Potty Progress — Part 3

As an update to yesterday's post, I am pleased to report that a.) Owen awoke from his nap completely dry and clean (much to my surprise!), and, b.) he finally pooped in the potty last night!

I'm not sure how he managed to accomplish the first feat, but I was very, very pleasantly surprised. (The exact same situation is going on even as I type this post so we'll see if I luck out again and find him dry and clean in a couple hours.)

And as for the second accomplishment, we just continued trying, trying, and trying some more for the remainder of the day until finally, right after dinner, he dropped a load (sorry for the terrible slang!) in his Elmo potty. It was disgusting and beautiful all at the same time!

I had been bribing him all day with different things (i.e., a new toy, ice cream, etc.) and after lots of wildly excited cheering and high-fiving (by me), we agreed on a special hot fudge sundae from McDonald's (that was his choice).

I was really hoping that once we tackled the hurdle of that first poop that he would see that it wasn't scary or hard to do and it would be smooth sailing after that. So far, however, that remains to be seen. He did wake up this morning with a small amount of poop in his diaper (I'm not even close to taking the diaper away at bedtime yet) and, though I can tell he needs to go (he's nothing if not regular!), he hasn't done so again yet today. So, again, he's in his underpants taking a nap and we'll see...

I'm not foolish enough to believe that he's got everything all figured out yet. I'm sure there will be some setbacks along the way. But, man, am I relieved to finally have this very momentous (in my opinion!) challenge finally behind us.

I snapped this hilarious photo this morning and thought it was appropriate. Notice the titles of the book he's reading and the one sitting next to him. He found them in our bathroom, curled right up on the chair, and started flipping through them...completely on his own. I'm taking it as a sign that potty training is going well...

And since I haven't posted (or even taken, really) any photos or videos lately, I thought I'd give you a little "slice of life" video from this morning at breakfast. Messy, messy boy.

Potty Progress — Part 2

Warning: The following is kinda graphic stuff, so if you'd rather not hear about the logistics of poop potty training a toddler, please skip this post.

It turns out that O seems to have a fear of going poop on the potty. He has been successfully peeing on the potty (and keeping his underpants dry) for a couple weeks now, but has yet to have that first poop.

I'm not entirely sure why this is. At first, I thought he was just afraid of the different sensation — having the mess fall away from him into the bowl, rather than smash right up against him like in the diaper. (I warned you, this is gross stuff!) But sometimes I wonder if it's more of a physical difficulty. By that I mean that when he poops in his diaper, he's always standing and just sort of hunches over slightly. So, I wonder if being in a sitting position is challenging for him.

My plan initially was to keep him in a diaper for naps and bedtime, at least until he mastered pooping (and probably longer for the overnight stint). And, honestly, because I'm terrified of having an accident out in public, I've also been putting him in diapers (or pull-ups, which are essentially diapers that are a bit easier to get on and off) whenever we go out anywhere. With the exception of a few very short trips to the store that I've braved with the O-man in his underpants, I have been reluctant to take him anywhere else (i.e., the library, MOPS, church, etc.) without the safety of a diaper. As I said, this is mostly because I'm not too keen on cleaning up a public potty mess, but also because in many of those situations, I am not going to be the one taking care of him. I feel like I shouldn't impose on his church or MOPS caregivers by asking them to be sure to take him to the potty every 30 minutes, or worse, clean up a poopy-pantsed 2-year-old. That's not really their job, right?

But what I'm afraid has happened is that I've confused the poor boy. It seems that he will just wait and "hold it" until he gets put into a diaper, which is, at the very least, twice a day (naptime and bedtime). And while I'm grateful that I really haven't had very many poopy accidents to clean up in the past few weeks, I'm concerned about his lack of progress with this step.

He is making progress, though. We just spent the past hour before his naptime today sitting on the potty (two different potties, actually). I know he needed to go. And, to his credit, he was really trying. He would lean over and sometimes lift his body up with his hands. I heard a few toots in there and could just tell that he was making an effort. But after a solid hour (and 20-minutes into naptime), I decided to give it a rest. However, I chose NOT to put him in a diaper for naptime. I'm 100% positive that when he wakes up, there will be some sort of mess to clean up. He will probably be wet, and there is a good chance that he will also be dirty. And that means I will have to strip the bed and clean and sanitize everything. But I feel like if I don't just grin and bear this unpleasantry, he's never going to learn.

Anyway, he's fast asleep now and only a short time will tell how this little experiment goes. Thanks for following along as I keep on "wingin' it" over here in potty land...

Life update

God sure has a funny sense of humor, doesn't he? The very night after my last post (where I was whining about my terrible day), I came down with a nasty stomach flu that had me completely wiped out for a solid 48 hours. I will spare you all the gory details, but let's just say that, while puking in the middle of the night is never fun, it's especially loathsome when you are nearly seven months pregnant! And have a 2 1/2-year-old with boundless energy due up by 7:30 a.m.

God also is SO gracious, though, in that he has blessed me with amazing parents who swooped in and came to the rescue. My dad took the day off work and drove here (about a 45-minute drive) to pick up Owen that next morning and whisked him off to his house (another 45-minute drive back!) for the day. That allowed Ryan and I to lay around in our dark, quiet house (I didn't even bother opening up the curtains or blinds all day) and get some much needed rest. By Sunday morning, his fever had finally broken and my energy had returned and we felt like new people! And, somehow, despite being surrounded by sickness (turns out both my parents were sick — and still are — the day right after having Owen stay with them), the little guy managed to avoid all of it. Praise God!

In other news, we resumed full-on potty training this week with revitalized energy and the O-man has shown some remarkable success! He pretty much has the whole peeing thing down pat and rarely has an accident of that kind. Unfortunately, we still have yet to get a poop into the potty, but are getting very, very close! I really thought that today was going to be the day, but so far, no luck. He certainly tries, but then just as I think it's about to happen, he gets all nervous or scared or something and backs off. Frustrating! But I have confidence that it will all happen very soon. I am still a little too nervous, however, to take him out of the house in his underpants, so I usually throw a diaper or pull-up on him whenever we head out to the store, the library, a play date, etc. The stinker seems to know this and always manages to take advantage of that diaper-time to make his poopy. This does make for easy clean-up — I haven't had to clean out even one pair of dirty underpants all week. But I know I need to take away that crutch soon.

And in sad news, we learned that my grandma (on my mom's side) passed away last night. She was sick and weak, and had been for quite some time. And her mental state was not exactly healthy either. But the news did come as a bit of a shock this morning. We will be heading to the Chicago-area probably sometime tomorrow to attend the funeral services, so prayers for everyone's safe travels are appreciated.

A Sweet Surprise

Well blow me over! I just called my doctor's office to find out the definitive results of the 1-hour glucose tolerance test that I took last week. The doc told me at that time that no news would be good news, but since I was diagnosed with gestational diabetes during my first pregnancy (you can re-read all about that fun experience here and here) — and there is very high likelihood that once diagnosed, it will reoccur in future pregnancies (rates vary from between 30-70%, although I was thinking it was even higher than that) — I was fully expecting to receive a call back that I had tested high and needed to come back in for the 3-hour test. But after a week went by and I hadn't heard anything, I decided to call them.

Low and behold — I tested well within the normal blood sugar range. Normal is anywhere between 65-139 and my results were 87! EIGHTY-SEVEN!!!!

Picture me doing a wild little happy dance right about now. I am SO shocked! And pleased!

I can take absolutely no credit for these "normal" results since, instead of keeping my sugar/carbohydrate intake on the straight-and-narrow in preparation for the test, I decided to go the other route and gobble up all the sweet treats that came my way in the past few weeks, knowing that I would surely miss them when I had to give them all up on account of my pending diet.

I have to say, I was always a little suspicious of the results of my previous glucose tolerance tests as I didn't fit the profile for the typical person with gestational diabetes. And now, I am even more confident that there may have been some kind of fluke in the tests the last time around.

Regardless, I will say that going on a special, restrictive diet for the last 10 weeks of my pregnancy (well, actually only about 8 weeks since Owen came early) was, in the long run, a very good thing for me. I effectively ENDED my weight gain at that point. I maxed out at a gain of only 20 pounds, which made it easier to shed those baby pounds after O was born. And, despite the doctors' concerns about him being a big baby (which is a common problem for babies born to moms with gestational diabetes), Owen was only 6 pounds, 4 ounces at birth. Granted, he was nearly two weeks early, but I also attribute his small size to my healthy diet. And since he was born via c-section, it didn't really matter all that much how big he was (within reason), but because I'm hoping to deliver this baby via VBAC (vaginal birth after cesarean), I would really appreciate another little tot.

So, all this to say that I am excited not to have to get the ol' glucose monitor out of storage in preparation for the 4x-per-day finger sticks. Or to have to follow a strict low carbohydrate diet. However, I really should take it easy on the sweets and think of this little blessing as a gentle reminder to keep myself (and baby girl) as healthy as possible.

In other news, we will be painting the new nursery TONIGHT! More details to come on that transformation. I have all kinds of ideas in my head, so it's exciting to start putting some of them into motion.

And, on the potty training front, we have taken a hiatus for the time being, due to Owen being diagnosed with a bacterial infection. I think it's called impetigo (though that was not specifically what the pediatrician called it) and it has nothing to do with potty training — other than the fact that his antibiotic may (and did) give him diarrhea. But dealing with that and getting our house completely disinfected the past two days has been about as much as I can handle; vigilantly watching for accidents on top of that might have just pushed me over the edge. Also, I was reading up on it a little bit and decided that, although he's definitely showing signs of readiness (and to some degree, a bit of progress, actually), I don't want to push anything. So, I will consider the past week a good introductory period for Owen, and will resume full-on "training" in another few weeks (or whenever the time feels right).

Potty Progress - Part 1

Many of you have asked how the potty training is going, so I thought I'd give you a brief update. Earlier today, as I contemplated what to write, I was brimming with cautious optimism and hoping to be able to end the day with a positive report.

However, after spending the past hour tag-teaming with Ryan on cleaning up three poopy accidents in a row, I am instead, feeling a bit defeated.

By the time Owen went down for his nap this afternoon, he had peed in the potty two times and we had not had one single wet accident. Actually, even now (as of 7:00 p.m.), we still haven't had any wet accidents. Now, this does not mean that he is telling me when he needs to pee. It just means that I have been fortunate in setting him on the potty at times when he felt so compelled to pee into it. Lucky me.

We still have not had a successful poop in the potty yet, but I get it. It's scary. Actually, those are Owen's exact words..."it's scary." I understand that the poop part might take a little longer. Which is why I wasn't too upset when he had a poop accident in his underpants this morning, and a second one in his Pull-Up while we were at the library. No biggie. At least the pee thing was going well...

After his nap today, I got one more pee in the potty out of him (woo hoo!) and then there was an almost 3-hour period of time where he did nothing. I kept putting him on the potty, encouraging him to go, but nothing was happening. There was, however, one more very small poopy accident during that time. Nevertheless, my spirits remained high.

Then, it was time for dinner. It was at this point that I began to lose track of the details. All I know is that immediately after Owen finished his dinner until about 30 minutes ago, Ryan and I changed a total of three pairs of poopy underpants (two small and one big). It felt as if we would no sooner get one mess cleaned up and it would happen all over again.

We had a brief discussion after evening accident #2 and a quick word from Owen that his "tummy hurt" about maybe just scrapping the underpants for the rest of the evening and putting him back in a diaper, but I really didn't want to do that because I hated to regress after working so hard the past few days. It was only moments later, however, that accident #3 occurred and we officially called it curtains on the underpants for the night. (That's #3 for the evening; #5 or #6 — I lost track — for the day!)

So, Owen is happily playing in his diaper with Daddy right now and I am nursing some pretty rough (bloody, even) knuckles from all the disinfecting and hand washing I've done today. But we figured that if he has an upset tummy (six poops in one day!!!), maybe now isn't the best time to push the potty training. Both for his sake, and for ours.

A few other things to note, however...

Owen does not care for the way it feels to poop in his underpants. In fact, he didn't even like it when he had pooped in his Pull-Ups today, which surprised me since those things just seem like a more expensive version of a regular diaper to me. But, this is a good sign. His dislike for that feeling is a step in the right direction.

He also seems to like wearing "big boy underpants" now, as opposed to a few days ago when he was utterly indifferent. When we decided to put a diaper back on him tonight, he protested a bit. Again, a good sign I think.

Right or wrong, there's an update on all things pee and (mostly) poop in the Peterson residence for the night. I told you I was just winging it with this one and I'm still ok with that. Tomorrow is another day. Let's hope for far fewer poops.

Potty Potential

Here's another quick pre-holiday recap post (if that ever actually gets done), but this time, our subject matter is pee-pee and poo-poo. Yay!

I have told myself (and others) for some time now that after the holidays were over, I was going to start working with Owen on potty training. I would like for him to be fully trained by the time the new baby comes in April or May, and since he will be 2 1/2 years old next week, now seems like a good time. So, here we are, at this pivotal stage in my baby's development, and I have no clue where to start. Perhaps I'll just take you along on this journey with me — and if you have any pointers for me in the meantime, feel free to drop me a line.

{As a side note, Owen has had some sporadic success peeing in his Elmo potty chair (as you'll recall from this post), but he has not been consistent and we haven't really been trying to get him to go any time other than before his every-other-day bath. So, he's not completely unfamiliar with the concept of peeing in the little plastic bowl, but it's not something that's become a regular part of his routine by any means.}

Anyways, at the library today, I picked up a few light reading materials on the subject matter.

These are, of course, intended to get Owen more interested in using the potty and talk about how big boys transition from diapers to underpants, etc. I haven't watched the video yet, but we did read two of the books together tonight and Owen seemed relatively interested. So, I decided to give it a try. I pulled Elmo out into the living room and parked him in front of the TV. After only about 30 seconds of watching Blue's Clues without pants on (that is, Owen of course), he did it! And, as I gushed and gushed, he seemed genuinely pleased in himself this time! So, we washed our hands and he got a cookie as a reward. (Big mistake? Not sure yet.)

About 30 minutes later, he asked me for another cookie and I told him that he could only get another treat if he went on the potty again. So, he said "ok," which, if you know Owen, you know is a common response to all sorts of questions. I dragged Elmo back out and we repeated the whole process (only this time I think Dora the Explorer was on) and he peed again! I chose to reward him this time with something a little smaller (and more manageable on a long-term basis, I think) and gave him a Hershey Kiss instead. He was equally thrilled.

It wasn't long before he caught on to the idea that if he pees in the potty, he gets a treat and this boy is motivated by food (like his mama!) so he started asking me to "potty again." I think we'll wait until bedtime and try one last time tonight. And tomorrow, I have no plans other than to go to Wal-Mart to pick up a few things (see my list below), so we'll try an intensive day of potty patrol, though I'm not exactly sure what that is going to look like just yet.

Here is my list for the store, in preparation:

• Pull-ups
• Some sort of even smaller incentive treat (I'm thinking a bag of M&Ms, giving him just ONE each time he's successful)
• Carpet/upholstery cleaner (for the inevitable accidents)

(We already have a rather extensive supply of big-boy underpants, but I think I will start with the pull-ups and just see how that goes first. Anything else I'm missing???)

And of course, seeing as how I've never done anything quite like this before, I have a host of unanswered questions, like, is it OK to train with the Elmo chair or should I insist on using the real toilet (either with or without a kid-size seat attachment)? I'm concerned that if we get him trained with the potty chair, we will only have to re-train him to use the real toilet later, but currently, he FREAKS out if I try to sit him on one. (I've only ever put him on straddling, facing backwards, as I've heard that is the best way to make sure they don't fall in and don't spray pee all over the place.)

Another questions is just how exactly is the best way to approach this "training" stuff. Do I do a several-day-long boot camp and not leave the house until he figures it out? I already know the answer to that...my life is too busy for that and it's not really my style. For instance, I don't have any plans for tomorrow, so I can work with him all day at home, but the day after that, I've got places to go and things to do. So is it OK to switch back and forth between using the potty and wearing pull-ups or underpants, to letting him go in his diaper? Or will that just confuse him? Do I need to commit to this 100% or not at all?

Advice is welcome. In the meantime, I'm going to do something completely out-of-character for myself, and just wing it. I'll keep you posted on our progress...

Guess who peed in the potty???

I'll give you one hint. His name starts with O and rhymes with "goin'." That's right. We had our first actual pee in the potty chair last Wednesday. Of course, it was totally by accident. When I removed his diaper before his bath, he just started to go, so I quickly shoved him down on the potty (but not before he wet all over Elmo's smiling face! Ha!)

(Here's a photo of the day Owen and Potty Chair Elmo were first introduced, from this overly optimistic post back in March.)

Despite my obnoxiously enthusiastic excitement, Owen was less that thrilled about the whole thing. I don't think he quite grasped that he actually DID that. That he made the pee come out, that is.

We've been putting him down on the potty before his bath for a while now, but without any success. I was hoping that the day it happened by accident, he would finally see what it was that he was supposed to do whenever I say, "just go pee-pee, buddy." But so far, he's only done it one other time and I think that was completely by accident, too.

So, I'm not holding my breath that we're actually "there" yet or anything. But at least it's a step in the right direction!

In the meantime, check out my little bug looking cute as ever. (Photos courtesy of Jackie Petersen Photography.)