SOOOO...last Friday Kate decided she wanted to be a big girl and wear underpants.  And now she is ALMOST ENTIRELY POTTY TRAINED.  Yup!  I had heard this from other moms, that "one day they just decide to be potty trained,"  so I guess I shouldn't be surprised.  I am so thrilled at how this has gone, but we've still had rocky moments.  The first couple of days, she had a few major accidents.  But she learned pretty quick that every time she had a big accident Mommy would hose her down with cold water in the shower.  Not to punish, but to clean her up.  Thanks, Amanda, for the tip.  That did it.  She hates the shower.  So Friday and Saturday she had probably 3 accidents per day, Sunday and Monday only 1, Tuesday NONE, Wednesday and Thursday only 1.  Today's accident was the result of a massive tantrum while in the car, so I got the joy of spanking her AND washing the car seat.  Sigh.

She is still wearing pullups at night and naptime, although it took some fancy talking on my part to get her to wear them.  ("No, Mommy!  I'm a big girl!  I don't want to wear that diaper!"  "You don't have a potty in your bed, honey.  Let's put your underwear OVER the pullup.")  Geez, what mixed messages I'm giving her.  But until the child will/can get out of her bed and take herself to the bathroom, this is how it's going to be.

I am just so proud of her! 

And Audrey turned 5 months today.  More on that later, it's 11:30 and I'm tired!

So we have been planning to put kate in big kid underwear starting Monday, but this morning she begged me to let her wear them, so we started today.  So far, so good...a couple of accidents, but most importantly, she has a happy heart!  Keep you posted...

Ok, Audrey's night waking is really wearing me out.  This is really different that what Kate did so I am not sure how to handle it.  Here's what's up:

• About every 45 minutes to an hour, she starts to cry, but in a monotone, yelling kind of way, for about 5 minutes.
• Sleeping position does not seem to matter.
• She never truly wakes up, unless it's the daytime and there's stuff going on, or at 5:30ish for her first feeding.
• It's loud enough that it wakes us up every time.
• She doesn't usually need help settling down again, probably because she is really still asleep, but if she does wake up and get frantic her cries change.  She can be resettled easily with a pat and maybe the paci.
• She doesn't do it when sleeping in my bed with me, or on my chest for a nap, or in the car.
• She doesn't seem sleep deprived in the least - that's just me. She is super happy and eating well, and easy to put to bed.
• It's ALL STINKIN' NIGHT LONG.

I've heard of the "45-minute intruder" thing, where babies cry to change sleep cycles, and it is tempting to think that they are truly awake.  Some people equate that with not nursing enough, but she still nurses 7-8 times daily plus two cereal feedings, so SURELY that is not the problem.  Maybe this is a sleep-cycle related thing, but how do I deal with it?  I don't want to leave the monitor off entirely.  My first plan of action is to buy her a white noise machine, in hopes that it will help her sleep more deeply, or drown out the cries a little bit so I don't wake up so easily.

I just want to know if I am doing anything wrong, or if this is just a phase.  Any suggestions?

 

Man, we're sleep deprived around here.  Audrey has been waking up hourly during the night because of a cold.  She doesn't need help going back to sleep, but she is loud enough that it wakes me up every time.  This has been going on for a few days.

But finally, here is a picture of Audrey at 4 months:

 

Kate's preschool pix coming soon, flickr is having trouble.  She's been doing great at school.  Potty training has plateaued, but her teacher and I have a plan.  In a couple of weeks (let her get a little more used to school first) we're going to go cold turkey with the pullups.  Pray for me.  I know I'm going to have a lot of fits and messes to deal with.  But any child that can hold it ALL THE WAY TO OKLAHOMA has no excuse still being in pullups!  (except that her mother continues to buy them for her)

Kate: "Mommy, I read you a Bible story."  (runs over holding a free book from Sonic about animals)

"Ok, what is the story?"

"Jesus and the Ark."

"What is that one about?"

"When all of the animals fell in the ocean and died."

(a little shocked) "Do you mean Noah's Ark?  And maybe the other story about when the horses and riders fell into the sea?"

(miffed) "NO.  I reading the story, Mommy.  Look, here's a picture of Jesus Christ the Yord."  (points to cartoon dude in the cheapo Sonic book)

It went downhill from there.  I couldn't hold back the laughter, so I faked a coughing fit, but she wasn't fooled.  She gave up and went to do something else.