Tuesday, October 7, 2014

Sleep makes for a better mom

As a mom I guess I should just be used to not sleeping very much but the past few months were ridiculous! Rebekah was waking up twice a night crying and moving around and making noise and Noah was waking up four or five times a night needing me to put him back in bed. Most of the time Noah was insisting I sing and cuddle him back to sleep. It's one thing to have an infant or young baby waking up at night needing to be feed or have a diaper change but when your children are 3yrs and 1yr you expect them to sleep better at night. I was so sleep deprived I was irritable all the time and not having the best patience with my sweet littles. It turned out Rebekah is just teething and needs some Tylenol and extra cuddles before bed. Noah however was more tough to figure out. Sean wanted to help out but Noah wouldn't have it. As much as Noah loves his daddy a little child just wants mommy when they need comfort. We tired so many things to help him sleep through the night. We put lavender on his feet, tried a warm bath, two night lights, sound machine, nothing was working. My sister in law Melissa called me one morning after a particularly hard night and gave me some great advice and support. She said there is nothing wrong with letting them cry it out and learn to self soothe. I know there are so many parenting methods and everyone thinks theirs is the correct one. I just think that each method works for different parents, children and families.

Sean and I basically did a mix of methods. We hate locking the door and listening to our kids cry. We just feel horrible. (Not that it's a horrible thing to do. It works great for some people and the children learn to sleep and are better for it) So we warned Noah that if he got out of his bed then we would have to lock the door and he wouldn't be let out until the next morning at six zero zero. He has a clock in his room and a sign that says 6:00 so he knows when its time to get up. We ended up having to lock the door three nights in a row and listening to him cry and scream the whole night on and off. He would finally fall asleep for a few hours and then wake up and realize he is still locked in and start crying again. Then after the three days he asked us to please not lock the door and he wouldn't get out of bed. We left the door open and he stayed in bed! He knows the consequences if he gets out of bed for a reason other than 1. bad dream and needs comfort, 2. needs to use the potty. He has been doing great ever since! We are loving being able to sleep more. Now just wait a few months til Abigail comes and we wont be sleeping again haha.

Oh well, such is life as a parent. We are exhausted but its so worth it. :)

Noah: King of the Potty

  Noah is officially potty trained! What a struggle, adventure , time of learning , patience growing experience that was for the both of us haha. Once it clicked though it was smooth sailing. I think what helped the most was two things; letting him just stay in underwear no matter how many accidents he had and having him experience accidents and rushing to the potty, and lots and lots of cheers and excitement for his attempts and successes. The first day in underwear went OK. He had a few accidents but also made it to the potty a few times. The second and third day were so hard and frustrating. He had more accidents than success and many fights to get on the potty. I explained to him at the end of the day that if he wants to be a big boy and stay in big boy underwear he needs to let me know when he needs to go potty and that even if he has an accident its ok but that he needs to tell me right away so we can get to the potty. If he can't do that then we will have to go back to diapers. That was a big shock for him. He was absolutely against the idea of diapers. He told me that he wasn't a baby anymore and that since he is a big boy he needs to be in underwear. The next day was way better! He let me know right away that he needed to go and had few accidents. Even when he had an accident it was just a little bit before he made it to the potty. Sean and I are so proud of him! By the end of the week he was going potty on his own. He would rush to the bathroom and if we followed he would tell us "its ok. Go away please. I can do it without you. Haha. Such an independent boy when he wants to be.  

Sept 16 (Tuesday)
This handsome boy has been in underwear since Sunday. He had many accidents the first day, even more yesterday and today only 2! He has made it to the potty 5 times today and woke up from nap completely dry. Its been a good potty training day. ‪#‎upsanddowns‬ ‪#‎growingup‬ ‪#‎heisstartingtogetit‬‪#‎nomorediapers‬ 

Sept 18 
Noah has been dry all morning so far. He is doing pretty great. Still no poo on the potty yet but I'm so proud of him. If he stays dry for a whole day we are having a potty party for him 

Sept 20 2014
Noah has peed in the potty three times today and had two accidents (one big and one small) before peeing in the potty. If only he would learn how to hold the pee or stop the stream til he got to the potty

This was my instagram post from Sept 23 2014
I'm so proud of this handsome child of mine. He is officially POTTY TRAINED! Well for the day time anyway. He woke up mostly dry this morning so on to night time training! He went potty all by him self twice today and told me "its OK I don't need you. I can do it myself because I'm big" He went potty by himself most of the day yesterday too and has had little to no accidents for the last 3 days. I'm sure there will still be accidents sometimes but I'm so happy to be done with diapers for one child haha. He also gets himself dressed in the mornings now too! ‪#‎nomorediapers‬ ‪#‎timetoparty‬

Today is October 7th and Noah is still doing great with the potty. He poops and pees in the potty and rarely has accidents. He sometimes does get his underwear a little wet when he is playing and forgets to go but when he feels that he is wet he runs to the potty. He isn't night time trained yet but he is getting close. He usually wakes up with a damp diaper but not very wet. We just got him back to sleeping through the night so I don't want to mess with that with talk of getting up and going potty when he needs to. Haha. Its just not worth it to us right now. So for now he is in diapers at night still. Then first thing in the morning he declares "I'm a big boy. I need my underwear!"

Potty training is a huge pain in the butt. Even so you have to do it sometime and its easier when you let the child tell you when he/she is ready.

Yay for no more diapers. . . for one kid at least. Maybe Rebekah will be ready soon too?! (wishful thinking)