Rebekah has been doing an incredible job with walking. She has done it much sooner than her brothers, (Ethan was 15 mos. and Joshua was 16 mos) as she is not quite 14 months old. She's been taking a few steps since Valentine's Day, but this past week has just started to take off. She should be walking all over her brother's in no time...they'd better watch out, she is a force to be reckon with.
Another great day!! Ethan is doing really well, despite a couple of accidents he had today. Both accidents were more a result of mommy and daddy not paying attention to time and place, rather than Ethan just not going. So, that's good news. He LOVES wearing his cute little dinosaur underwear. He has some Thomas, Cars, and Spider Man underwear but the spidy ones chafe him on the inner thigh. We'll see how the others do after a good washing.
However, if he's focused on an activity...like using his play dough...he won't think to stop and take a break in the bathroom. Which is what happened today. It taught Mike and I that we need to make sure he's used the bathroom before such activities, as well as give him a 15-20 min. bathroom check during his activity.
Unfortunately, we haven't had another successful BM since Sunday afternoon. We are getting concerned about him holding it for so long, because he does constipate easily. We've even offered him the "diaper-out" like the behaviourist suggested, so that he can at least go like he did before in the bathroom. But, he actually refuses to go back into diapers...which is great...but he still needs to go to the bathroom. So, we are going to up his laxative dose tomorrow and see if that helps to move things along!
As for Josh...hehehehe...he's not doing so well. He yells at me when I remind him it's time to use the potty, and doesn't like being disturbed from his playtime now. I'd say the novelty has worn off for him. However, we are keeping him in pull ups during the day, so that if he asks to use it, we can let him try. Who knows, maybe he'll show more interest once Ethan is doing a more regular job.
Sooo, potty training day number 2 was...to say the least...interesting. I bet no one can guess just how interesting. No matter how many of you have been through this potty training thing, I'm willing to bet none of you have dealt with what we had to deal with today!!! Pretty confident, hun? Let me tell you why...
First a little back story here...we've been having some "issues" with our toilet for the past couple of months. It's been slow to flush, and would occasionally, (1-3 times a month) get clogged up...usually over nothing really. I figured that maybe one of my little angels had flushed some paper, or cloth or something, and eventually it would dissolve and pass through. Well, on Saturday we had the equivalent of Mount St. Helens in our bathroom. Okay, minus the exploding ash, and hot lava...but still quite an overflow of liquid pouring out of our toilet. Needless to say, I called Heritage to come out and take a look. No problem, they came first thing this morning.
After talking to the plumber regarding what was wrong with our 41 year old toilet, and trying a few cheaper options with no luck, we had the pleasure of replacing our toilet...this morning...while potty training...with a very nauseous mommy (icky morning sickness)...and relatives visiting..(thankfully it was only Lee Anne and Pete, but still). Did I mention it is our ONLY toilet...besides the little kid potty!!! Good times, good times.
Amazingly, Ethan did quite well through it all. Unfortunately, we've discovered, that he's too tall for the little potty, and whenever he'd try to pee on it, it would just end up all over the floor. He was also quite attached to the old toilet, (oddly enough since he rarely used it!) and had a difficult time dealing with it being hauled off to that special toilet trash heap. Once the new toilet was installed it took everything in him not to push the plumber out of the way so he could flush it and watch the new way the water would go down the hole. At least it kept him interested in using it...which he did about 50 times today. Probably a good thing we replaced the toilet. I'm not sure it would have been able to keep up with our kids. We've already replaced the innards to that toilet about 3 or 4 times since we've lived here...it would have never survived.
Josh on the other hand managed to fill his underwear twice, completely, while we were distracted by either the plumber, the visitors leaving, or anything else that took our eyes off his little butt for 10 seconds!! So, he was placed into some pull ups...much to his dismay. (He loves his underwear) We were done and it wasn't even noon time!!
We'll see what tomorrow brings...but it can't be worse than having to replace the one toilet in the house...can it???
We officially began our week long effort of training our two boys on using the potty. And boy are we in for it!! We decided to start today after church, because I knew we were going to go through a "novelty" stage of using the toilet...and boy did we ever. I've never seen so much activity in our tiny little bathroom before. And for those of you who have been to our house, you know how very tiny our ONE little bathroom is!
Let me tell you, I was tempted to break out the camera. We have a little potty, and of course the regular toilet with one of those little seats on it. (Our boys have very tiny bum-bums!) At one point, Ethan was on the big one, Josh was on the little one, and I was sitting on the floor trying to keep Rebekah out! (She is very unhappy that she isn't part of the "party in the bathroom"!) Despite the crowd in the bathroom, we had decent success today. Of course getting a handful of mini choc. chips afterwards never hurts your chances at success. (We can't do M&M's because they have dairy in them...so we found these mini chips by Enjoy Life that are dairy, soy, gluten, and nut free...and VERY tasty!) For the very first time today, Ethan actually did a BM on the toilet. He has NEVER had success with this. Maybe all the prep we did before hand actually paid off. He has been awesome at going into the bathroom every single time he needed to go, even though he was still going in his diaper. Even Josh, did pretty well. A couple of times we caught him standing with his little legs crossed saying..."oh-oh, water"...as it drips down his little leg.
I'm not sure what they were happiest about: being virtually naked from the waist down...except for those cute little boy underwear; being allowed to eat handfuls of choc. chips at every successful use of the toilet; or being able to sit down on one of the toilets and be cheered on to do what they needed to do!
So, for the next week, I will try to post the good, the bad, and the ugly of our potty training event, praying that we will have at least one diaper less child when all is said and done. And I know, that we will have our setbacks, etc....but it will be a really great start in the right direction!
Yes, I did say prep. In other words preparing Ethan for the inevitable end to diapers. Just the mention of such a world changing event to him, instantly brings him either to tears, or defiance. Very frustrating. So, we spoke to the behaviourist that he's been seeing on Saturdays during his Social and Communication class.
We've been bringing him to this class for the past three weekends, and we have three more to attend. Then, since it seems to be going well...they have 4-5 kids in the group...we will have a break in between and start up again with another 6 week session. The "class" is set up as a sort of playdate with planned activities and lots of room to "teach" the kids how to be a part of a peer group...eg: turn taking, preventing/resolving conflicts appropriately, recognizing and expressing feelings, making friends, and school/community routines.
Ethan LOVES it, and talks about his new friends most of the week.
So, I spoke with Linda, a behaviour specialist, after his class this past Saturday to pick her brain about suggestions, tips, advice, whatever she could share, to help us with potty training Ethan. Mike plans on taking the week off at the end of February to help in this endeavor, because we decided that if we are potty training Ethan we might as well work on Josh too. Especially since Josh is showing signs of interest...telling me he has a dirty diaper, "using" the kid potty when he goes into the bathroom...all stuff Ethan never, and still doesn't, do.
The preparation part? Well, we are "training" Ethan to recognize his need to use the potty. So, every time he feels the need to go, he has to go into the bathroom to do it...in his diaper. He's done a great job over the past two days, except for when he's playing upstairs. We only have one bathroom and it's on the first floor. He doesn't seem to notice when he has to urinate yet, so we're hoping the whole "run around naked except for your underwear" during the last week of Feb. will help with that. We will only put a pull up on at bedtime, and a diaper on around 6ish at night for him to do a BM in if he refuses to do so on the toilet. She wants us to deny him that "out" for a BM during the day, in the hope that he will stop fighting it, and use the toilet instead of holding out until nightime. Unfortunately, due to the laxative that Ethan is still on, he will do a BM several times a day, with no regulation. We have been advised not to take him off of the laxative however, until he is potty trained to prevent any constipation issues with the whole power struggle end of potty training. (See why I need Mike around for that week?)
It has been tough to do mostly because there may be an issue with his ability to "sense" the need to go in time. Linda suggested we try her method for a week or so, and at that point we should be able to tell whether it's sensory or behaviour. In the meantime, Mike and I get to prepare ourselves for what we hope will be a rewarding week. I'll be happy to get even one out of diapers. The savings in the cost of diapers alone would be a silver lining!!
p.s. if you notice any spelling errors I'm sorry, the blogger spellcheck isn't working today!!
She slept through the night. Rebekah really slept through the night! And when I say "slept through", I mean 7pm-7am kind of sleep. The kind where you wake up and say to yourself, "did I get up to nurse her at all last night...I must have...no, no I don't think I did...wow".
Rebekah has always been a great nurser. She has done it the best and the longest compared to her brothers. Ethan weaned himself the week of his first birthday, but he was such a difficult nurser, I was relieved. Joshua, weaned himself by 11 mos. old, but I think that was partly due to the conception of his sister when he was 9 mos. old. Needless to say, I wasn't surprised when he weaned so early. But, Rebekah has been going strong about 3-5 times a day...up until recently. A couple of weeks ago, I noticed she was down to about 2-3 times a day, and it was only before her nap, nightime bed, and once in the middle of the night, that she was nursing. It makes me wonder if it's because she's getting older and eating a lot more food throughout the day, or is it because of Baby Ouellette #4 on the way...??? Hmmmmm.....
