Progress on both fronts!

Yesterday morning after we got home from Nadia's gymnastics class, Ian's potty training began. I planned to try Lora Jensen's 3 day potty training plan until Saturday evening. At that point I'll assess whether it seems like he's ready. If he's not, I'll go back to diapers and let the feeding team potty train him at Hershey Medical in March. He had been excited the last few weeks when I showed him his Thomas (train) and Cars underwear. He had often said "wear it" when I'd show him his big boy underwear. Well he was very unhappy when I actually put the underwear on him for the first time yesterday. He screamed and tried to pull it off. I had washed the underwear, but evidently he prefers the feel of a diaper. When Nadia was potty training, I had her wear a dress every day as it was easier to get her quickly on the potty than if she wa swearing shorts or pants. I planned for Ian to only wear a sweatshirt, underwear, and socks. It was tough for Ian to not wear any pants.

I let him have as many sippy cups of "milk" as he wanted so that he'd get lots of practice peeing. I also tried giving him water and apple juice, but he refused those. For the first few hours he had an accident about every 30 minutes. The good news is that I was able to keep him in the kitchen and living room, which meant they were easy to clean up (no carpet in those rooms). I can also say this boy is very well hydrated as his urine is colorless. By the middle of the afternoon he started to stop himself (only got his underwear wet). That seemed like a big step forward. Then he started doing things (like squeezing his legs together) which became clues to know when he needed to go. This was very helpful as I had been trying to get him to the potty when he'd start to have an accident so he could finish in the potty, but no matter how close I was to him and how close we were to the potty, it didn't happen the first few hours. It was also very helpful when I figured out that when he said "tissue" it meant he needed to pee. He went on the potty at least 5 times last evening, and he had never gone on a potty before in his life. I had purchased two potties and one insert for Nadia when I was potty training her. The second potty I bought her was the one that she liked best. Unfortunately we can't find the splash guard that came with it. We remember seeing it this summer in the basement when cleaning up the flood. That one doesn't work for a boy without the splash guard! The froggy potty does work. The insert also doesn't work for him (pee goes everywhere but inside the toilet). So we'll just stick with the frog for now. Lora says to keep the potty in the bathroom, but I'm keeping it very close by until I think I can get him to the bathroom in time.

Lora says you should do day and night training all at the same time. I went along with that yesterday at his nap. I took him up for a nap after he had just peed, and I hadn't given him anything to drink for 2 hours. He slept for 40 minutes, and he soaked his clothes, sheet, mattress pad, etc. At least I had taken out his pillow, blanket, and all his stuffed animals. I didn't want a repeat of that last night even though I made sure he didn't drink or eat past 5pm. As a compromise, I left his underwear on and put a diaper over it so that he'd have the sensation of wet underwear, but I wouldn't have a huge mess to clean up. That seemed to work as he definitely was aware of his wet underwear this morning, but I didn't have any extra laundry to do aside from his soiled underwear. Cleaning poop out of underwear is not a fun activity, but that's life when potty training. He didn't poop at all during the day yesterday (just when he woke up yesterday and again when he woke up today). I'm saving the tiger stuffed animal for when he poops in the potty. It's fine with me that we're just working on one thing now (peeing). I put a diaper over his underwear for his nap today. When he starts waking up dry, I'll start putting him down in just underwear.

This morning he only had one accident (11:00am) on the floor, and his underwear and diaper were wet after his nap. His underwear got slightly wet many times this morning. He can now hold it and stop it. The next big hurdle for him to overcome is his dislike of peeing on the potty. He screams when he pees. It's helping some that he gets a prize each time. I have a plastic jug filled with new toys (I paid $9 for all of them) - some are little plastic animals and some are little vehicles. He gets one whenever he pees on the potty.

In terms of the ivf, we are also moving forward. My E2 was a little over 1,300 today (compared to 618 on Tuesday). I was expecting it to be about 1,200, so I wasn't too far off in my guess. I've done inj enough times to know how my body responds. I'm not sure if it's that Dr. Z is more conservative than Dr. A or if it's because I'm not on Lupron this time, but he's keeping me at 75iu of Follistim (I was never on a dosage that low in the first two rounds of ivf) and he's taken me off Menopur (which also never happened before). I started the Antagon this morning. So I'll stay at 2 belly shots a day, but instead of two at night (like I've had the past 6 days), I'll have one in the morning and one in the evening. Menopur was the only one that involved mixing powder and water. It's nice to have that be the one that was eliminated. I've never been on Antagon before. This is the drug that's being used instead of Lupron, but you're only on Antagon for a few days compared to being on Lupron for weeks. He measured 7 follies on each side (14 total), and the ones he measured were between 10-14mm (the vast majority were 11-12). This is the same size my follies were at the same point in the 2009 ivf cycle, but Dr. A only measured 7 in that size range on that day. I am to go back on Saturday for my next ultrasound and bloodwork. I am guessing that one will be my last. I think at that point they'll decide when I should have my hCG trigger shot and then the egg retrieval. Paul watched the kids at home, which was a blessing not to have them with me (especially considering we're in the middle of potty training Ian!). Please keep praying that the right amount of eggs will reach maturity by the retrieval. I have NO idea how many is the "right" number, but God does!!! They retrieved far more from me in 2007 than 2009, but the fertilization rate was MUCH better in 2009 than 2007.