This is exciting for many reasons. The first is that they are expected to handle all potty-related issues independently. What follows in an in-depth analysis of the potty training in our house. If that kind of thing grosses you out, skip down past the baby picture. Well, we have been potty training ….for ohhhh, I don’t know….over a year. Poop potty training has been 100% successful for about a year...both of my big kids were poop trained long before pee trained so what follows is about pee. He was doing very well, then he slipped, but a new baby was on the way so we kind of muddled through. When that settled down, I offered a bubble mower as a reward for daytime dryness (nighttime has been dry pretty consistently since he was 11 months old.). He earned his bubble mower by staying dry for 10 consecutive days. He played with it for 2 days, then was wet.
He needed to go 10 days dry again to earn it back, which he did after a month or so. Now, when I say “wet” I don’t mean he emptied his bladder into his pants leaving a puddle of horror on the carpet. I mean, he released 6 drops into his pants (and then stopped! I wish I had control like that). So, he dampens his underpants, but his pants are dry (meanwhile he is dancing and saying he doesn’t have to go potty). He lost the bubble mower again, and hasn’t had a 10 day stretch since. I think we are 4 days into a positive bubble mower season. This is a battle of wills at this point. When the potty alarm goes off, and it’s time to go potty (not me saying it’s potty time…much less personal with an alarm he gets to turn off all-by-himself), he will defiantly tell you he has no pee, but when you eventually get him on the toilet, there is a racehorse’s pee. I don’t know if he can’t feel it or if he is just that defiant. Either way, maddening, so I am hoping the gentle power of preschool peer pressure will help things along. He goes potty before school and then when he comes home so I don’t think he will be going while there….I am just hoping seeing other kids do it on their own will help (or maybe the gentle stigma given to kids who wet their pants).
(Insert palate-cleansing baby photo here)
Also, regarding preschool, we are waiting to see whether Bobo contracts illnesses (which we know he will) and whether he will fight them off on his own and not wind up in a spiral of horrible illness (which we hope not). If you’ve been reading for a while, you know what I mean. If you haven’t the Cliffs’ Notes edition is Bobo is not at day care because he contracted all illnesses that entered the building and each illness spiraled into something that landed him at Urgent Care on a Sunday morning with antibiotics, eventual ear tubes, opportunistic infections, a blood infection, chicken pox, developmental delays, and a suspected immunodeficiency (which he does not have). He was just “allergic” to day care.
So this exposure to other kids has me a tiny bit worried. He has had a few colds since leaving day care (maybe 5 in the last 2 years). He fought each one off on his own and has not been on antibiotics since leaving day care nor has he had a sick visit to the pediatrician and his development is typical for age and not delayed any more. I figured since preschool is seriously short and not childcare (clearly based on the small number of hours), that most parents would keep sick kids home, but the pediatrician disabused me of that notion. He said that parents need a break and send marginally healthy children regardless and that we can expect Bobo to pick up illnesses, but that he might not downward spiral if we let him rest and keep him home when he is ill and maybe he’s just older now. We wait and see. If it’s bad, we will withdraw him from preschool. And then, we’ll try again next year when he’ll be 4 (almost 5). I am not letting myself skip ahead to what happens if he still gets sick come kindergarten. One thing at a time. Don’t go looking for trouble. Etc.
Speaking of sick kids and things, I am shocked that I have a baby who is almost 6 months old who has never so much as had Tylenol let alone amoxicillin. Amazing to me.
Trip is a happy baby who thinks sleep is for chumps. He reminds me so much of Chuckles. So much. His face looks a lot like Bobo, but his long, lean body is more like Chuckles. His sleep (or lack thereof) is also much like Chuckles. He also has the determination of Chuckles. He is not crawling but managing locomotion nonetheless. He wiggles, wriggles, writhes, pulls, rolls, and gets that choking hazard of a toy. Or those wires behind the TV. We are entering the babyproofing stage. In some ways, I am thrilled that Trip is like Chuckles. Chuckles is a great kid. But Bobo was much later to walk than Chuckles and consequently had better balance and judgment when he learned. I have far fewer baby photos of Bobo with a scab on his forehead, nose, chin, eyelid, than I do of Chuckles (and not just because I took fewer photos of my second born). It would be nice if Trip was a little older when he learned to walk. I guess I hope he gets good at this rolling and crawling stuff so that he can get where he wants to go without needing to walk.
Trip’s 6-month visit with the pediatrician is coming up since he is only about 10 days away from being 6 months old. In some ways, the time has really flown by (in other ways, notsomuch). The 6-month visit is a big one. I had started Trip on solids at 4.5 months. He is not a fan, so we don’t really do that anymore. I know at 6 months, the ped is going to want him to eat more food, but you can’t make them. I would like him to eat more so that she stops waking me up overnight so he can snack. If the disrupted sleep weren’t’ so painful (MY EYES!), I wouldn’t worry about it, but OMG, I am so tired.
Also at the 6-month visit we will re-measure his head since he hadn’t shown any head circumference (and hence, brain) growth since birth. He seems to be developing fine to me, so I don’t think there is anything wrong with his brain, but part of me worries because he hadn’t grown (he was measured by several people since those measurements can be a little off and all 3 people showed no growth or only marginally growth) and there was a soft marker in one of those ultrasounds earlier this year related to the way fluid would drain off of his brain, though I am not sure if it would have made his head smaller or larger. He is also supposed to do follow-up hearing testing because of his NICU stay. I think he’ll also need to see an Occupational Therapist and a Developmental Specialist for an evaluation because of his NICU stay. I don’t expect anything is wrong with his hearing or development. These are the guidelines for best practices; however, most post-NICU information focuses on the premature infant – not the 8.5-pound bruiser known as Trip. Anyway, the 6-month visit should be a big one. I wonder if he’ll be getting any shots that day. Last time he got shots, he slept really well. Then I felt guilty that I enjoyed the good sleep (he slept much of that time in my arms, so it’s not like I got a break to drink wine and update my blog).
Onward! Forward! Upward! And always twirling, twirling, twirling toward the future.
From out here I think he's just being typically child-stubborn about controlling potty timing. Tate is five as of two days ago and he still denies having to pee when I know he does. Competition to see who has the most pee helps him remember he does in fact have to go pee but then competition helps most things for him.
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