Paiton is Potty Trained!!

Paiton is (95%) potty trained!!!

WOOOHOOOO!!!

As I had been documenting I stayed home with Paiton a lot of last week to really work hard on potty training her.

Tuesday and Wednesday we didn't leave the house. Thursday afternoon we left to go visit Stacie and the new baby at the hospital and P wore a Pull Up, which she thought was the same as a diaper (because, let's face it, it is). Friday we had dance class and ran a bunch of errands with Nana and Ema and did a Pull Up that day too. Paiton wouldn't go potty in big toilets or in toilets at other places. Friday night we saw Matt's parents while his dad was in town and she wore a Pull Up. She wouldn't go in the big potty at their house. I didn't think we were making much progress since we hadn't been able to stay at home as much as I had hoped and focus on it.

I was kind of getting discouraged, but didn't give up. Saturday we continued the process at home and she really wasn't having many accidents. Saturday night my parents came over for dinner and we got to stay home all day and night. She didn't have any accidents except for one #2 in her panties, and one accident that night when she was playing and I think didn't realize she had to go.

Sunday during the day we were home and she didn't have any accidents. We went over to Mom and Dad's that night and we were brave and Paiton wore her big girl panties! We went potty before we left the house and when we got there she was still dry! Woohoo!! Then she did go in the big toilet at their house and I'm sooo glad! I think she knew she didn't have a choice. I had debated bringing her little potty, but decided she had to get used to the big potty too in case we were out somewhere and she had to go! She didn't have any accidents at Nannie and Papa's until right before we left when she went poopy in her big girl panties!! :( That seems to be our biggest problem. We are on day 3 of no potty accidents, but she seems really hesitant to go #2 on the toilet, ANY toilet.

We did make big progress today when she went #2 on her potty!! Yay Paiton!! Also today we ventured out to Albertson's to grab some things and she wore her panties! She had to go once while we were there and successfully went on the potty in Albertsons (which I knew would be harder for ME, public bathrooms TOTALLY gross this germaphobe out, especially when it's my baby sitting on the toilet!!! :\) and made it home with no trouble! Yay!!

So I think it's safe to say that she is mostly potty trained. I am still putting diapers on her at nap time and bed time. Usually she is still dry after a nap, but not in the morning.

We are so super proud of this little girl!! Way to go P!! You rock!

And to update on other things: last Friday Nana and Ema came to watch Paiton at dance class!! She did SOOOO good! I am so proud of her! She listened to her teacher and did exactly what she was supposed to do! I took some more cute pictures and videos of her, and when I went to upload them today...they weren't on my memory card!!! I have no idea what happened to them or where they went but they're not there! :(

On Friday my mom picked up my baby shower invitations! They are SO cute, so watch the mail for them this week! I will post one later so that all the family in California can see! We figured no one would be making a baby shower trip up here in a couple weeks, but of course, if you want to you're more than invited!!! ;)

Here are just a couple pictures from my phone:

Snuggling Dora on my bathroom floor while I took a shower:

Walking with Daddy and carrying her purse.

Maternity Pictures

I didn't have any maternity pictures done with Paiton and I always kind of wished I had. Being as I do a lot of maternity pictures, I figured that this time I would just set some up and have Matt shoot them for me.

So here they are, my own maternity pictures. Thanks Matt for helping! :)

31.5 Weeks - Quinn Jeffrey

Potty Training - Day 3

Today was day 3 of potty training, with a hiccup in the middle. Paiton went 6 successes and 3 accidents today, although it should be noted that she only had 1 accident all day, and then 2 tonight back to back for some reason. One she was having a fit and I think she screamed a little pee out, the other I'm just not sure. But still, a pretty good average!

I got a text at 6 am this morning from my sister in law that she was in the hospital in labor with our 3rd nephew! We texted throughout the morning and she kept me up to date of what was going on. At 11:30 Ethan James was born, 7 lbs. 2 oz and 19 inches long! The "hiccup" we had today was that we went to the hospital to visit little Ethan. I put Paiton in a Pull Up, which she did end up wetting, but it's about a 45 minute drive to the hospital from our house, so I couldn't leave her in her big girl panties our we for sure would have had an accident in the car seat!!

Here he is, Ethan James!

Paiton loved him and wanted to be so close to him. She was VERY good about not touching him and asking if she could when she wanted to. She kept saying how cute he was and "I like him!"

Stacie and Ethan:

It's always fun to go snuggle a new baby! Congrats Stacie, Jared, and Kylie on the addition!!

After we got home we went right back to big girl panties and had a couple accidents. But she is liking her big girl panties and doesn't want me putting a diaper on her, so that is progress!

She looked too cute laying on the bed with Daddy reading a book:

Tomorrow is going to be another interesting day, potty training wise. She has dance in the morning, then we are going with Mom and Ema to run some errands and do some fun things - go to Costco, Joann's, etc. I will put her in a Pull Up for dance class, but I may be brave and put her panties on after that. We will see how daring I am feeling :)

Potty Training - Day 2

Day 2 (yesterday) was a lot better than day 1. Paiton was in a better mood, I was in a better mood, and things went smoother. I do think she has figured out she can hold it (to some extent anyway...) and will do it to be ornery, but not know what to do once she can't hold it anymore!

Yesterday she had 7 successes and only 3 accidents. We had another #2 accident last night, even though she did go #2 on the potty earlier in the day. But only 3 accidents over the course of the day isn't terrible. Hoping today will be even better!

She is liking her "big girl panties" more and will tell me "I don't need a diaper, I'm a big girl." But she does know that at nap time and bed time she gets a diaper on and will lay down and ask me to put one on her.

I am still nervous about leaving the house with big girl panties on. I wish we didn't have anything to do the rest of the week/weekend, but we do! I don't want to confuse her by putting a diaper on her, but I don't think I'll have a choice!! :\ I may have to break down and buy a package of Pull Ups to use in emergencies like this, rather than go back to diapers!

I don't have any pictures to post on this on, so it's kind of boring. To spice it up I have some funny Paiton stories that I have written down but keep forgetting to share:

~The other night we were eating dinner and Paiton (with a lot of food left on her plate) said "Can I be excused?" and I told her she couldn't until she ate some more dinner. She pushed her plate away, threw her arms up and yelled "This is ridiculous!" Matt and I had to huddle together in the kitchen and attempt to hide our laughter!

~The other day P and I were driving in the car. She was being seriously cute, as always, and I said "Paiton you are so cute I'm just going to lick your face!" She looked at me funny and said "Don't lick my face. That would be gross!" So I laughed and told her that I was just kidding. She looked at me and said "Well you're a dirty liar!" Hahaha!! Matt told me that that is all me teaching her that, and it's true, "dirty liar" is a phrase of mine. After I started laughing she laughed and said "Mom, you're so ornery!" I think that is one of my favorite words of hers, it comes "aw-ner-ry", melts my heart!

~I can't believe I forgot to mention this last one in my post about her dance class, it was one of my favorite parts. They were playing a game where they had to each stand on a carpet mat and pretend to ride an elevator. Each floor they got off on they had to walk a different way - on tip toes, pretend their feet were sticking to the floor, pretend the floor was bouncy and they had to jump, etc. At the end of the game the teacher told the girls "Ok, this is the last floor and it's the ballerina floor! You have to walk like a pretty ballerina!" at which point Paiton stood in front of the other girls and yelled "No it's not the ballerina floor! It's the.....bouncy floor!! Jump!" The girls of course listened to Paiton and jumped instead of walking like ballerinas!! :) That little girl sure knows how to lead and get what she wants!! :)

31 Weeks

Today I am 31 weeks with Quinn! I almost had a heart attack when I saw "63 days until due date" today. Yikes!! That is not very long at all! Still lots to do around here - burp rags and blankets to finish sewing, room decorations to finish, a ROOM to finish, etc.!!

Everything is still going well. I think I already blogged about my check up on Monday, but if I didn't, everything is fine! The glucose test I took turned out perfectly and she said my iron looks great and I have been doing good with weight gain. My belly is measuring 30 weeks, so it's fine too! Little Quinn is doing just great! :)

Everything else is going alright, I am having really bad pain in my ribs all the time, although afternoon/evening is worse. Nothing makes it go away, so I spend a lot of my time standing or on my heating pad trying to ease it a little bit. I got a gift card for a massage for Christmas and I can't save it anymore! I am going next week to get a prenatal massage! My sister in law just got hers and said the girl was wonderful, so I scheduled with the same girl and I'm really excited!! Hoping it helps my back if nothing else!!

Here is my 31 week picture:

Also I have some more big news to share! I finally got a call back from the nurse at the sleep doctor today. She assured me that insurance companies always say that a sleep study isn't medically necessary and that they won't cover it, but that once it's done with they will. She said that depending on what they find will change what reasoning they give to the insurance company but rarely do they ever not cover it. I was really hesitant to schedule one for a few reasons - 1-Paiton is already so terrified of doctors that hooking her up to machines and what not and then expecting her to sleep isn't going to go well and isn't going to help the fear, 2 - it just makes me nervous, not sure why, 3 - it's still going to cost me a lot of money!, and 4 - with our luck she won't have any night terrors that night, or won't sleep, or something that will mean it didn't help them diagnose her at all! BUT she talked me into it. She said that the doctor really thinks it's necessary and nothing else can be done until we rule out certain things and *hopefully* find out what is causing the problems, and the only way to do that is a sleep study! So it's scheduled for March 24. She has to be there by 7:30 pm and we will be released around 6:30 am she said. I am pretty nervous about it but really hoping it will be worth it and something will be found out!

In potty training news today is going much better than yesterday, but I will update about that tomorrow when the day is done and we have a final count of successes and accidents! =)

Potty Training - Day 1

Yesterday I started attempting to potty train Paiton. I thought it would be a piece of cake because she's so smart and has been wanting to be potty trained, but I think it's HARDER because she's so smart. She knows what I want her to do and she knows that she is in control of whether she does or not!! We did come out yesterday with a winning record - 5 successes and 4 accidents. The accidents were doozies too - one on the tile that she tried to then run away from, but slipped and fell in the potty which made her cry. Then she went to her usual poop hiding spot, pooped in her panties, then got mad when I changed her because it was "gross", but she sure didn't mind sitting in it until I caught her! Then another accident all over my couch, and one more small accident.

She had 5 successes which resulted in Spongebob stickers and a Skittle every time. (Sometimes 2 Skittles to keep things interesting.)

All wrapped up in her Tinkerbell blankey from Nannie!

Big girl panties on and ready to go!

Attempt 1 - a success!

Of course Dora had to get in on the action throughout the day.

She had a really hard day attitude and sleep wise. She cried for about 3 hours before finally taking a nap that lasted 25 minutes and resulted in her waking up screaming and crying. I called insurance about the sleep test because I am at the end of my rope with this whole not sleeping thing, and they informed me that they don't consider sleep tests "Medically Necessary" unless it's due to sleep apnea, which they don't believe that Paiton has. So I called the sleep doctor back hoping she would have a suggestion. No word yet!

I am hoping that with me taking "off" work this week (as in just not leaving for meetings, I'm still attempting to work from the couch while working with P) we can bust out this potty training thing. We still have all of today and tomorrow and Friday after dance class plus the weekend if necessary that we can lock ourselves in the house until it clicks - which I really hope it does!! I have no idea what I'm doing, so I hope it works!!

Congrats Matt!!

I need to take a second to brag. Not about Paiton this time, but about Matt. He is yet again proving what a good teacher he is and how LUCKY his school and students are to have him.

He applied for 2 grants for his classroom. I am not even going to try and explain in detail what they are for, but I will try to give a general idea (Matt - feel free to post a comment if I'm way off!) One is to help buy supplies and things for his classroom for some new ideas that he has for things like art projects, etc., to go along with his curriculum. The other one is for a new computer program curriculum that he would like to pilot and try. He is always searching for new things to try and ways to expand what and how he teaches his kids. He is SO good at writing grants, he has won every one he's ever applied for!
Here are his acceptance letters:

Also, this year he is in the Top 3 for Teacher of the Year. This is only his 3rd year teaching, and this is the 2nd year in a row he's been in the Top 3!! I am eagerly awaiting news of whether he won or not when he gets home today. He has some tough competition, but if he doesn't win, it's only because no one has a clue how hard he works at what he does! GOOD LUCK MATTY!!

Now for some cute pictures! :)

That is one passed out baby!

We got the Playstation Move over the weekend and Matt downloaded a music game he thought P would like:

He painted her name on the TV :)

Her turn!

Sunday morning movie watching with Daddy!

Last night she was watching Dora and wanted Dora in her chair next to her!

This morning I got up with Matt and closed the garage door behind him at 6:30 like I always do. It was raining pretty hard. I edited some pictures and took a shower, and the next time I looked out the window there at least an inch of SNOW!!! Paiton was pretty happy to see the snow when she woke up! :)

Here she is checking it out with her big girl braids!

I had my 31 week check up today with Dr. Jones. Ema Riggs came with us and got to hear Quinn's heartbeat! She also got to see how helpful Paiton is. She helped take my blood pressure, measure my belly, and do the heart rate monitor for Dr. Jones! Everything looks great, measuring right on track and his heart is really strong! Only a little over 9 weeks to go, and I need every minute of it!

Paiton and I have a BIG week ahead of us:

I stocked up on all sorts of toddler drinks and we are going to potty train!! I didn't schedule any meetings for the rest of the week and we are not going to leave the house! I literally have NO idea what I'm doing and haven't researched this at all, so I'm going to wing it. It is definitely unlike me, I tend to over-analyze and research too much! ;) I figure I'm only going to put a diaper on her at nap time and bed time and the rest of the day she is going to be in big girl panties and I'm going to give her as much to drink as I can so she has to go potty!

I think she will catch on fast, she would have been potty trained months ago if it were up to her, I have just been avoiding it, but since I refuse to have 2 kids in diapers, I guess I can't avoid anymore!! :( Wish us luck on our endeavor and I will update the blog as we go!! :)