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About Me

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Western North Dakota , United States
My husband, Allen, and I are high school sweet hearts. We started dating Sep.99'- I kind of followed Allen home one day, and never did leave, is Allen's story. November 02' we were engaged, and on November 22,2003 - we were married. Having been married for 6 years in 2009, marked the 5th year we had been trying to start our family. With the referral of a Fertility Specialist from a friend, our IUI attempts ended up being a complete success despite my doubts. We welcomed our sweet little girl, Hayleigh into the world on June 30,2010 at 6:28am after 37wks and 1 day of gestation. She weighed 7lbs 14oz and was 20 in long. We found out that we were Baby #2 on April Fool's Day- a complete surprise! Reid Allen was born 11/13/12 3:24am 9lbs 8.2oz 21", after 38wks 5 days. Our 3rd baby, Eva Jane, was born on April 19, 2015 after suffering a pregnancy loss June of 2014. We are currently anxiously awaiting baby #4 due 2 days before Eva's birthday, so we are having Irish Twins! Our family is so blessed and happy to be growing!

Tuesday, July 23, 2013

Two in Diapers - How We Got Out...

So, several of my friends are in the midst of potty training their toddlers now, with some trying to get this task completed before the new baby comes.Two in Diapers is not fun...ask me how that goes... I was there for a month.

We are obviously not there anymore. Hayleigh has been potty trained since Reid was a month old, and hasn't had to have a diaper for night time for the past 4 months. On two hands, I can count accidents she has had, but that is pretty much it- 10 or less.

I think the biggest part of the whole potty training bit that makes it or breaks it- prolonging your kiddo in diapers is... YOU.. That's right, you. It all depends on how seriously you take it all. The biggest key to it all in my opinion no matter what method you do is consistency and being strict about it all. If you are not putting your foot down, making it not an easy time for your toddler to wet their pants- making life hard at that moment, and if you stay consistent with working with them, I believe you can achieve success. A part of achieving this is you need to stop diapers cold turkey. Like a band aid - rip that puppy off. Pull ups in my opinion give toddlers an easy way out- they can wet themselves, no big deal. They are after all another form of a diaper. The child cannot feel themselves wet themselves in those things. I think they are really a big waste of money. Now, you might use them at night until your toddler can make it through the night with no accidents for a month- that was our key. Once you hit that, the diapers go completely away.

I dabbled with putting Hayleigh on the pot before Reid was born, and she didn't have a care in the world about it. She like flushing the potty, but that was it. I was sitting there scared to death that I would have two in diapers, and I did... It was like a big assembly line to me. Change the newborn, then change Hayleigh. Diapers to me are the easy way out. You go on a trip, you are not constantly stopping, or just going out in public. We make at least 1 stop to the bathroom when we go out, regardless if Hayleigh just went right before we left. It is annoying, but I am happy she is potty trained. Anyway, back to dabbling..  it scared me. I thought how in the heck do you get a toddler to sit on the potty and actually learn to go on it? It's not like training a puppy- smack them with a newspaper while yelling no, does not work with a toddler. I'm pretty sure child services would be called to your house if you actually did that.

I started researching what worked for people and what did not out there. The one the stuck in my mind, and still does was a mom and her little girl. The girl would regress at night when she wore pull ups. When she wore underwear, she was fine. The mom finally sit down and asked her why? The little girl told her because she could when she was in pull ups, so she did. That right there did it. I read so many different ways, and my nurse while I was having Reid told me the same deal. There is a book out she had read, but same concept. Go without any diapers, and stay home for a week- work straight on it. She told me how she wanted to give up, and there was mess after mess the first day. But, but the third day, it was much better. I was still scared to try this all.

What finally clicked with me one day was how I broke Hayleigh from her paci and from her bottle- COLD TURKEY. I finally got fed up with it all- the paci. She caught me in a hormonal mess one night when I was hurting from pregnancy pain from Reid. Hayleigh always slept with a paci. ALWAYS. Well, one night I didn't feel like searching the house top to bottom for a flipping paci. I told her if she couldn't find one, then it was tough cookies. She maybe cried for 5 minutes, I went in and did the not so great thing, but I yelled at her. I made it tough on her. I told her if she couldn't find her paci, the paci was gone. Mommy was not running to the store for a new one. She would have to make it through the night without. I got up a few more times, stressing my point. You know what happened? She forgot all about the paci by night #2. So, I realized from thinking back to that, I had to make things uncomfortable or hard for her.

One day, I was determined to do this. I brought her out to the living room, because I was not about to live in the bathroom. My mom suggested giving her lots to drink, then sitting her on the pot every 20 minutes. Well, the bad thing about this for us was she would sit, and not do anything... 5 minutes later- she would pee her training pants. I finally at my wits end- mainly due to colicky baby, decided to strip her pants off, bring that potty chair in the living room, put a towel under it, and make her sit on it until she peed. The pattern I found was she was peeing during her shows. She would get so into them, she would forget what we were doing. Day one of this, I had to bribe her with candy that she picked to sit on the potty. For every time she peed, she got a good gob of candy. I made it a great thing. If she peed her pants, she got her butt smacked once and a good stern talking to- I made it really tough on her. It was hard for me, but I kept on it. Day two came, and we were doing better. She would sit on the potty, but I had to really shell out the candy for sitting on it and for going on it. Day two I thought to myself that this would be the way it would be for months, and I was ready to say screw it, and put her back in diapers. Taking care of a newborn at the same time was crazy, but I did it. Day 3 came, and it was like someone flipped a switch. She was sitting on the potty through her 20 min shows on Disney Jr, and after them, she was dumping her pot in the toilet. I did not teach her to dump it. She did it all on her own when I told her to wait a minute because I was in the middle of cooking, and here she come packing her pot insert and heading straight to the potty to dump and flush it. After seeing that, I was one of the proudest moms in the whole world! It wasn't as bad as I thought it would be.

 After that, we kept up with naked bottoms  for a few weeks, gradually moving to underwear. Hayleigh had problems getting them pulled down, then back up. We finally moved to underwear though, and managed to venture out and about, making several potty breaks, and limiting drink intake for her. We kept on her strong. For every accident she had, I did not say it's okay- unless it was my fault on not getting her to a potty quick enough. I didn't listen to her a few times. For those I told her it was not her fault. The others though, she got a smack on her butt, and me talking stern to her about how we do not pee our pants.

I felt like I was being a mean mom though the whole deal, but we can't be our kid's friends all the time. We have to be their parents, and make them do things for their own good, whether we like it or not. Hang in there Momma, it will get better. I realize that I have had it easy with Hayleigh. I have a few friends that started their babies out at a year, and guess what?? They are still not out of diapers. Some kids take longer, but if you hang in there, and stick to your guns, be determined, stay consistent with them, I PROMISE you will be out of diapers! Find what works for you and run with it to the potty!

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