adventures in potty training: week 1

WARNING: this is a LONG post about bodily functions. words like pee and poop maybe used. you've been warned!

i cant even believe that i have a child old enough to use the potty. really. when did that happen?

i knew i wanted to try to get parker potty trained before baby sis comes. and the last 2 or 3 months, he has been showing lots of signs of being "ready." always wanting his diaper changed because he was uncomfortable, finding a place to hide to poop, even sitting on the potty, (with nothing ever coming out). and he's been watching us go ever since he was mobile and could come follow us into the bathroom. TMI?

last monday i had a doctor's appointment (the dreaded glucose test, which i PASSED!) after we got home, i was looking through some bags of clothes for baby sis and out fell a package of underwear grandma allred had purchased for parker. they had all parkers favorite characters on them, woody, buzz, mcqueen, mike and sully. well parker found them and wanted to try every pair on. i wasnt planning to start until the next week, but i said oh what the heck and went with it. 

you guys, this was so spur of the moment, i had no candy to reward him with, no stickers to put on a chart, and no chocolate or dr. pepper, for my own sanity, in my house.

but like i said, what the heck, lets see how the day goes. off went the diaper and on went the underwear. we set a timer and ran to the potty every 30 minutes. of course there were a handful of accidents, which was to be expected, but he really did GREAT. way better than i thought. and he even went without getting any kind of reward/sticker. me jumping up and down and dancing and singing and praising was enough for him to continue to go. 

for the next THREE days, i pushed lots of liquids down his throat and we ran to the potty EVERY 30 minutes. although he was doing GREAT, by day three i was ready to put a diaper back on. not because he was having accidents, but because i desperately wanted to get out of the house and return back to normal life, but i was terrified to take him anywhere in underwear. day 2, 3 and 4 each brought 2 accidents but they all happened when i left his side for just a minute. 

we have now been accident free for 3 days in a row. today we ventured out to church. i was so stressed and worried, but he did great again. he went potty each time i took him, and stayed dry the whole time! i did bring his potty seat (minus the stool) so he didnt have to sit on the actual toilet and im so glad i did. that helped him a lot to be able to use HIS potty seat.

speaking of potty seats, here's the one we have. thanks to grandma allred who gave this potty seat to parker for his birthday last year.

  

i love the step stool and handles. parker can easily get up there by himself which is nice. i do think though, that this chair would work much better for a girl. it doesnt have the biggest lip, so if we dont point parker's tally wag down, well..... you know. heck, even if we point it down, stuff still goes everywhere. we will see how soon it takes for me to get sick of wiping up the floor. i might have to get one with a bigger lip.

we do still use diapers at night, although im not sure how much longer we will use them. he isnt waking up dry just yet, but he isnt soaking wet either. 

we are still working on going number 2. he usually wakes up and poops first thing in the morning and then comes in and wakes me up. i told jared if i wanted to win "mom of the year" award, id go into his room before he woke up so i could sit him on the potty to do his thing.... but parker wakes up anywhere from 5:30-6:30am so that would require me to be up by 5:00am every morning, so thanks, but no thanks. im sure before i send him off to school, he will be able to poop in the potty. 

oh another thing we are still working on is him telling me he has to go. out of the 10-11 times he goes, he tells me he has to go maybe two of those times. i usually sit him on the potty every hour/hour and a half and he usually goes each time. 

im so SO glad this has been such a positive experience for both off us. they do say that if your child is ready, they just get it. clearly parker was ready because it has been such a smooth experience for both of us. yes we both had meltdowns at some point, but thats to be expected running to the bathroom every half hour.

at times i almost felt like i had a nursing baby again, only worse. at least with nursing him it was every 3 hours, instead of every 30 minutes. 

it's definitely not something i want to do every year, but i really couldnt be happier with the results. i think the biggest keys are to make sure your child is ready, and to be consistent. those first three days were LONG running to the bathroom that often, but so SO worth it. 

im not really sure what it means to be "potty trained" because i feel like im going to be asking him and taking him potty for the next couple of months (maybe even years?), but for now we have mastered peeing in the potty. YIPPY!

here's some pictures from our week,

we have just been running around in our underwear all week.

and we have had to get creative with the things we do to keep us busy. being stuck inside in the summer time is no fun.

jared had won free tickets to the rodeo, which was another reason why i was going to wait to potty train. this was the night of day 3, i just put a diaper on him and kept telling him over and over again to tell me when he had to go. he never told me, and the one time i took him into the port-a-potty he screamed, and it was way to small and way to hot and way to stinky in there to fight him to go, so i just said, eh, whatev. it didnt seem to confuse too much because the next day we had great progress.

day 5 we finally ventured out in our underwear, just to ride our bike around our complex. he stayed dry the whole 45 minutes we were out there!

that night we also went to the fair. they were doing a free style motocross show that we knew parker would love. again i put him in a diaper and just reminded him to tell me when he had to go. he never did go on the potty, but eh, i still dont think it confused him too much.

he couldnt get enough of the  dirt bikes and tricks.

loving the petting zoo area. 

this week, im hoping to slowly get back to our normal life. im going to be brave and try taking him to some stores and playgroups and what have you.

wish us luck! 

summer time

last week parker and i traveled down to utah to attend my family reunion. we had a fun time, although we missed having jared with us. poor guy had no time off thanks to his new job.

we spent one day at the lake playing on the jet ski's. parker kept calling them water motorcycles and he LOVED riding them.

he also enjoyed just playing on the beach and throwing rocks into the water.

the next day was spent in Park City riding the alpine slide. i was so bummed i couldnt take parker down the slide. but thank goodness for aunt cairssa, she said she would take parker and ride down it REALLY slow. it didnt occur to me that parker would have to ride up the ski lift without me until AFTER we bought his ticket. i almost changed my mind, beacuse hello, a ski lift?!? he could have fallen out so easily without his mama there clinging to him. but they convinced me to still let him go and PROMISED A HUNDRED times they wouldnt let him fall. 

i've never been so relieved to see my child than i was when they FINALLY made it back to the bottom of the slide. carissa said he loved it. i knew he would.

 we stopped and got ice cream at a drug store we used to always get ice cream at growing up. it was yummy. 

and that night we went and rode a train. they just happened to be doing a harry potter theme, and it also happened to be harry potter's birthday the night we went so we got to celebrate with birthday cake and punch.

he loved the big trains. loved them.

and he so did not love dumbledore and dobby.

he was so excited to be riding on a train.

we also spent some time at an aquarium.

parkers favorite things were the eels. mine were the penguins. 

our last day was spent at a small water park. jared was able to join us for that day. and it was so much fun! parker LOVED it. between the kiddie pool area and the lazy river, he was in heaven all day. he didnt want to sit in a tube in the lazy river, instead we just put his floatie on and he LOVED swimming/floating right next to stacey. it was pretty cute to watch. 

it was a fun vacation. but after two trips to idaho falls, and two trips to utah in the month of july, i am happy to be home. in my own bed. we are slowly getting back into the swing of normal life. and call me crazy, but next week, we are tackling POTTY TRAINING! 

AHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!

are you sure?!?!

ITS A GIRL!!!

according to my last post, i was 100% sure we were having another boy.

up to that point, my pregnancy had been IDENTICAL to parkers, so when the ultrasound technician told me it was i girl ikept asking "are you sure?" and made her check multiple times to really make sure. i was completely shocked. jared not so much, he said he always thought it could be a girl because i was so adamant about it being a boy. little stink

.

*waving hello*

my pregnancy really hasnt been much different from parkers minus having to pee ALL.THE.TIME. im also carrying her low and i carried parker high. AND one more thing, i remember getting bad heart burn the last month with parker, but my goodness it has started early and it is awful. the old wives tale says the more heart burn you have, the more hair your baby will have, but i told jared she will probably come out bald because all the old wives tales have been opposite with this one.

 *profile*

*cute little feet*

 i just cant believe we are already at 23 weeks. the end of october/beginning of november is going to come FAST. and im sort of freaking out about it. mostly because of her name. ive had a girls name picked out since i was a teenager in high school, but it has just never felt "right" so now im all kinds of stressed about a name. we have a handful that we "like" but nothing seems to feel right. something will come to me though, i hope. any ideas?

the other weekend parker and i traveled down to utah, and while we were there we got to practice our new born holding skills and hold my cousins new little dude.

parker loved it. i just hope he loves it when we bring baby sis home and she ends up staying with us forever. man, you forget how teeny tiny they come. when this baby comes, it will have been just about 3 years since we had a new born baby. im afraid ive forgotten everything when it comes to babies. 

and just one more subject on baby sis, the SHOPPING! holy cow, it is SO. MUCH. FUN. to shop for a little girl. i just cant seem to stop! i told jared, i can totally walk away from the boy clothes, but i just couldnt leave the store without this dress. and this one. and this one. and look at these cute PINK pants with the ruffles on the bum, and these floral onsies and these soft pink footie jammies. i really cant stop. and i havent even started on the hair accessories and head bands. my goodness, she is going to be expensive. 

oh my sweet parker boy, who insisted on sleeping with his hat on.... your world is going to turn upside down in just 17 short weeks. 

i sure hope you will be able to pee on the big boy potty by then! 

TMI?

wait, what?!?!?!

*long post... just keepin' it real*

about time i update this thing with our news!

surprise! this cute dude is going to be a big brother! 

it looks like this one is due the beginning of november, which means

since parker was born on christmas eve, this one will probably come on halloween!

im currently 19 weeks along and can feel this little one move and kick. these are the fun moves and kicks because they dont hurt yet :) 

we go in on monday to find out the gender already. Im 100% convinced its another boy. 

this pregnancy has been completely identical to my pregnancy with parker. but we will see! 

its still a very unreal thing to me to be expecting another baby. because to be totally honest, after parker was born, i really thought i would never have another child again. we had a rough start, parker and i, and my transition into motherhood was much harder than i expected it to be. 

right before parker was born, so many of my friends who had already had babies told me over and over again how the moment they place that baby in my arms will be the best moment of my life. and how the instant love and bond you will feel towards that child is magical.

so the night came, i pushed parker out and when they handed him to me, im not really sure if i expected the angels in heaven to start singing or what, but guess what? nothing happened. no feelings of love, no special bond, nothing. surely i was just tired i thought. it would be better in the morning. 

but the morning came, and still i had no such feelings appear as i started to take care of my little dude. i actually had quite the opposite. sadness, exhaustion, and guilt that i was given this wonderful opportunity to love this baby, and i didnt. when so many other amazing women in this world would give anything to have their own baby to love instantly. 

just 10 days after parker was born we packed up and moved to colorado into my parents house while jared compeleted his 4 month internship for school. and i thank the high heavens above that i had my mom and sisters to pass parker off to during the day. had it not been for them, im sure i would have slipped into some serious postpartum depression. those baby blues are no joke.

i would see my friends post pictures of their new babies and talk about how they couldnt stop kissing their cheeks and loving on them, and i would think, "yup, definitely the worst mom ever. who doesnt want to love on their own baby?" this girl. 

it took a couple weeks, maybe even a month before i woke up one day, and something just clicked. i picked up my little dude in the morning and suddenly felt this overwhelming love for him. im sure deep down i had always loved him, but man those first six weeks were just brutal. 

before we had parker, jared and i had our "plan" on when we would have kids. we had "planned" to start trying for another child when our baby turned one. well parkers first birthday came around and we both looked at each other with that H-NO! look. 

so hist first birthday came and went. i would see new born babies and think, thank goodness its not mine. then he turned 15 months, and i would still see new borns and think, no way. then 18 months came and went, and i thought for sure i would never become baby hungry again. 

until my sister had her baby last august. we went to see him, and i fell in love with this teeny little baby. i loved holding him and i especially loved that she was the one with sleepless nights, not me. but after we got home, the wheels in my head started spinning. jared was feeling the same way, and before we knew it, here we are. expecting another baby. 

i would be lying if i said i wasnt completely terrified. even more so this time around than last time. but im so very grateful to my heavenly father, who trusts me with another one of his precious children. i still cant believe i will have two children, but lots of people in this world have multiple children and survive, so i think i will too. and good news, this time around, i know that the first year eventually ends. they do eventually learn to sleep through the night, and feed themselves. babies may not be my thing, but i can handle a toddler. 

we are excited to meet this new addition in the fall and are feeling very blessed. so stay tuned. things in the rucks home are about to become a little bit more crazy.