Third time's a Charm!

When I was 7 months pregnant with Lily, Ty and I decided to attempt potty training Crystal in hopes that we wouldn't have 2 kids in diapers - not to mention the money we'd save. So I googled (side note: (I know how much you love my side notes :D) Chrome Browser's spell check doesn't think "googled" is a word; I think it should) "potty training" to see what I came up with. Nothing. Okay so there was something - TOO MUCH of something actually. SO I read article after article, they all had COMPLETELY different strategies ... most of which told me I was going to ruin my child's life if I trained her before she was 3 years old! Really? Ruin her life? I was potty trained at 2 years old. My life wasn't ruined. I don't remember being traumatized by the experience at all... okay okay ... I don't remember the experience at all, but it obviously didn't ruin my life.

Needless to say I was a bit overwhelmed and had NO idea what I was doing. Naturally I turned to my mom. Her response was, "Well I don't know how I did it. All I remember is it took lots of patience." Okay well patience is not my strong suit, but I was sure the prospect of no more diapers would help me through it. I still had no set strategy on HOW to do it though. So I thought about the stuff I had read. ALL of them agreed that Pull Ups were useless, so I went and bought LOTS AND LOTS of underwear for her. Some said to make it a party, so I made cupcakes, wrapped her underwear like a present, bought her a potty chair, bought stickers and printed a potty chart, bought treats to bribe her with :D, and I thought I was good to go!

The big day came! She opened the underwear, threw away her diapers (okay pretended to throw away her diapers ... those cost $ you know!), put on her underwear and celebrated with a cupcake! Then the day went down hill from there... it was a nightmare ... she was upset because that underwear was NOT holding her pee and she was getting all wet! And why sit on the chair with a hole in it ... that's not comfy! The one time she did pee in the potty chair, we were so excited for her that we scared her and she almost cried ... lol ... it didn't go well. We were also putting her in a diaper during naps and at night because - well frankly - we were stupid and didn't know what we were doing ... lol.

So the next day, Crystal just simply DIDN'T pee. She held her pee till naptime when we put a diaper on and then again till bedime. REALLY?!? Now I'm thinking ... she's ready to be potty trained if she can hold it THAT LONG, so what am I doing wrong?!?! We went on like this for 5 days with very little success, in fact she was just getting worse, refusing to wear underwear at all, just peeing everywhere and walking away like nothing happened, AND there was NO way she was gonna sit on that chair ANYMORE! So we decided we were obviously doing something wrong and thought we'd better stop before we did ruin her life like the articles said we would ... lol.

A month or two later, just before Lily was born we thought we'd try it one more time. She was 2 now and could communicate with us TONS better than before so we thought she might pick up on it better. Lets just say it didn't work as well as we'd hoped. I think we only lasted 1 day before we gave up (this was more our lack of motivation ... remember I was nearly 9 months pregnant and not only emotional but tired). She was as stubborn as ever about it. At this point she knew what we wanted her to do, but she just didn't have any interest in doing it.

So fast forward 6 months to a few weeks ago. Ty's cousin, Emily, posts on Facebook that her 2 year old is potty trained and it only took 3 days! When I read this I WANTED her secret more than anything! You have to realize that at this point I had decided it might be easier just to teach Crystal how to change her own diaper that to teach her to use the toilet... LOL! This is what Emily sent me: 3 Day Potty Training. She said not only had she had success with it, but she knew other people who had done it too. I had nothing to lose. So I read the book, and though it was similar to what we had tried in the past, it pointed out several vital things we had been doing VERY wrong!

This was IT! NO going back! Third times a charm right!?!?! So we started out again... I bought more underwear (I thought she'd wear it if it had her favorite disney characters, mickey and minnie, on them), I bought more treats, and finally I set aside 3 days for JUST her and no distractions!

Day 1:She 'threw away' the diapers ... again. We put on her Minnie underwear after a small fight and a successful chocolate cupcake distraction ;D. And that was it! We reminded her hundreds of times to tell us if she needed to go and watched her EVER SO CLOSELY so we could get her to the toilet in time! The only accident she had all day was at naptime.

Night 1: A Nightmare for ALL of us. 6 pairs of underwear. 5 pj bottoms. 4 sets of sheets. (I'm just glad she's in a toddler bed with a crib mattress so it wasn't too hard to change and clean up!)

Day 2: 2 partial accidents (She stopped it as soon as she realized what was happening). She did have a full on accident during her nap again...

Night 2: I thought we had a breakthrough when she CALLED for me so she could go potty after I put her in bed. She was still dry at 4 am but was very wet when I woke her in the morning.

Day 3: She wore the same pair of underwear ALL day long! She even stayed dry during her nap but she only slept for 20 minutes so I don't know that it counted. lol. We even started relaxing on following her around and watching her every moment because she was getting so good at letting us know when she needed to go!

Night 3: Had to change the sheets 2 times. Once @ 1am. Once in the morning.

Today we are feeling pretty confident that she is day trained. We were out all day today and didn't have any accidents! We are however concerned about her inability to stay dry while sleeping. She still doesn't wake up when she needs to go, she just sleeps through it till its too late. I'm feeling very much against putting a diaper or pull up on her because I don't want her to start holding it till she has a diaper on like she was before. I think we are going to give the nighttime training another week or so and see how she does. I'm hoping as she gets used to going to the bathroom during the day that she'll start remembering while asleep that its not okay to just go whenever she wants anymore.

I can't tell you how happy I am that this 3 day program was so successful. I would suggest it to ANYONE who's thinking about potty training a child soon. The author of the book suggests 22 months is the perfect age to begin training (it is a lot of work and you go through a lot of underwear in 3 days but to have NO diapers at 22 months! Wouldn't that be wonderful!?!:D). I wish more than anything that we had had this book the first time we tried training her, it would have saved us all quite a bit of stress and frustration - not to mention $ on diapers :D!

WHAT A WONDERFUL FEELING!!!

Just thought I'd post a quick update. I don't have any pictures off my camera right now. I've been a slacker lately. My parents came to visit over conference weekend, and I don't think I took 1 picture!

First and foremost I want to mention: WE ARE ALL HEALTHY!!!! FINALLY!!!!! Ty had the worst time kicking the RSV we passed around to each other, but I think its safe to say that he's healthy again. The rest of us have felt better for a few weeks now. I'm praying we can stay this way for a while because I just can't handle any more sickness in my house at the moment!

Ty has been working long and hard on creating a cell phone app for a company in Washington. I don't think I'm allowed to post any details on what it is (wouldn't want anyone getting to it first ... hehe). I think he has enjoyed doing something that pushes his limits. Its been a month of "It's gonna work!" "It's not working." "Now its gonna work!" "Its not working." "I got this part to work!" "I can't get the next part to work." "I think I figured it out!" "WHY ISN'T IT WORKING!?!?!" Then the best part, "IT WORKS!" I have been so proud of him for sticking to it and working through it even though it didn't come together as easily as he thought it would. Ty is notorious for turning around and walking away when something stresses him out, so I'm ashamed to say I was surprised when he just kept plugging away at it. It has become his baby and I think he is quite proud of it! He and his dad are going to be flying to Washington next week to show the company what he has finished! Wish him luck; this could be really good for us! :D

I had another birthday ... sad I know ... 27 ... I just can't believe I'm 27! I don't feel like I'm 27. And I don't know how its possible that I'm 27, when I know my parents are only in their 30's, aren't they? When did all this happen? I'm afraid my life is going to be half over before I catch up with it! Time is flying by way too fast! I had a great birthday despite it all! Ty surprised me with a DQ ice cream cake... though we both agreed it didn't have nearly enough frosting on it ... lol... but it was great. I think Ty took a picture or two but I'll have to post them another day (pictures tend to make my "short posts" take hours to complete ... lol).

Crystal did help us end my birthday on a high note by coloring on the carpet with permanent marker. After several different cleaning products and a lot of scrubbing the marker had faded quite a bit, but we could still see it. BUT the day after we had given up getting it out, we noticed the marker was completely gone. I don't know if the stain remover we used bleached the carpet or what but the marker is gone! We aren't gonna complain! :D

Crystal has taken more interest in coloring and drawing lately (obviously from the paragraph above ...lol). Hopefully she has learned to just do it in coloring books and on paper! Its so fun to watch her work. She gets down close to the paper like she's creating a MASTER PIECE. When she's done its usually just lines and colored in circles, but to her its all sorts of different things! She shows me "letters" and "dogs" and "horses" and "pigs" .... she can go on and on about the things she draws!

She also LOVES Mickey Mouse Clubhouse (don't know if I've mentioned that recently). She can say "MICKEY MOUSE" clear as day! She can also name all of the other characters, "GOOKY," "DAISY," "DONAD," "MINNIE," and "PUTO." We are still working on our alphabet. She is getting better at it, but we still have a long ways to go. She has a leapfrog video on the letters and their sounds that she loves to watch. In the video it says "B says buh... buh, buh, buh..." (it does it to a rhythm), so now when she sees a "B" she says, "Mommy look its a 'buh... buh, buh, buh...'" At least I know she's picking up on some of it ... hehe. We are also still working on counting to 10. For some odd reason she tends to count by even numbers ... lol ... not sure why but we are working on it.

Tomorrow we are potty training AGAIN! This time its for good ... I think ... lol ... I mean ... THIS IS IT! lol. Please pray for me to have patience because I love Crystal and I really want her to survive this ... lol.

Lily is 5 1/2 months now and still has yet to roll over (she really hates her tummy time...). But she sits up really well now (unless she gets too excited, then she tends to fall over...lol). We did have a scare on Friday when she fell head first off my bed. I know I know I'm the worst mother ever! I had her sitting up on the bed. Because she usually falls backwards onto a pillow and since she doesn't (nor has she ever tried to) roll over, I wasn't too concerned about leaving her there. I do have to admit that a small voice in the back of my head said not to leave her there, but I was just running downstairs to grab a few things and I was going to be right back up. Not to mention SHE DOESN'T ROLL, so why not leave her there.

I was on my way back up the stairs when I heard a THUD. I knew immediately it was Lily, and I didn't hear any crying afterwards. I dropped everything in my arms and ran! She was lying on the floor, holding her breath in a cry. I was so glad she was alive I started crying too! It was pretty traumatic. Less than a minute later she was laughing and smiling and enjoying all the extra attention!

Afterwards we decided she had to have fallen on her stomach and pushed herself (with her feet) head first off the bed. I was so thankful she didn't have a concussion or worse. It took Ty (and my parents) 2 days to convince me she was okay!

She is also getting really good at grabbing at things and putting them in her mouth. She also LOVES it when Crystal pays attention to her. She follows Crystal all around the room with her eyes hoping she'll look her way! Crystal has also taken more interest in Lily lately, now that Lily will play with toys (okay by "play" I really mean "eat" .. lol). Lily's absolute favorite toy is still her Johnny Jumper! She can be entertained for a good hour in her jumper, especially if Crystal plays with her by swinging her and helping her jump!