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...

Potty Training 101

Our talented baby attempting the splits while holding onto her toy stroller

I bought a potty last week, mostly on a whim. I had read a little on the topic of potty training, and while most experts say that there is no perfect age to start the training (if at all), they agree that the majority of toddlers are not ready to consistently use a potty or a toilet until the age of 3.

Our baby likes everything new, and the potty was no exception. She played with it for a good half hour when she first set eyes on it, and would have no doubt continued longer had we not dragged her away to begin her bedtime routine.

We started our training almost immediately. We took off her diaper, and asked her to sit on the potty. We urged her to urinate an defecate. She willingly sat on the potty, but did not pick up on the latter suggestion. However, she did seem amused. Since the purchase, we have encouraged her to sit often, which she thoroughly enjoys. She has even started reading a few of her books whilst on her potty. I assumed that the timing was just not right for the expected results.

Then yesterday, something very unexpected happened. We had just returned from the park, and my pregnant bladder could not wait very long. However, I did have a chance to quickly remove her sandy pants and diaper. I was surprised that her diaper, changed a few hours earlier, was very dry. As I sat down to relieve my bladder, my lovely baby simultaneously sat on her potty. She made a brief pushing sound, and lo and behold, her potty now held urine. I was so excited, and she seemed equally proud of herself.

Was it really that easy? Or was it just a matter of her being in the right place at the right time? Now if only her language skills would improve, and she could indicate her need for a potty with a few simple sounds...

Baby and the Bathwater

April 22, 2011.  CC flying high thanks to her 6'3" papa.

A few days ago, I was thinking out loud; not always a wise thing to do, I discovered.  I was thinking about how bright our baby was. Even though she does not yet speak intelligibly, she appears to understand both English and French very well.  Although I do not bathe her everyday, when I mention "bath-time", she knows exactly what to do.  A few evenings ago, I made this very announcement. She stopped what she was doing, and made a bee-line for the bathroom door.  "Don't forget to take off your clothes", I said, and she started to do just that.  And when I reminded her to remove her diaper, she tugged on it (unsuccessfully).  We take our baths in the large tub together, as she has out-grown her plastic table-top tub, and our bathtub is too deep for me to reach my arms into from the outside.  Our baby was enjoying her bath as usual, splashing around, and playing with her plastic bath toys.  And then I decided to think out loud.  "How smart you are, baby, to know not to urinate and defecate in the tub!"  No sooner had I voiced this thought, than our Brat made the face; that pushing face.  I was hoping she might be constipated, and not successfully push, but within a few instants of the face, there were brown floaters in the bathwater!  This, unfortunately amused her, and she decided she would try to catch these new toys.  We exited the bath at the speed of light, and I rinsed her off in the sink.

This got me thinking about toilet training.  Although most experts would agree that it is too early at 14 months, a friend (paediatrician) of mine had decided to train her 8-month old son to poop in the toilet bowl.  As soon as he made the face, she would run into the bathroom, remove his diaper, and plop him on the toilet seat.  She had done the same thing with her 3-year old son, who, by the time he was 12 months-old, had stopped pooping in his diaper.  I told my husband about my friend's training technique, but he agreed with me that it was unlikely to work on our Brat.  First of all, by the time we raced to the bathroom, and removed her clothing, it would likely be too late, and secondly, if it wasn't too late, she would be so intrigued by her new environment, that she would cease trying to poop.  In hindsight, perhaps I should have given this technique a go. Especially if it might have guaranteed clean bathwater.