little girls room.  Turns out not one single handle at Lowes was the right size for our dresser.  Fantastic!  I suggested spray painting the ones we have so we traded $45 worth of hardware for a $6 can of spray paint and this was the result:

I think we made the right choice! 

Here is the dresser finished!

We also painted the little side table that's in the "before" picture.

We used Lowes giftcards and existing furniture in Baby Girl's nursery so we have spent $0 to date!  Not bad! 

It's been a full and fun weekend but now it's back to reality.

Adventures in early Potty Training

Once we found out we were expecting again, I knew I wanted Landon potty trained before the new baby arrived.  I was very careful about saying so too much because talking about early potty training is often met with looks, comments, and "boys don't potty train till after 3!"  I knew it would be a lot of work and I was diving into new territory but honestly every step of the way with a baby is new territory.  You learn as you grow!  With all of that said...

Potty training is a B*$#@! :)

 We started the process about three weeks ago, after returning from a month long visit down South with family.  I feel like I researched and read everything out there trying to determine my approach: 

-articles for early potty training (the rest of the world potty trains by 15-18mo)
-articles against early potty training (teaching your toddler to hold his bowels can cause lifetime
             bladder & incontinence problems)
-bootcamp method (have you toddler potty trained in 3 days)
-bribery (3 m&m's for pee pee and 5 m&m's for poop)
-casual (my toddler can tell me when he's ready to use the potty)
-naked (prepare for lots of cleanup)

        I could go on but you get the point.  There is an argument for practically every approach.  Ultimately I decided I wanted to go ahead and begin potty training now, at 18mo, even though I knew it would be more labor intensive, but I wanted to approach potty training like every other change so far (no more bottles, big boy bed, etc.)  Treat it as the new normal and go with the flow. 

So how are we doing?

Surprisingly good!  This post would have had a totally different tone 3-4 days ago though.  Lesson #1 - there is a whole new definition of patience when it comes to potty training.  Lesson #2 - Potty training early means a lot of teaching.  For example, teaching Landon what peeing and pooping even means.  I guess I kinda of knew this because I wanted to teach him early that pee & poop belong in the toilet, not his pants and I wanted him to know this before he got comfortable with it in his pants, lol.  At first I tried running him to the potty what felt like every 10 minutes, trying to anticipate when he was going to go.  Turns out, what I really needed to do was leave him in his training pants, let him start peeing and feel it running down him leg and then run to the potty and explain that THAT is what using the potty means.  Like I said earlier - early potty training is labor intensive.  I honestly wore myself out for a several days, got frustrated many times, then took a step back and realized my "laid back" approach had quickly been thrown out the door.  So then I decided to focus on key times that he would likely potty.  First think in the morning, right after nap time, and after dinner/bath. 

This week it seems that something has clicked!  He's using the potty every morning and in the past few days has done #1 & #2 a handful of times!  Yay!  Is he still messing in his diapers some, absolutely.  But he really seems to understand now.  Even if he pees in his diaper he comes and tells me "ba, ba" while pointing to his diaper as it's happening.  And then there's the time I went to his room after nap, smelled poop and saw a naked kid looking at me saying "uh-oh!", lol.  Thankfully the poop was only in his diaper BUT he knew that after it happened he shouldn't be in his diaper anymore so he just took it off.  Ohhhh the fun!  

We definitely still have a ways to go, but I can tell that we are making great progress and feel confident that we can be all or mostly potty trained by the time baby gets here in about 9 weeks!

As always, I will keep you posted!  That is, if you want to be!

Stuck on a dresser

I was preparing to write an update on potty training today but my experience about 10 minutes ago takes precedence today.

So Landon was supposed to be napping but as I listened over the monitor he was playing instead.  No big deal, sometimes he will just play for an hour then quietly request to come out of his room.  But, today that pitiful (fake) whiny moan just won't stop.  I decide to go check on him thinking he's probably pooped and unsettled because of it (more on that later.)

When I open the door...I don't know how.  Or why.  But the child is sitting on top of his dresser, legs dangling off.  Everything that had been on top of the dresser is on the floor below him.  He's clearly stuck and can't figure out how to get down (hence the whining) and just as a bonus sticks his finger out to me that is covered in poo.


OH the joys of having a toddler!  :)

Baby Girl's Nursery Part 2

We completed Step 1 a few weeks ago with a yard sale, although I still have a pile of stuff in the garage waiting for the Salvation Army to pick up.  Er, make that waiting for me to call the Salvation Army to come pick up.

We made progress this weekend on Step 2 - switching beds & putting lots of other 'stuff' in the attic.  We put the full mattress & box springs in Landon's room.

For about 3-4 months he'd been sleeping in his crib with one side removed.  We debated buying  a toddler or twin bed but ultimately decided a bed we already owned made a lot more sense then buying a new one.

This is view 1 of Baby Girl's room.  We at least have the correct furniture in there now!  This dresser & side table belonged to me growing up so I'm excited to use it for her room.  Hopefully we'll give it a little facelift if we find the time and motivation!

View 2 of Baby Girl's room.  There's lots of work yet to be done but I'd say we had a successful weekend!

 After all of the furniture clean-up and switching Landon I peeked in to check on him in his new bed.  Success!  I'm so thankful he's such an easy going and adaptable little guy!

A boy & his dog

A few weeks ago, in the middle of all of the back & forth to Virginia, we had to put our older dog, Max, down.  He was a lounge around kind of dog and would let Landon crawl all over and do anything to him.

Tucker has always been a tad more jumpy & skiddish, but gradually warming up to having a baby/toddler around.  After Max was put down, Tucker became the unfortunate target of Landon's daily jungle gym and his hang out buddy.  While they do give me daily heart attacks (like L's latest obsession with sitting directly under Tucker when he's looking out the window) moments like this captured below do make me smile. 

There is something about a boy and his dog. :)

Have a great weekend!