Following My Child

I am really not prepared to potty train Bumblebee, but he just keeps telling me that he needs to pee pee in the potty!  So, even though I probably don't have the attention for it right now, especially if I'm right in the middle of nursing a baby, I am going to do it.

Update on Potty Training and Sleeping

Since we've done nothing productive this week, I figured I'd just write a post about how my boys are doing. Bumblebee is 5 months old now and is an angel! He's been sleeping through the night for a while now, maybe since he was 3 months old...? He is the happiest baby ever. He'll wake up in the morning after sleeping for 12 hours and he'll just lay quietly in his cradle sucking his thumb. He gives the the most wonderful smiles and his laugh fills my heart with joy. He'll stay awake a few hours, eat, then fall asleep sucking his thumb while laying on his little floor bed. Link will run through the house like a crazy person, but usually Bumblebee will sleep right through it. He sleeps about an hour, then he's awake for a while. I love to lay down beside him and talk to him, or take him around the house with me while I clean up or make lunch. He likes to sit in his little bouncy chair outside while Link plays. Mostly, he sleeps a lot. He most often falls asleep by himself, though sometimes I like to rock him just because he doesn't demand it often enough. He takes a 3-5 hour nap in the middle of the day and still sleeps at night!  (I'm so amazed because Link was the opposite as far as naps go)  He's starting to be awake a little more, and is holding his head up great.

Link on the other hand, requires quite a bit of attention. In my Turning 2 Update post, I mentioned that Link was sleeping in his bed and doing well with his potty training. Well a lot has happened in the last 4-5 months (besides Bumblebee being born). We moved from Atlanta, Georgia to Johnson City, Tennessee, out of our little bitty apartment in the city to a larger house that seems like its in the country. Link caught me with Bumblebee sleeping on my chest at night when Bumblebee was just a few weeks old and decided that he wanted to sleep with Mommy and Daddy too. So, even though Link has his own room, he is back in the bed with us.  And we've been on a potty training roller coaster! The course of that has gone something like this:

1. One week with no underwear while at home, he almost always made it to the potty, which was out in the living room
2. One more week with no underwear, he had a few accidents. 
3. Started with underwear, but I had to constantly take him. At this point, he didn't care too much about going to the potty and had tons of 'accidents'
4. Changed underwear to the kind he can pull down, but he still didn't really care. At this point, he had peed on just about everything: the bed, my rocking chair, my ottoman, his stool, the couch, I don't know how many times on the floor, his car seat, his Daddy, his Daddy's computer chair, while playing, while eating in a restaurant, while standing in front of the potty... it got to the point where we put a diaper on him while visiting other people's houses because we couldn't take him often enough!
5. Now he runs off by himself and its working great!

There is more detail there that I'm sure isn't very interesting, but the point is, I think we're finally there.  Ever since he's gotten into his "big boy" phase, he doesn't want me to run with him to the bathroom to help him pull his underwear down, he can do it all by himself. Now he very rarely has accidents, once a week or less. All of this makes me wonder if I would have done better to wait until he was in this phase to start, then I could have changed a few more diapers, and cleaned up a lot less off the floor. I got tired of taking him to go in the middle of the night once I stopped waking up with Bumblebee, then I got tired of pee in the bed, so I put him in a cloth diaper at night. It's dry 5 out of 7 nights.

Bumblebee has outgrown his cradle and is sleeping well, so we've decided to move him out of our room. I had originally wanted him to sleep on his floor bed, but I like it in the living room and I don't want to move it. So we're going to put up the crib in Link's room, and hope that Link will want to be in there too!

Oh, and it looks like Link is getting his appetite back.  He'll actually eat something now, though I am still unsure of how to handle meals :)  

Well, that was one exciting post if you like reading about the eating, sleeping, and potty training habits of other people's kids!

**edit**
of course about three hours after I posted this, Link pees three times because he's too busy to go... why do I curse myself?

Turning 2 - Update

Of course things didn't go how I thought they would, but they've gone great.   To recap, Link has been:

1. Moving from mom and dad's bed to his toddler bed (and room)
2. Spending 5 weeks away from home
3. Giving up his cloth diapers for big boy undies
4. Welcoming a new baby home

I'll start with the last one, since that's where things got all mixed up.  We welcomed our new baby home 4 weeks early.  Link has taken to his baby brother quite well.  It probably helps that he is a very sleepy baby, and you can almost forget he's here.  So, Link has not had to deal with sharing Momma too much.  He likes to hug his little brother, and bring him things that he can identify as his brother's.  I think Link will be a fantastic big brother!

Since the baby came 4 weeks early, we didn't spend the full 5 weeks away from home.  Link did have to be away from his Momma for the first time ever.  The first day I didn't see him for a full 11 hours, and I realized it was the longest I'd ever been away from him.  It just got worse from there, and I didn't  see him for a full day at one point.  He handled it well though, and he loved spending time with his Grandma and Grandpa.  But, by the end of the 4th day, we could tell that he needed to get back home and back to his routine.  He wasn't quite his normal, well behaved self, but he was still very good considering.

Link checking out Momma at the hospital.

I had hoped to have a full four weeks to work with Link on his potty training.  I only had four days, then I was in the hospital.  His Grandma and Grandpa were willing to work with him, and they all did great.  Link already knew what he needed to do, it was just a matter of practicing.  Granted, we're at 2 weeks with no diapers, and he still runs around the house with just a shirt on.  But, he does good going out, and he doesn't have accidents when we're home as long as he doesn't have to worry about pulling underwear down.  We'll get to that soon.  He sleeps through naps and (as long as I get him up once in the night) he sleeps through the night, with no wet bed.

Don't know why, but he liked to sit on it backwards :)

Link is doing great in his toddler bed, but it is still in our room.  We didn't want to bring him home and immediately put him in his own room.  We felt like it was important to get things back to normal, or as close as possible, before making any big changes like this.  So, we'll see how that goes when it happens.

Turning 2

Link has turned two years old and will be going through a lot of changes in the coming weeks.  I thought I'd talk about what we're doing, and how he's handling it.  To summarize, he'll be:

1. Moving from mom and dad's bed to his toddler bed (and room)
2. Spending 5 weeks away from home
3. Giving up his cloth diapers for big boy undies
4. Welcoming a new baby home

Toddler Bed
This went so well, I was amazed.  Link slept in his crib until he was almost one, then a series of events landed him in our bed (it's not that interesting, so I'll skip it).  I thought it would be very difficult to get him into his own bed, but I think it was harder on me.  We're both serious snugglers; when he'd fall asleep, he'd want me right there, with my head touching his and my arm over him.  But when we took the side off of his crib and put it in our room he took right to it.  I put him in his jammies, went to put my jammies on, and when I got back, he was in his bed, with his arms behind he head, ready to go to sleep.  At first, I'd have to stay with him until he settled down, and for the first 2-3 nights, put him back in bed when he came out of the bedroom door.  But, after that, I could read him a book or two, kiss him good night, and leave.  He'd call for me a few times, but I'd only go back in if he was crying when he called.  I wanted him to know that if he needed me, I'd always come, that way he'd feel comfortable enough to go to sleep, but I didn't want him to think he could just call me and I'd come running even if he was just fine.  He still wakes up sometimes and calls for me, but usually I can just say "Mommy's here, go back to sleep" and he does.  Other times, I have to go tuck him back in and give him a hug, then he'll go back to sleep.

A few days after he started sleeping in his converted crib, we got him a new toddler bed (the crib was needed elsewhere).  He loved it!  He had to get in it before I even had a chance to move it out of the living room.

Then, when I put it in our room, he chilled out for a little while with his buddy, Bear.

Once we get back from our 5 week trip away from home (see below) we'll move his bed into his own room.  I think he'll actually sleep better then, because he won't be bothered by the noise of me getting out of bed 100 times to visit the bathroom, or the racket of me turning over (which is a feat when you have a watermelon attached to your stomach).  If he has any difficulty Daddy will stay in the room with him for a few nights since I'll be occupied with the new little one.

5 Weeks at Grandma's
I LOVE to visit my family, but 5 weeks away from home just stinks!  Since Daddy wasn't sure what state he'd get a job in after graduation, I couldn't be sure that we'd be here when the baby came.  So, I decided to have the baby back home, that way I could stay with family (not in a hotel) while waiting to go into labor.  That, and I'm REALLY picky about my doctors, and I LOVE my OB, and didn't want to change :)  Anyways, Daddy is working, and Link and Mommy are spending the next four weeks in Grandma's spare room.  We get to see Daddy every weekend and we do lots of video conferences.  Link & I will love being able to visit with all of our extended family, but we sure will miss being with Daddy and being in the comfort of our own home.

Big Boy Undies!
Link has been using the potty since he turned one, as much or as little as he wanted to.  He's used to going in public, on the road, on little potties and big potties.  He knows when he has to go (#1 and #2) but he isn't that concerned about going in his diaper.  Since Mommy doesn't want to have two boys in diapers, and since Link seems willing and able, he'll be switching over next week. (He saw his new undies and REALLY liked trying them on, he asks for them when he sees them).  I'll have to post an update on how that goes :)

New Baby
Yep, in just over four weeks, we'll have Link's little brother home with us.  It'll be some adjustment for Link going home after being away for so long and having a new baby.  But, I think he's going to do great with it.  We just spent a week with my sister who just got home with her new baby, and Link did really well.  He liked to hold his new cousin and liked to bring him things, like his pacifier or toys :)  He'd have to run and check on him when he was crying, or peek over the side of his bassinet to say "Hi!"

It was just so stinkin cute, I had to put this picture of him holding his cousin with my sister.

He would pat him gently and hug him.  I can't wait to see how he does with his little brother!!