Pottytraining Standstill (dun, dun, dun)

I would say that Josiah is 80% pottytrained. If we are out and I'm consistent it taking him he does GREAT. And he's 100% going poo on the potty - w/ or w/o underwear on. When we are home & he's naked he is probably 90 - 95% but when he's got underwear on - forget about it! I think we both just get busy w/ the day and forget! But the lights will click for him one of these days ...

The last few days he's been a little stinker by peeing whenever he feels like it ... even if his potty is RIGHT there! It used to be that he would have an accident and I would "find it" now he's been going and telling me about it!! I can't wait for this to be over so I can get my carpets steam cleaned and move on!

I think I probably started him a bit on the young side - would be easier to train them when they are 2 1/2 or 3 - like I did Ellie, but I was just done w/ diapers and having him poo in the toilet is a WAY better trade off!

THIS is why my children can't share bedrooms ...

Josiah.

My son "sings" himself to sleep. And the last 3 nights he has fallen asleep on the ground. I've been able to transfer him to his bed on two of the nights but last night I couldn't even open the door to get to him!

Early mornings (usually between 7 and 7:30) he comes out, asks to go pee and then I bring the rocking horse back to his room for him to rock on until his monkey wakes up. This morning I heard him come out of his room so I walked down the hall to intercept him. Instead I watched from the bathroom as he went into our room, grabbed his horse, pulled it down the hall to his room, shut the door and started riding. Yaaay!! He's SO my sweet little boy.

Gotta LOVE the monkey ... eyes closed: it's not time to get out of room, eyes open: come on out!

Tornado Jo

Elizabeth was yelling at us from the other room this evening while Chris and I were getting dinner ready. As we made our way to the livingroom we heard a loud "boom". There was Josiah, bottoms off (which is usual since we are potty training) and t-shirt soaked, the portable white board fallen over on the ground, "I hurt myself" he said to Chris as we walked into the room. That was when I heard the water running ... walked into the hallway to see the toothpaste opened, soap out, etc on the ground. Turned the corner to walk into the bathroom. Water POURING out everywhere. Apparently that is why Ellie was yelling for us to come!

10 minutes and 3 beach towels later I had cleaned up the mess, emptied the entire under-the-sink area, including 4 soaked toilet paper rolls & Ellie's container of hair supplies. At least I got a head start in cleaning the bathroom - it was on the agenda for tomorrow anyway!

Then we ate dinner. The whole time we were eating Josiah was complaining about his tummy hurting. He asked to go pee twice ... the second time he threw up in the hallway. No fever, no other symptoms and he was ravenous right afterwards. Our thoughts are that he drank some of the water, ate some of the toothpaste and maybe even some soap? and then felt "yucky". He certainly keeps us on our toes!

Early morning bird

Josiah wakes up every morning @ 7am. He talks in his bed for a bit and then calls me after he has had a BM. A few weeks ago I tried getting him up and on the potty right after I heard him. Needless to say he sat on the potty for an hour and 30 minutes after putting his diaper on him he finally went. We haven't tried that again. It seems a shame to me to have to change him every morning when he is so consistent but I just don't know how to get him to transition to going in the potty!

Nursemaid's Elbow

Josiah came down with a bad case of "nursemaid's elbow" last night. The definition found in Wikipedia is: "a dislocation of the elbow joint caused by a sudden pull on the extended pronated arm, such as by an adult tugging on an uncooperative child. The technical term for the injury is radial head subluxation."

Josiah was not being an uncooperative child (although he often can be) no, he was simply sitting by my side and started to slide off the couch. In my haste I pulled him up by his wrists and he started SCREAMING in pain. Poor little dude.

The orthopedic surgeon that we saw this afternoon did his best to check out Jo's elbow - but we left there at 3:30 without it being popped back into place. He told me to give it a day or two and if it wasn't better that I should take Josiah to a pediatric orthopedic. So tonight, after many phone calls, lots of tears, 2 trips to the Urgent Care (one for x-rays), lots of movies & still a crying baby boy, I finally looked up "nursemaid's elbow" on the internet. Based on what I saw he didn't need x-rays - he just needed a pediatric doctor who could pop that elbow back into place. I came out of the office and prayed for healing in Josiah's elbow, then I called my friend Kristi (who is going to Duke to become a PA) and talked with her about what I should do next. While on the phone with Kristi, Josiah fell down twice and I had to help pick him up - then two minutes after the 2nd fall (about 10 minutes after I had prayed for him) I looked up to see him using BOTH hands as he stacked up his shoes by the front door. Over the next 10 minutes I followed him around to see him using his left hand/arm as if nothing had ever been wrong! He was back to his crazy little self - climbing on EVERYTHING tonite! Praise God for his healing! I'm so glad to have my little boy back again!

sleep training

I posted the following on my facebook status a few days ago.

Tara Burton is wondering if I should start letting Jo cry it out when he wakes up in the middle of the night (yes, the boy still nurses once at night).

My girlfriends gave me a lot to think about. I ultimately concluded that Josiah needs to learn to sleep through the night. Ellie was sleeping thru the night between 6 and 8 months of age and the only reason Josiah hadn't yet was mainly because of him & Ellie sharing a room. It was very difficult for me to let him cry in the night when his sister was in the crib next to him! About a month ago we put the kids in separate rooms so I KNEW It was possible - just wasn't quite sure HOW do go about it! I just knew I didn't want to do the CIO (cry it out) method - at least to start with. The next night I spoke with my mom for quite awhile and we came up with a "plan" for getting Josiah to sleep through the night. . .

When Josiah wakes up in the middle of the night to eat instead of nursing him I would pick him up and try to get him back to sleep in other ways. Rocking, giving him some warm milk, and as a last resort putting him in his jumper - just no nursing until morning!

That was the plan and this is how it's been going... the first night Josiah surprised me and didn't wake up until 5am! I went ahead and nursed him and then put him back down. He then slept until 8:15

The 2nd night Josiah woke up @ 3:30. He was standing up in his crib. I picked him up and brought him into the livingroom to try to rock him back to sleep. I could tell he just wanted to nurse. So I warmed up 4 oz of cows milk and fed it to him from his sippy. He took about 2 or 3 oz and then laid in my arms as I rocked him for about 10 minutes. I laid him back down while he was awake. He did the "butt-wiggle" which usually means he's content, and he fell back to sleep on his own. He didn't wake up again until 7:15!

Last night Josiah slept until 4:40. I went in, picked him up and tried immediately to rock him back to sleep. Nope, not interested. So I gave him some warm milk again, held him for a few minutes and had him back in bed by 4:55. He was up @ 6:30 though!!

I have noticed a few things through this process. The first being that he is eating MORE during the day. Today all he wanted to do was eat - and he drank more milk than usual! The second is that I can't SLEEP after he wakes up. Both nights I just tossed and turned after putting him back down - aaaah!!! And the third is that I think my milk is starting to dry up . . . we may be finished with weaning earlier than I was expecting! However I feel fine with that and more importantly I think that Josiah is doing well with the transition. He still has ME and I think that's the most important thing right now!

Now it's off to bed so that I can be ready to give that little boy some love tonight should he wake up!

I think I have a problem

I like to eat, and while that is not exactly a problem, snacking (and snacking and snacking) until I go to bed is becoming a problem. I realized a couple of weeks ago that it was because all day I take care of the two kiddos and hardly have a moment to myself. Then as soon as they are both down for the night I get to eat and actually enjoy what I am eating. I need to work on this because this is not a healthy habit to have.

On another note, Josiah is doing better w/ eating. He doesn't eat like Ellie did, but he is eating. The trick, I found, is feeding him about 30 minutes before I nurse him. That way he's good and hungry and will actually EAT. The last couple of days were a bit challenging w/ him refusing to eat, but this evening he enjoyed his pureed chicken and I threw in a few bites of peas in as well.

feeding Josiah

Josiah has not been interested in much baby food yet. Every time I tried to feed him pureed baby food he would gag and then cry and refuse to eat more. I was doing some research on Wholesomebabyfood.com and came across Baby Led Weaning. I found it to be very interesting and while I don't agree with it 100 percent it opened up my (often rather closed) mind to new ways of introducing food to Josiah.

I found out the other day that Josiah likes avocados and he likes artichokes. I mash a little on my finger and give it to him. He does pretty well. Tonight I tried a new food, tofu, and he really liked it. I also gave him cooked peas and cooked apple pieces instead of pureeing them. He liked both a lot more and he didn't even gag!!

I am learning that what worked with Elizabeth may not work with Josiah and I have to be flexible in order to figure that out!

Now THAT's a good rest

Last night Josiah had his last feeding @ 9:30 and I was in bed and asleep by 11:30. He didn't wake up to eat again until 4:45!!! Then he slept again until 7:30. Most of the nights we were at my parents house (last week) he was going 5 - 6 hour stretches in the night.

Right now he's half awake lying on the couch next to me :)