Potty-training success!

SB and BW sailed through their first few days of daycare wearing underwear.  I expect there will be accidents here and there, but it seems we are firmly in the underwear-wearing camp.  I am still so impressed with how  smoothly things went.  I think we just managed to hit the sweet spot with timing and them being ready to train.  I know I'm always anxious to hear what has worked for other people, so I'll share our potty-training weekend - although I make no claims I actually know anything about how to be successful at potty-training.

As a bit of background, we have had potty seats in our house since SB and BW were about 18 months.  We offered that they could sit, but never really pushed it. We also bought undies and allowed them to wear undies here and there, but didn't pursue anything.  Although I had originally hoped to have them trained before Nugget's arrival,  As I started to get closer to Nugget's delivery date, they started regressing and refusing the potty, or sitting for only a second or two, so I stopped pushing, figuring they would regress anyway even if we did get them trained before Nugget was born.

I decided to try a rough 3-day method because BW was definitely showing interest here and there, and I had a 4-day weekend coming up where we could stick close to home anyway.  I was a bit worried if we could make it stick at daycare though, because neither of the twins were using the potty at daycare.  I mentioned it a few times that we were going to start wearing underwear on Friday, and we picked out new underwear, but didn't spend a lot of "build-up" to wearing undies.

For our initial training weekend, I had two potty seats in addition to the regular toilet in our main floor bathroom.  Our regular toilet also has the seat with the built-in child seat.  I let them pick what they want to use each time.  Now, I have one potty seat in the main floor bathroom and one in the upper level bathroom near their room.  My "plan" was to have them try every 20 minutes for 5 minutes at a time, but we deviated from that pretty quickly.  Here's a brief summary:

• Offered potty.  Reminded them to tell me if they needed to go.  Offered every 20 minutes, if they refused reminded them to tell me if they needed to go, the first day.
• Kept them within 8-10 feet of the bathroom the entire first day.
• Cheered like crazy and encouraged them to cheer for each other.  Gave 1 m&m for pee, 3 for poop.
• Pushed drinks like crazy.  Mostly water, but some milk and some lemonade.  Played "tea party" to keep them drinking fluids.
• Used diapers for naps/bedtime (this has been a struggle, as they take their diapers off at naps, and don't nap.  I was also worried that BW would use this time to poop in her diaper, as she normally poops at naptime.  However, she has pooped in the potty since day 1.  We have switched to some leftover pull-ups from a friend for nap/bed, which the girls will leave on - so I guess the rest of their diapers can go into storage for when Nugget gets to that size).

By the middle of day 3, we were all a bit stir-crazy.  You can only paint and color and play with play-dough in the kitchen so long. I had wanted to try a short outing, so we decided to go over to visit friends (who knew we were potty training).  However, we needed to pick some stuff up to grill, so we also needed to make a short grocery store visit.  This also went amazingly well.  SB even used the toilet at the grocery store.

We were having such good luck that by day 4, I loosened the reins considerably.  We set up the kiddie pool and let them play outside most of the day, and still did a great job of telling me they had to go and running into the house.  Zero accidents. All poops in the potty.

I was really nervous to send them off to daycare because (1) they wouldn't get m&ms there (although by day 3 I was no longer giving them for every success) and (2) they would have to tell someone other than me they had to go.  I talked with SB and BW the day before about people they could tell at daycare if they had to go potty.  I packed up 4 pair of undies and 4 pair of pants per kid, told daycare how we had done and hoped they wouldn't be in diapers again at the end of the day.

I need to give my kids more credit.  No accidents.  3 days of daycare in undies and we haven't touched the extra clothes.  Woo hoo!

Potty training times two

Potty training twins is a bit scary.  We dove head-first into potty training over the long weekend.

And nailed it. I am so proud of my big girls.

However, SB and BW went back to daycare this morning for the first time in over a week - transitions are hard, especially for SB.  I am so anxious to hear if they continue their success, and worried about setbacks.

Nugget (aka Chubbers) at 3 months.

I thought I'd do one final post dedicated to my CP baby - at 3 months, Nugget is tipping the scales at approximately 15 and a half pounds.  She is all rolls and chubby cheeks and I love it.  The downside is that my arm muscles have not had the gradual time to adjust to carrying that weight in the infant car seat, so I feel like a big weakling.


We are so blessed that something that can potentially be a concern was ultimately not a concern for us.  My OB stated that as ultrasound technology has improved, they are diagnosing more and more circumvallate placentas, and realizing that they don't always cause growth issues. 

To the Dr. or not?

No, this is not a post where I ask for anonymous internet input on whether or not I should take my child to the doctor.


But seriously, I hate trying to figure out if I should take my kid to the doctor.  Daycare has been rough on our household.  I'm a believer in building immunity, so I don't super clean or sanitize at home (except following our nasty bout of norovirus brought home from daycare...which we only found out was the super-contagious, super-yucky norovirus AFTER everyone in the house had been knocked down by it...) however, daycare means that SB and BW always seem to have a bug.  Runny noses are the norm, not the exception.  I hate that I have snotty-nosed kids all the time.  We should buy stock in Kleenex.


We've also managed to remain largely ear-ache free - SB and BW have only had one each.  So with a few other miscellaneous ailments, they each have only had to have antibiotics 3ish times in 2 years.  Not bad.  But I constantly struggle with deciding how high/how many days of a fever warrants a trip to the doctor, which will usually result in - it's probably a virus, but here's some drugs.  I'd prefer not to go that route.


However, with two older toddlers in daycare, Nugget was bound to get sick - and she is already on her second cold in three months.  Poor baby.  The nasal congestion isn't something I'm too concerned about, our Nose Frida just gets a workout.  But now she has a cough that has persisted a couple days.  So I'm at that place again where I try to decide myself - virus? Or something that may require some big guns, like a nebulizer or something?  I feel the nurse line is no help, as they seem hesitant to provide any other advice than "you better bring her in just in case." Argh.

My love/hate relationship with the Rock n Play

I first heard of the Rock n Plays when SB and BW were a few months old.  Many twin moms were singing their praises, and I thought about purchasing them, but also read a number of reports of flat heads and needing helmets, or a nightmare crib transition, and after dragging my feet for a while decided that we were past the stage of usefulness. 


When Nugget was baking, I decided to dive into the Rock n Play fan base, as I thought it would be something that I could easily carry to and from the different levels of our house so Nugget would have a safe place to be/sleep with two rambunctious toddlers around.* I thought it would also be a sleeping place for Nugget for the time being if we went to grandma's so we wouldn't have to invest in another pack n play.


I bought one used, since the useful life of a rock n play appears to be a few months, and they usually resell quickly and easily. I didn't use it for the daytime sleeping place that I intended - mainly because SB and BW can just reach into it if they balance on their tippy toes and are very unstable in the process, and I was worried they would fall onto it while trying to give Nugget kisses.  However, with Nugget getting a cold within her first month of life as well as having reflux, I tried it for night time sleep one night.  Which, as everyone raves about, works wonderfully.  Nugget sleeps SO well in that thing, and it really helps if she is congested (which, she is, again.  Poor kid is on her second cold in the first three months of her life).  However, I am paranoid about letting her sleep in it for overnight sleep; so I put it in our room, next to our bed (Nugget otherwise sleeps in the crib in her room across the hall).  I try to use it as infrequently as possible.  It's like a parenting drug.  I try to control my use of it, I know the consequences could be bad, but it feels SO good to get a nice long stretch of sleep.  (For both Nugget and I). 


So, I continue to use it as sparingly as I can.  I always put Nugget down for the night in her crib (which, so far, has been going swimmingly since her chiro adjustment).  But, in the middle of the night when I'm tired and she's congested and tired and restless, I can't help but succumb to the RnP.




*Note - it's not.  It requires two hands to fold and unfold, which I appreciate for safety reasons, but it just wasn't workable as easily folded/transported if I also had to keep Nugget safe from bouncy toddlers and fold it up and then pick them both up.

We're all adjusted over here

Nugget was a very easy baby for the first 4-6 weeks - at least for me.  She definitely preferred her mama over others, but it wasn't a big deal.  Then, around 6 weeks, she became more alert.  And she was generally happy...for about 10 minutes out of every 3 hours.  Our schedule went like this -


Nurse for 15-20 minutes
Coo and smile  for 5-15 minutes (unless we attempted tummy time)
Start to fuss, but comforted if held facing out for 10-15 minutes
Lose it and fight sleep like a banshee; refuse to be held by anyone else but mama. 10-30+ minutes
Fall asleep for 30 minutes to 2 hours
Repeat


There were also times when Nugget would scream as if in pain.  We are pretty certain she has silent reflux, but she was not having any issues with weight loss so I didn't want to start her on medication.  I'd tossed around the idea of taking her to the chiropractor, but couldn't make up my mind (figures).  Then some friends of ours said they took their son to the chiro after 6 months of colic, found out his hip was out of alignment, and saw a night-and-day change. So I scheduled the appointment.


The chiro found some mild hip misalignment, and basically made adjustments all the way up Nugget's back, especially the areas that contribute to reflux as well as making some adjustments to her neck since she has a tendency to favor one side. She also showed me how to do inversions with Nugget to help her spine realign on its own, which I'm not going to describe in any fashion because I don't want to be responsible in any way for someone attempting them on their own, but Nugget seems to really like the inversions.


That evening, both the hubs and step-daughter were able to hold her without her throwing a fit.  The next day at daycare, the staff said she had a REALLY good day.  They are still struggling with her fighting sleep (which she does, if you miss her "window" you are in for a battle) but they saw a definite improvement.  We go back to the chiropractor in a few days to evaluate and readjust as necessary, but I'd say we are definitely seeing an improvement. Yay!

Back to work

So, I'm back to work.  It was harder to return to work than when I returned after SB and BW were born - I think it's because I knew the 12-week leap (See Wonder Weeks) was coming and I was able to take it in stride instead of being overwhelmed by the fussiness.


I was also glad to be getting back to work because there was a ton of stuff going on and I felt like I was falling further and further behind. 


When SB and BW started daycare as infants, DH had a hefty commute and usually left for work around the time I was getting them up for the day.  Now, DH has a very reasonable commute and daycare is on the way, so we tag team the morning routine and daycare drop off. I'm lucky that he is so "all-in" with the taking care of our kids - the only thing he struggles with is pony tails for SB and BW (they still have really fine hair that hasn't outgrown the toddler mullet but hangs into their eyes so it's not easy to put it up and out of their faces), so he usually gets them ready for the day and I quick put their hair up before we head out the door.


It's so quiet at work.  I enjoy the noise break. But SB and BW are still adjusting a bit to being back in daycare full time.  BW told me "I don't want to go to daycare today." Sigh.  Hang in there girl, it's almost the weekend.