A Good Day

Today was a good day. Even though Zachary nursed twice – at 2:30 and at 5:30 am – he woke up at 6:30 for no reason and then at 7:30 to nurse some more in semi-sleep (I open the curtains to create “morning” and we curl in bed, nursing. He’s all warm and smells of sleep and milk and a bit of old spit-up, and as he dreamily slowly sucks, he touches my skin with his delicate fingers, It makes my heart flutter.

Hubby and Timothy make a brief appearance, Timothy all happy to see me, giving me a kiss, and then they’re off to have breakfast.

Then Zachary finishes and we cuddle a bit more and then I unzip his sleeping sack – and immediately he’s stretching. His legs go long and rigid, his massive thighs on dimply, his arms sticking out at funny angles… streeeeetch. I grab his feet – they’re always slightly sweaty (we call him Spiderman as if his has sticky feet so that he can climb buildings 🙂 ) and play a bit of pickaboo with his feet.

We change the diaper, coo back and forth (Zachary loves, loves, loves talking) and pop into the washroom to look at our reflection. Zachary always flirts with himself, smiling shyly, hiding in my shoulder, then stealing furtive glances at himself. Cute 🙂

We go downstairs and Timothy rushes to tell me that he pooped and peed on a potty, shining with pride.

They leave and Zachary and I go about our morning, Zachary agreeing to spend some time in the exersaucer as I am having breakfast.

After a short while, he’s ready for his first nap. We’re in the middle of training him to nap in his crib. A week ago, when we started, it took 50 minutes for him to settle down. Now he usually settles down within 5-10 minutes. I rush through shower-teethbrushing-etc.

We have a walk in the park planned with other moms and babies this am, so I actually end up waking Zachary up so as not to be late. We have a nice long walk along the lake, Zachary has another nap while we walk. We stop for nursing and changing, spend some time playing with the babies on the blanket on the grass right by the water in a cool breeze. The breeze brings a rain, which we wait over grouped under the tree and then trek back once the rain turns into spitting.

By the time we’re back – it’s way past lunch time and we’re starving. We waltz into a nearby thai restaurant and end up sitting there for nearly 3 hours, chatting, bouncing babies, nursing. Zachary is pretty cool. He whines a bit, but is for the most part happy to sit in my lap and look around – or jump. He’s all about bouncing these days. I think this must have been the first time he was up for 3 consecutive hours (not counting the screaming runs he had in his first month).

We finally say good-bye to our mom and baby friends at 4 pm and drive to pick up Timothy from daycare. Zachary promptly falls asleep in the car. We pick up Timothy – one peeing accident at daycare today. His teacher says he’s ready to be transferred to preschool, as far as requirements go. So it depends on spot availability whether he’ll transition in August or September. Can hardly wait – that’s a few hundreds less per month!!!

As Zachary is sleeping, Timothy and I linger and play a bit. We pretend that the staircase is a sea and there’s a crocodile living there, trying to bite our feet. We keep running to check whether the crocodile is still there and then running away fast, saving our feet from the cannibalistic crocodile.

We drive home, leave Zachary on the ground floor in his carseat to continue his nap and go upstairs to have dinner. Timothy is enjoying his cereal with milk these days and thankfully he’s getting better at getting the milk in his mouth. Less and less milk gets spilled in the process. Although he still hasn’t figured out which hand is the main one for him. He uses both interchangeably, I can’t notice any preference whatsoever.

Zachary wakes up, I nurse him and then stick him in the jolly jumper, where he happily jumps for half an hour as Timothy and I cook chicken (well, I cook and Timothy pushes the ladder around the kitchen watching everything I do, asking question, and insisting it’s his turn to stir).

Hubby comes home earlier than usual, family is happily busy. Hubby spends some time with Zachary, allowing me to take the long-awaited bathroom break. Then Timothy poops on the potty. Yay!

And then it’s time for bed. More nursing, quick beeline into Timothy’s room for the night’s hug and kiss, and kids are in bed and it’s time for us the adults to chat and dine and relax…

Ah, that was a nice day. Unlike yesterday 🙂

One of those days

All was well enough. Slept in until almost 8 am, played, had a nap, then I had my yoga, a 2-hour nap, lots of good playing after…

Towards the third nap I decided to walk with the double stroller to pick Timothy up. It was warm but not sunny, so not too hot. On the way there Zachary fell asleep. Life seemed well.

And then while I waited for Timothy to pee before leaving, Zachary woke up. I thought he’d fall asleep on the way back. No. He screamed, sometimes sounding more like a firetruck or an ambulance for 15 minutes. All the way Timothy was asking to walk, but a screaming baby AND Timothy’s antics was too much to bear.

Then Zachary quieted down so I let Timothy walk. Then he bolted and I abandoned the stroller, caught him, brought him back. Now I had screaming Timothy.

Then as we neared home, Timothy wanted to sit on a bench. Which we did, peacefully. For maybe 2 minutes. Then Zachary started fussing again and it started to rain.

Then we had the big take-your-shoes-off standup, during which Timothy tried to break the gates on the staircase,

At home there was more crying from Zachary, while Timothy pooped in his pants. Then after shower he peed on the floor in the living room. Then he threw toys on the floor. Then he poured water on the floor from a cooler. Then he tore some paper with his drawings into pieces.

All the while Zachary was crying and spitting up and pooping and nursing.

Then finally he fell asleep while Timothy was pacified with Thomas cartoon.

Peace and quiet? For 5 minutes. Then Zachary woke up cause his foot got caught up in the railings. Not to fall back to sleep again.

Queue more crying. And more. And more.

On days like this I lose my temper. On days like this I feel like a failure of a mother. On days like this I wonder how on Earth others manage sitting at home with two kids 24/7. Well, some have kids with a bigger age difference – that helps. At least their older kids don’t try to get hit by a car and can grab a yogurt when hungry. But how do those with two smallish kids survive? And why I am such a mess after only a couple of hours?

I need a break. I am exhausted. And the fact that Zachary decided to wake up 5 times per night isn’t helping, either.

Sigh.

Potty Training in 3 days: Week 4

It’s been 3.5 weeks since we did the 3-day potty training thing. I think there were no pee accidents in the past week.

he still poops quite a bit in his undies and on the floor, but for the past three days half of his poops went in the potty/toilet! Half cause he usually poops twice a day. So for the past three days one went where it should and one ended up on the floor/in the undies. The positive thing is that he goes and sits on the potty on his own when he feels he needs to go, without our suggestions.

What seems to be the problem is that a) it’s quite abrupt when he needs to poop, he doesn’t see it coming, and b) even bigger issue is he seems not to know how to hold it. He has no problem holding pee for hours, but when he needs to poop – he poops. If he’s next to a potty – then he’ll poop there. If he’s not next to one – then it’ll go in his undies or on the floor… Sigh.

I don’t know how to force him to learn how to pull his pants up and down and how to put and take off his shoes. And he can’t move up to preschool before he learns that. He resists. He wants me to do it. He’s seeking my attention this way, I know. But he needs to learn. He officially is the oldest kid in his class, with amazingly advanced speech, getting bored with the toddlers who barely talk 😦

On the bright side, we ditched the pacifier, finally. He only slept with it, and it was handy for traveling and being sick, but yesterday he threw it in the toilet. And we had to say bye-bye. there were tears, but all in all it went well. He had no issues falling asleep.

Potty Training in Three Days: Week 3

On the weekend Timothy pooped on a potty, on his own. He just walk to the potty, sat on it, and pooped, like he’s been doing it all his life. Without our questions, suggestions, and requests. Oh, the cheer of it!

And then we went out for the full day. We left at 9 am and came back at 6 pm, and Timothy didn’t have a single accident! We took a bus and subway to go to a museum downtown (we expected Timothy to be excited, he loves vehicles, but he… wasn’t). He remained dry to whole way there (about an hour) and upon arrival he didn’t pee, either. But then he peed when we were leaving the museum (we brought him to the washroom again).

We went for a walk and then went to have lunch, they went to wash hands but he didn’t pee. He did pee after lunch, though.

Then we walked around and Timothy fell asleep in the stroller, slept, woke up – and remained dry until we stopped for another pee in a mall.

And then he remained dry the whole way home – this time we took a streetcar.

We were so proud of him!

But then he went to daycare yesterday and pooped in his underwear, again. And peed – either while asleep, or right after waking up, they aren’t sure.

So with us at home he’s down to zero accidents. At daycare it’s a bit harder – I guess because it’s a bit harder. The potty is not right in the middle of the room (they have a bathroom adjacent to their room) and he can’t undress himself, so he always needs to ask for help (while at home he just sits and pees).

We’re planning to ditch diapers for night time sleep soon. We just need to get around to removing the front part of his crib so that he can get up and pee if he needs to. And we need to teach him to take his pants off…

I am proud. But I am sad, too. It’s like the last touch of babyhood is gone. The changing chest of drawers is unused and empty now, the drawer full of diapers is full of diapers (with only one a night being used), the half used tube of diaper cream not in use any longer… he’s growing up. Fast.

Potty Training in Three Days – Weeks 2 (continuing from previous post)

Good news: Timothy is learning to hold his poo. No poop-filled underwear today.

Bad news: He can’t hold it all in. Underwear wasn’t poop-filled, but it was poop-smeared.

Good news: No pee accidents today (well, one pair of underwear was a bit wet so they changed it… but shorts remained dry)

Bad news: He hasn’t pooped in 2 days.

Potty Training in Three Days – Week 2

When Timothy is at home, with no pants – he has no accidents. He runs around playing, and then whenever he needs to pee – he just sits on the potty, pees, and keeps running around.

Timothy has no problem napping with no diaper. He pees afterwards.

When we’re out and about, things get tricky. He says he needs to pee – and holds it until we get to the bathroom. But he holds it so efficiently that by the time we’re in a washroom, he doesn’t wanna pee anymore. We leave and then 5 minutes later he pees down his leg, crying because he wanted but couldn’t hold it this time.

He is still figuring out the poop thing. He did poop once in a potty, and he did start pooping on the floor and finished on a potty. But most of the time he says his bum hurts, sits on the potty, pees, and leaves. He doesn’t understand that for #2 you have to sit on a potty for a bit longer…

But all in all, things are progressing nicely, I’d say 🙂

Potty Training in Three Days – Day 7

Timothy’s diaper was rather wet this morning and he didn’t pee right away after waking up.

He peed later just before leaving for daycare – in the potty.

At daycare, he had one poop accident and one pee accident – but the rest all went into potty.

He still goes long in-between peeing. He holds for a long time. Three hours is his norm, it seems.

At home, he wet his underwear a bit before peeing on the potty. Yes, once again I didn’t take his pants off when he got home, but I should have…

All in all, my understanding is that it’s going rather well. Another mom told me today that potty training’s main goal is to get kids to pee when they want, not when you want them to pee. Her daughter pees if you put her on a potty, but if you don’t – she won’t ask for the potty and would just pee in her pullup. Timothy does decide on his own when he needs to go, he just sometimes gets too absorbed in his activities…

Potty training in Three Days – Day 6

This morning his diaper was wet. Not too wet, but wet.

He didn’t pee after getting up (so I assume he peed in the diaper when he woke up, not during the night) but as he was running around naked, he stopped and, sounding distressed, announced that he peed. But no, he didn’t pee. He pooped on the floor. The good thing is we have hardwood floor, and – even better – the turd fell in such a way that it was on one board, so there was no risk of poop getting stuck in between the floor boards (yuck).

Mess cleaned up, he peed in the potty and on he went.

They didn’t put diaper on him at all at daycare today. Even for naptime.

He had another poop accident before nap – he pooped in his underwear. But he didn’t pee, the underwear was dry. He didn’t pee while he napped. Then he peed a lot in the potty – at 1:30 PM. He didn’t pee for like 5 hours! Crazy, for his age.

Then a few minutes later he had an accident (I already noticed at home that he often is too quick to jump up in triumph that he peed, not emptying the bladder properly and needs to pee soon, again).

And then he didn’t pee for the rest of the day at daycare.

Then he peed in his pants at home as he was watching cartoons (that’s IT, from now on we insist he always goes bare-bum at home, as the methodology suggests.

And then as he was running around naked, he stopped in his tracks with his legs together: uh-oh! I grabbed him and put him on the potty and in went another turd. I am not sure if he pooped on the potty, or if he pooped earlier and the turd simply didn’t fall down on the floor, but we praised and praised and praised. First poop in the toilet!

So… we’ll see. I am not sure if he regressed because they confused him in daycare with all the diapers, or if this is just normal (accident are bound to happen anyway… many kids have an occasional accident even when they’re 5-6 years old), so we’ll see.

But there’s no going back. Now diapers are only for night time sleep. And even then I plan to ditch soon.

 

Potty Training in Three Days – Day 5

Today Timothy woke up with almost dry diaper. He peed in it just a tiny little bit, I’d say right before we came to get him based on how wet it felt on the outside, but light as a feather.

But then while he was proudly running around naked, he started peeing on the floor (although I kept trying to make him go on the toilet after a full night’s sleep). He was a bit upset, but he didn’t pee too much on the floor and the rest went into the toilet.

And then he peed some more into the potty in the living room.

I can’t tell how exactly things were at daycare today – when I picked him up there was only the caregiver with a very heavy accent, I have problems understanding her. From what I gathered, he was in diapers for both outings, and for the nap – and they put a diaper on him after nap so that he would poop.

I was very upset. Why did they keep diapering him?! She asked (surprised) if I want to keep him out of diapers. Well, doh! That’s why we did this 3-day thing! By putting him in diapers they’re sending confusing messages and are slowly undoing what we did 😦 When we got home, his diaper was wet 😦 And once I removed it, the very first time he started peeing into his underwear. So  I took the underwear off, just like the methodology suggests doing for 3 months, and then he was peeing into the potty.

Hubby and I are considering putting him diaperless for the nights and naps, too – since his diaper was almost dry this morning. Leap of faith here. We didn’t do it today, though, for now hubby is sick with a very high fever, so he really is not fit to deal with night time wakings should Timothy wet the bed and wake him up.

I also made a mistake today (I think it was a mistake): I bought a toy firetruck for Timothy and showed it to him and told him he’ll get it once he poops on the potty. Rest of the evening was spent listening to his whining for firetruck and demanding it each time he peed. He was upset 😦 I don’t think I should have showed it to him.

Anyway… we`ll how it goes. I hope too much diapering today didn`t  harm too much…

Potty Training in Three Days: Day 4, Back to Daycare

So Timothy went back to daycare today (his fever disappeared and he was back to being his sunny self).

He was soooo proud telling everyone in the morning that he now pees in the potty!

And although the staff seemed a bit sceptical about his abilities, they went along with it for it is time for him to learn anyway. And they were blown away!

I won’t say he didn’t have accidents. He had – two, one of which was pooping in his underwear and the other one – peeing. But the rest was all great!

They put underwear on him both times when they went to the playground. The diaper remained dry both times!

He peed a drop in his underwear when we got home, but he got on a potty just in time. So little pee escaped, the shorts remained dry.

I am so proud of my boy! And oh how proud he is of himself! ❤