0 for 3

Here's another one of the pics my sister took. We're going to hang a copy of the one I posted a couple of days ago as I was holding Ian a little more propped up in that one, but one aspect I like better about this particular shot is that you can see more of Nadia's pretty dress. So I had to post this one also. She got so many good ones it was hard to pick! Of course if we had to do it over again, we wouldn't have brought a black shirt for Paul. I wasn't thinking about a backdrop when we packed.

Ian's first stretch last night was 4.5 hours long and his second was 2.5 hours long. He's going in the right direction but hasn't gotten back to what he was doing before we went to MD.

Yesterday I gave Nadia many sippy cups of milk in the morning and apple slices, but that didn't seem to translate to causing her to pee more often. She only went once (9:45 in the toilet) from 6:15 to noon (plus she pooped once). Last night I switched to popsicles, and I finally found a way she'll drink water - with a Peri Bottle. I know these are intended to be used for hygeine purposes, but for whatever reason it's the only way (thus far) I can get Nadia to consume a decent volume of water. She didn't even drink one full sippy cup of milk this morning, but she drank water through the Peri Bottle and ate a few small popsicles (they have a whopping 15 calories each, LOL). Yesterday her diaper came off at 6:15am and she didn't go to the bathroom until 9:45am. This morning her diaper didn't come off until 7:00am because she got up a little later and I took a shower first before taking her downstairs for the morning. I had her on the froggy potty for quite a while and then gave her a little break and she peed while sitting on her lion (which was on the carpet unfortunately). So I had my first time using the carpet cleaner this week. She didn't have any underwear or pants on at the time. It was the first time she had an accident when going "comando." I thought it would probably be awhile until she peed again so I wasn't watching her too closely. I had forgotten to put the gate back up so she had wandered over to the dining room/ living room while I was nursing Ian. I called her back after a few minutes and saw that her pants were wet. I put her on the potty and searched everywhere for where she had the accident. I couldn't find any wet spots anywhere. Is it possible her pants and underwear soaked it all up? Those two accidents were within 30 minutes.

I then had her on the potty again for a LONG time. She wasn't on it nonstop but for the majority of the time she sat on her frog potty and ate snacks, watched tv, colored in her coloring book, etc. until 12:30. I had planned to put her down for her nap at noon, and she started yawning some around 11:45. Ian was already down, and I was hoping for my first nap in several days. However, I didn't want to put a diaper on her until she peed one more time. I figured since she hadn't gone since 9:30 she surely would need to go in the near future. Wouldn't you know that at 12:30 she stood up to pick up a pretzel she had dropped and she peed on the floor. She was standing on the linolium right beside the potty. So close and yet so far. She said "made mess." Yes, Nadia, you made a mess. I put a diaper on her and put her down for her nap and she was asleep by 1:00. Both my children were asleep at that time, but I figured Ian would be waking up soon, and I don't like to be awakened soon after falling into a deep sleep.

I admit I feel very discouraged at the moment. Nadia spent 90% of the time (from 7:00am-12:40pm) sitting on her froggy potty this morning and she never had success. It's supposed to be just as nice today as it was yesterday. I really want to take her outside, but I was planning to save that for the reward for going on the potty. I was also trying to save VeggieTales as a reward, but I needed to let her watch it to be able to keep her sitting for so long this morning. I am not sure if this is just how potty training normally goes or not. I know it's not something that is mastered in one or two days. My sisters said it usually takes one week. I just feel discouraged that she didn't go on the potty even one time this morning. Since I've been keeping track of when she's gone I see that she usually 2-3 hours passes in between when she goes - and that's with me pushing the fluids. I am not going to push the fluids this afternoon and I'm not going to have her sit on the potty for extended periods of time unless she hasn't had an accident and we're getting close to the 3 hour mark when I can be fairly certain she's going to have to pee in the near future. I think I'll switch to just having her sit on it frequently but for very short periods of time. I also think I'm going to take her outside even though she hasn't peed in the potty yet. It just feels wrong to stay inside on such a pretty day. If she does succeed I'll be sure to take her out again and let her go down the slide several times. Having never potty trained anyone before I keep wondering if this is normal OR if she's not ready. She's 20 months old and has been asking for at least a month to go pee pee on the potty.

The picture above was taken right before we left for Maryland on Friday night. I thought I should take a picture of Ian ready to go on his first road trip. He looks so big in the snowsuit, but actually it's still way too big for him as it's size 0-3 month. His arms and legs end long before the clothing does.

Yesterday Ian took two short naps in the Nap Nanny. His morning nap was short again this morning (maybe 40 minutes?). However he took a long afternoon nap. He ended up sleeping until until 1:30 so if I had gone down right after I put Nadia down, I could have slept for 50 minutes. I figured he'd be up by 1:00. Oi vey! Well it's been at least 5 days since I had a nap, but the good news is that we are making progress in terms of Ian taking at least 2 naps a day in his Nap Nanny. For several months Nadia was on a 3 nap schedule, but her naps were short. We shall see whether Ian ever has a 3 nap schedule or not. If he takes 2 longer naps that would be fine with me. Nadia's nap was very short yesterday (and Sunday). She slept 3 hours at my parent's house on Saturday afternoon. I wish that were the norm! I will say at least she hasn't gotten up before 6am the last two days. That is nice although Ian's day usually starts sometime between 4-5am so her sleeping in later isn't helping me get more sleep.

Well here's to hoping that before Nadia goes to bed she pees or poops in the potty one time. I would feel like we were making progress if that happened. It's so tempting to feel upset at her when she has an accident, but I try to keep reminding myself that we only just started this yesterday and for the last 20 months she's been going whenever she wanted in her diaper. I will say potty training is NOT fun especially when you have a 2 month old who wants to be held all the time and therefore screams whenever I put him down to clean up one of her accidents, etc. Usually at that point they're both crying. Fun, Fun, Fun! I keep telling myself this too shall pass. :-) I plan on continuing to try for a few more days, but if the "light" doesn't seem to come on, I'll give up and we'll try again in May. If we weren't potty training, I would have gone to MOPS on Monday and also tomorrow (two different groups) and ladies Bible study this morning. Potty training requires mom to be house bound for the week which is why I won't try again until May if she doesn't get the hang of it this week.