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So, as you all know, Lily is in the throws of potty training.  Really, the training part is over, she mostly knows what she is doing now, there are just a couple things that we need to work on.  One of those things is the night-time training.  She can’t seem to hold it for the whole night.  No biggie, she generally wakes up around 2:00am, I make her go to the potty where she cries while she pees, then she goes back to bed and wakes up accident-free!  And, the rewards of how proud I am in the morning outweighs the downfall of her crying for 5 minutes maximum in the middle of the night.  The other issue is getting her to poop on the toilet consistently.  In trying to get her to poop on the potty in the first place I tried to convince her with a reward; if she pooped on the potty she could have one of her valentine’s chocolates.  She really wanted a chocolate, but she certainly did not want to poop on the toilet.  She held her poop for four days before finally pooping on the toilet and getting her first reward.  She was very proud of herself and very excited to get a chocolate.  However, this was not motivation enough to keep her pooping on the toilet.  She would poop on the toilet one day, then in her panties the next.  She did, however, stop holding her poop after this which was a great step in the right direction.  She is now pretty consistently pooping on the toilet, she still has an accident once in a while.  But, this is where I come to the downside of her rewards.  Yesterday, before we ate lunch, I got her to sit on the toilet.  She insisted that she had to have a poop so she could get a chocolate.  She pushed, hard, for a good ten minutes.  I kept telling her that if she didn’t have a poop in her belly that was okay and she could try again later.  This was not satisfactory.  After watching her cry over not being able to poop I pulled her off the toilet.  She wouldn’t let me put her clothes back on, she sat down on the bath mat and threw a tantrum.  Now, this is not her usual attitude.  She often tries to poop with no success because she wants a chocolate.  Yesterday she was extra tired and extra hungry.  However, watching her throw a naked tantrum over not being able to poop made me wonder how I am ever going to be able to stop the rewards.

So, I have been slacking a little in my potty training updates.  After Day 4 nothing really seemed all that important.  However, today, Lily had two huge accomplishments and I am feeling very proud of her.  First thing in the morning when she got up and sat on the potty her diaper was completely dry!  That’s about 12 hours with no pees!  Which would not surprise me as much if she slept straight through but she woke up a couple times through the night and was awake at least an hour in the diaper before going to bed.  That was a great start to my day.  It was a little spoiled by her accidents in the morning.  She had a big accident and then about five minutes later she had another.  Momma was very frustrated, especially since yesterday she decided that after having Momma outside her bedroom door for an hour it would be a great idea to stand up and pee on her sleep toys as soon as Momma goes downstairs.  This whole potty training thing felt like it was going so well until yesterday at nap time, then I became quite frustrated with her.  However, this afternoon, after actually having a nap, she redeemed herself!  She had a small accident, but when she got on the toilet she had a poop!  So, Momma didn’t really pay much attention to the small accident she had.  She was so proud of herself, and Momma was very proud of her as well!  We had a great afternoon, until she had another accident.  I assumed that after having had the poop she would not have so many accidents.  Momma began feeling a bit annoyed again, but I got her on the potty again to have a pee and all was well.  She was fine, until after supper when she decided that it would be a good idea to poop in her pants.

But, all in all, the five accidents were entirely out-weighed by the dry diaper in the morning and the poop on the toilet.  Hoping for a better day all around tomorrow!

Day 4 began with an accident.  A rather frustrating accident, but it didn’t really seem to bother me as much as the accidents on day 2.  We sat Lily on the potty first thing before changing her from the diaper to her panties.  She protested saying that she couldn’t pee.  I assumed that this was because she had just had her pee in her diaper and allowed her to get down without a pee.  My mistake!  We went downstairs to get some milk, our usual morning routine.  I gave her a cup and she went into the living room with it while I got my chocolate milk made with NesQuick ready.  Before I could finish mixing my milk she came back into the kitchen telling me she needed to go on the potty.  We went straight upstairs, I was feeling pretty good that she came to me instead of peeing on the floor.  Then, when she took her panties off, they were wet.  She sat on the potty anyway with no success.  We went downstairs, I got the pee cleaned up and we carried on with our morning.  I made sure to get her back to the potty soon after to get that first pee in the toilet, she always seems to do fine once she has a pee in the toilet.  And, it worked.  She was accident-free from that point until we got back from gymnastics.  After gymnastics she went right to the potty when we got home and had a pee.  Then, we went downstairs so I could start making lunch.  She came into the kitchen again and complained that her leg was dirty.  When I looked at her pants there was a little wet spot, I asked her if she peed and she said yes.  We went back up to the potty.  This was a tiny accident but it didn’t make much sense, she had just peed, there shouldn’t have been any pee left for this one.  I got her a clean pair of panties and we went back to making lunch.  After lunch she had another pee on the toilet, but she needed to poop, she cried while she was on the potty.  When she went to bed I hung out near her door so I could grab her when she pooped.  A delivery came, and in the time I was downstairs to get it she pooped.  I cleaned her up, got her back into bed and for the rest of the day she was accident-free.  At supper time she was dry for almost two hours, the longest stretch yet, I was quite impressed!

So, we had a very exciting and quite eventful day today.  One of the things I have been dreading through this process is travel.  Since the nearest place that I would actually stop to take her to a toilet is roughly a 15 minute drive from our house, trips out of the house are a little daunting.  I had decided, however, that I wanted to take Lily swimming this week.  And, potty training or not, that is exactly what I did today!  I put a plastic bag and a towel down on the car seat in case she had an accident on the way to the pool, I brought two changes of clothes including clean panties in case of accidents while we were out.  To my surprise, Lily made it for the 20 minute drive to the nearest swimming pool with no accidents.  She even made it inside and had a pee on the big toilet in the locker room before going in to swim.  She had another pee on the big toilet when we got out of the pool.  She also made it the whole way home, which took a little longer because pregnant Momma couldn’t wait to get home to eat so she had to go through the McDonald’s (I know, yuck!) drive thru before heading home.  And, to make matters worse, they forgot to put my cookies in the bag!  I didn’t notice until I had already driven ahead a bit so I had to find a parking spot, take my potty training toddler out of her car seat where she was happily watching Rio and eating gummies to go inside and get the two silly cookies that the inept people working the drive thru couldn’t bother to throw in my bag.  So, by 1pm, when we got home, I was already feeling amazingly proud of my big girl!

After eating lunch (Lily had left overs from her supper last night, not McDonald’s) Lily peed on the potty and went to bed.  I hung out near her room because she had not yet pooped and I was anticipating another poop accident like the day before.  It took her a little over half an hour and me taking one of her bed time toys away for her to finally fall asleep.  She slept for about two hours.  In all that time that she was in bed, from around 2pm until just before 5pm, she was completely accident-free!  After her nap, she once again did not want to go on the potty.  We cuddled on the floor by the bathroom door for a few minutes until I finally said it was time and asked her if she wanted to climb on the potty herself or if she wanted me to put her on the potty.  She reluctantly put herself on the potty and had a pee.  She was accident-free until I took her upstairs for her bath around 7:45pm – that’s a full 12 hours!

She has yet to have a poop on the potty.  But, this fact does not diminish this win for us!  Hopefully tomorrow will go just as well.  We have gymnastics in the morning, so we will see how she does there!

Yesterday was the second day of our second attempt at potty training Lily.  Already a much bigger success than our first attempt since that only lasted one morning.  The day started off much the same as day one.  Lily sat on the toilet first thing in the morning with no success, was put into panties and continued with her morning.  Shortly after a second failed attempt at peeing on the potty Lily had two consecutive accidents maybe only 10 minutes apart.  Unlike day one, however, I found that these first two accidents frustrated me greatly, mostly because moments before the first accident I specifically asked her if she needed to use the potty, she said no and proceeded to go into her room to pee on the floor.  After the second accident, I explained to Lily my frustrations, took a deep breath and tried to carry on in a positive way.  From that point on she was accident-free until about 1pm.  At was at this point that she was supposed to be napping but instead was pooping in her bed.  I quickly cleaned her up, sat her on the toilet where she did finish her poop, and then put her back into bed and sternly reminded her that it was time for a nap.  She asked to sit on the potty one more time in an attempt to avoid her nap, she did nothing when she sat on the toilet, but shortly after she did fall asleep.  She slept for somewhere between one and two hours – with no accidents!  I should also mention that prior to this day, Lily would not allow herself to pee on the toilet if she needed to poop, but she did successfully pee on the toilet twice prior to her accident in bed.  So, although I was a little disappointed that she did not poop on the toilet, it was a huge step in the right direction for her.

After her nap, I had to wake her up because I work on Tuesday nights in Dartmouth.  She got up, I took her in the bathroom and told her she needed to sit on the potty.  She had a melt-down!  She cried and told me that she couldn’t pee on the potty.  She climbed onto my lap and we cuddled for a moment, then I told her it was time and she could either climb on the potty herself or I would have to put her there.  She stood up to take her panties off and cried.  I finally got her to climb up on the toilet and she cried some more.  We hugged for a minute while she was on the toilet, I asked her if she wanted books or songs, she said no to every option.  Then I took my phone out of my pocket and started showing her the pictures on my phone.  This made her stop crying – apparently she’s a little vain as the majority of the photos are of her.  Once she stopped crying she was able to pee immediately.  Since we were going to be in the car for at least half an hour, I asked her if we could switch to diapers.  She wasn’t interested.  So, I offered to let her keep her panties on if I could put the diaper over the panties, she agreed.  So, that was essentially the end of day two, a little earlier than the end of day one, but we ended on a high note!

So, yesterday was the first day of our second attempt at potty training.  My expectations were low after the first go around, I anticipated many accidents in the morning and back to diapers by lunch.  I was trying to keep positive about the accidents and trying to let Lily know that because she was still learning it was perfectly okay to have accidents and to go back to diapers after a short time.  Lily surprised me!

She put her first pair of big girl panties on at 7:40 in the morning.  By 9:30 she had already had two small accidents quite close together, I began to worry that there would be no success on day one, but tried to keep positive.  We talked about how accidents happen sometimes and how we have to listen to our bodies and use the toilet when we need to pee.  For her birthday, Lily got a book called “Elmo’s Potty Book.”  On the first page Elmo tells the readers that the best part about learning to use the potty is getting to wear big kid underwear.  So, for most of the day yesterday, Lily was talking about how she was a big kid wearing her big girl panties.  After her second accident, Lily had four successful trips to the potty with no accidents in between; she even left the lunch table to have a pee before she was finished eating!  After lunch she sat on the toilet again with no success, I did not expect another pee because she had just gone, however, I was worried that if she didn’t try she might have an accident in her bed.  So, she went off to bed.  This is where MY stress began.  She decided not to sleep, but even if she does not sleep she is expected to stay in bed and rest, and ultimately try to have a snooze.  This resulted in two more accidents.  Each time I asked her if she wanted to go back to diapers assuring her that we could give the big girl panties another try the next day.  Each time, she chose the big girl panties without hesitation.  When I finally let her get up, she went another couple hours accident-free!  Just before 6pm she had another accident, this is when I finally put a diaper on her, no choice, to avoid the frustration and stress I could feel brewing.  All in all, a successful first day, she had 5 accidents but she also had 6 successful trips to the potty!  We switched back to diapers just in time so that both Momma and Lily could feel great about how the day went!

As most people reading this will already know, I am expecting an addition to our family in August.  We had the same difficulties conceiving this time around that we did the first time.  Once we had gotten pregnant with Lily everyone kept telling us how much easier it would be to get pregnant the second time because my body would be better prepared for what it needed to do.  So, by the time Lily was one year old and we still hadn’t conceived I began worrying again that there must be something wrong with me, that it was a fluke we got pregnant the first time and I would eventually have to figure out how to explain to my wonderful daughter why she was an only child.  So, when I took the test and it was positive I was extremely excited!

Lily is not entirely aware of what is going on.  But, we are trying to keep her a part of all of it as much as possible.  We try to get her to listen to the baby’s heartbeat once in a while, but she’s not overly interested.  I take her with me for all my check-ups, I tell her when we are leaving that we have to go to the doctor so that the doctor can check on the baby, she always expects that we will be bringing a baby home from these appointments.  When we do these things she always seems quite excited for the new addition.  When I explain to her that I am putting some toys and clothes in the basement for when the new baby comes, that those things will then be the new baby’s things, she is not so happy about the whole thing.  She is also rather jealous of anyone with her Momma.  There was one day that I was petting the dog and Lily pushed the dog away and told her, “No, that’s MY Momma!”  I gently explained to her that I am also the dog’s Momma and that when the new baby arrives I will also be the new baby’s Momma.  Her response?  “NO!”  Not entirely surprising from a two year old, but a little sad for the expecting Momma.

We have been very disappointed to find that she is not allowed to go to the ultrasound appointments.  That would be an amazing way to get her involved in what is going on and to help her understand better what is happening in our lives.  It is also disappointing to discover that they do not offer any prenatal classes for families, to prepare children for siblings.  We have gotten her some baby dolls and some accessories to help her care for her babies in order to try to prepare her for what is coming.  As it gets closer, I will borrow some books from the library to hopefully help with the transition as well.

As for myself, I am also having some of my own issues.  After having a c-section with Lily I am concerned that I will end up having another c-section this time around.  I have figured out my “plan.”  Which is not so much a plan as it is a list of things I learned from the first go around.  For instance, I learned that there are no circumstances that would convince me to ever allow them to stick an epidural in my back again, that was by far the worst experience from Lily’s birth and I refuse to go through it again.  I also learned that although, yes, the child will come when it is ready, it may be TOO late for me, so I will not allow my pregnancy to drag on quite as long as I did the last time.  Most importantly, though, I learned that I will have to go with the flow and take whatever is thrown at me, whether it be a c-section, a monitor screwed into the top of my baby’s head or whatever, I have to take it and try not to let my hormones get the best of me.  I am looking so forward to welcoming this new life into our family, I hope that it will enter the world a little more smoothly than the first, but that it will be an equal joy!

So, as I said in an earlier post, Lily has been peeing on the potty for quite a while.  At the end of the Christmas holidays we decided to give potty training a try, we will call that Potty Training 1.0.  Version 1.0 did not go so well.  The idea was that we would put Lily into her big girl panties and she would have accidents until she learned to tell us that she needed the potty.  I was also trying to keep on her to get her to sit on the toilet every hour or so.  After the first hour, she was dry, I took her up to the potty, she had a pee, life was good.  After about 30 minutes more, she had her first accident.  No big deal, accidents happen.  Took her up to sit on the potty, get cleaned up and put on some dry panties.  Brought her back downstairs and about 10 minutes later she had another accident.  The morning continued like this through about 6 pairs of panties until we finally felt too stressed out to make it work for her.  We put her back into a diaper and that was the end of it.

Since our attempt at Potty Training 1.0 Lily has been consistently peeing on the potty before her nap and waking up from her nap dry.  But at any other time of the day if asked to use the potty she refuses.  She has even been known to tell us when she is peeing on the couch, or in her bed, etc.  One day she even told us, “I love peeing in my diaper!”  This was not a happy moment for me, a little funny, but not happy.  So, this is where my thoughts on Potty Training 2.0 came from.  I started thinking about why version 1.0 didn’t work for us.  We started feeling stressed out and that just made the whole experience worse for everyone.  So, for version 2.0 I have decided to ween her off diapers.  On day 1 she will wear panties for a couple hours, on day 2 we will try to keep her in panties until after her nap, on day 3 we will try to keep her in panties until Daddy gets home from work or just before, on day 4 we will try to keep her in panties until bed time, and we will stick with panties until bed time until she starts to wake up in the mornings dry.

I am going to try to follow her lead.  If she seems to be stressing out about the accidents I will put her in a diaper sooner, if she is doing really well in her panties I will keep her in panties a little longer.  Mostly, I am going to try for the most stress-free training I can manage.  Hopefully, the couple of months that we have waited between version 1.0 and version 2.0 will help with how well she copes with it as well.

Today is day 1 of version 2.0.  At the end of each day I will write a new post about how the day went and how I intend to proceed the next day.

So, Lily is a big toddler, and in all honesty, she has been for quite a long time.  I was very hesitant in moving her from her crib to her toddler bed.  I didn’t like the idea that she could just get out of bed and get into something that she shouldn’t while we were sleeping.  I also worried that she wouldn’t stay in bed to go to sleep.  But, as she got bigger, I realized it was only a matter of time before we are woken up in the middle of the night by a loud thump of her climbing over the side of the crib and landing on the floor.  So, with that in mind, I took the front off her crib and turned it into a daybed.  Lily was thrilled!

She spent the morning climbing in and out of bed.  She covered herself up and pretended to sleep, grabbed stuffed animals and tucked them into bed.  She even laid in bed under the covers while I sat beside the bed and read her stories.  She was in love with this new bed!  And, her butterfly pillow.  I purchased a butterfly pillow before we changed her bed to give her something to look forward to when the change came.  I wasn’t entirely sure how she would feel about the change, the big girl bed also meant some of her baby things had to go.  For instance, she no longer gets bottles, ever, she used to get bottles at bed time every night, but being a big girl means time to say ‘bye-bye to the bottles.’  She also had to give up her Ocean Wonders aquarium for in the crib.  I could have left it there, but the batteries die so quickly and she couldn’t sleep without it.  So, I decided to take this chance to trade the aquarium for her frog Slumber Buddy.  Took a little convincing, but once the aquarium was out of her room she stopped looking for it.

Nap time the first day was fabulous!  This made me very hopeful for bedtime.  I had been worried that she would just keep getting out of bed, as I said earlier, but also that she might just roll out of bed.  Well, at bed time, she went down pretty well, but she didn’t manage to stay in bed, she fell out of bed at least once a night for the first week and a half or so.  Then, I found some small pillows I had made years ago and put them under her fitted sheet to give her an obstacle to hopefully keep her in bed.  For the most part she doesn’t fall out of bed anymore, but once in a while she still ends up on the floor somehow.

I love the new toddler bed, though!  At nap time now, she has a harder time staying in bed, but after a couple times being told to go to bed she stays and falls asleep.  We have to leave her door open now, which we never did before.  So now, if she wakes up before she is ready she stays in bed a cries, but if she is ready to be awake, she climbs out of bed, goes out the door, walks down the hall, opens our door, says, ‘Hi, Mommy’ and then climbs up into bed with us.  So we get a little cuddle time in the mornings, she comes up gives us some hugs and kisses and chats with us for a bit.  So, now I no longer have to jump out of bed as soon as she wakes up and be up for the day, now I can take a few minutes and cuddle with my favourite little turkey and get up when I’m ready!  It’s such a wonderful way to wake up in the morning!

We recently decided that we needed to start teaching Lily to say ‘Please’ and ‘Thank You.’  It started in the car on the way up to Ontario.  She kept asking for snacks and more snacks, so we started saying what she was asking for and adding ‘Please’ to the end.  It didn’t take long for her to start adding the ‘Please’ all on her own.  So we started saying ‘Thank You’ when we handed her what she asked for.  She would repeat us every time.  Once she started using ‘Thank You’ on her own, Scott says, ‘Mommy, did you say ‘You’re Welcome’?’  Which I hadn’t because I didn’t want her to think that was something I was expecting her to say.  But, since he asked, I said, ‘You’re Welcome’ the next time she said, ‘Thank You.’  She responded, ‘I Welcome.’  Now, whenever she says ‘Thank You’ it is immediately followed by, ‘I Welcome.’  Sometimes the ‘I Welcome’ stands alone.  I think it is SUPER cute, but I have no idea how I am going to explain to her that she is only supposed to say the ‘Thank You’ part and that she is supposed to say ‘You’re Welcome’ when someone says ‘Thank You’ to her.

On another note about manners, Lily seems to have learned to say ‘Excuse Me’ when trying to pass someone simply from watching other people do it.  It makes me a very proud Momma to hear my baby girl using her good manners all by herself!