10 Things

Jumping with Joy

As Baby # 2's arrival rapidly approaches, I can't help but think back to my wish list. At least 10 things that I had hoped would be accomplished before her arrival. All involving Baby #1. Here they are, in no particular order:

1. Potty Training. Shortly after she turned 18 months, we purchased a potty. Initially, she was very intrigued. Within the first week, she had 7 successful trips to the potty. How easy is potty training? we thought to ourselves. Then all of a sudden, she lost interest. Since then, she enjoys sitting on her potty, but refuses to lower her pants. We do have a plan though. We purchased some cloth training underwear, and some Smarties as rewards. She doesn't think too much of her training pants, but ran to her potty today with great speed when she realized she would be rewarded with Smarties. She was only partially successful in filling her potty, but there is certainly hope...

2. Sleep in her own bed. She slept with us for the first 5 or 6 months of her life. We then tried to transition her to her own crib. With partial success. However, when she turned 18 months, she climbed out of her crib, and so we converted her crib to a toddler bed. Now when she wakes up in the middle of the night, she simply makes her way to our bed, jumps up between the two of us, where she spends the remainder of the night. We tried returning her to her bed on a few occasions, but the effort it took to get her back to sleep alone seemed too great compared to just all falling asleep in the same bed. If we are lucky, she joins us at 4AM. When we are unlucky, she joins us at midnight.

3. Sleep through the night. She has slept through the night on a dozen or so occasions. But perhaps because of the ease with which she can get out of her bed and into ours encourages her to not sleep through the night?

4. Fall asleep on her own. When she is exhausted, and the situation is right (e.g. a smooth car ride), she might fall asleep on he own, but for the time being we still rock her to sleep. However, since she has given up her afternoon naps, she falls asleep with great ease in the evening, and very quickly. Just not on her own. But at least we get a few hours to ourselves before we too retire for the night.

5. Stop drinking formula, and start drinking cow's milk. I breastfed her until she was 15 months, and then transitioned her to a soy-based formula as we thought she was allergic to dairy at the time. After allergy testing at 18 months of age, we discovered that dairy was no longer a problem. However we simply stuck with the same formula because we knew she liked it. Over the last 2 months, we have tried on several occasions to replace some of the formula in her bottle with homogenized cow's milk. She did not seem to notice the change. However, her bowel movements became looser, and I feared lactose intolerance. In hindsight it may have been a coincidence, as she simultaneously had a cold virus (which, depending on the strain, can sometimes also lead to looser bowel movements). Currently, we are attempting for the third time to replace part of her formula, and so far so good.

6. Stop drinking from a bottle. We have her down to 4 bottles/24 hours. One at bedtime; one around 6AM when she wakes up. The two other bottles are during the day; one right before nap time, and the other when she wakes up from her nap. However, now that she does not always nap, I have tried placing the milk in a Sippy cup instead. She drinks it, but not nearly as much. Her appetite generally varies quite a bit, but if there is one things that we can count on, it is for her to drink all 4 bottles. I am hoping that one day soon, she will simply refuse to drink from a bottle, just as she refused my breast milk when she turned 16 months.


7. Give up her pacifier. We try using it only for bedtime, and during long car rides, but truth be told, we have not tried very hard to get rid of the soother. With all the other things to accomplish, we thought we would leave this to last. We will probably draw the line though at 2.5years...mostly because anytime I am out and about and see a 3 year old with a pacifier, I cringe.

8. Hold conversations. While her vocabulary has expanded significantly since my post on speech, we are still not holding conversations. She has now added Cookie, Papa, Kaka, Peepee, Happy, Yucky and Up to her short list. But it is difficult to explain to her the importance of using a potty, or staying in her bed when the conversations are unilateral. I truly believe this last point will facilitate many of the other items on my wish list, but it is the one that we will have to be most patient with.

I can no longer think of the other two items...or perhaps there were simply 8, and "10 Things" just sounded like a better title. One thing is certain, the arrival of Baby # 2 will create some significant change. She may well regress on a few items, but it may be the impetus for positive change on other items. For starters, the four of us will simply not fit in the same bed...