"Ty Do", Reflux Med, Potty-Training, Lots of Laughs, First Bottle & TV-Watching

Wes:  11 Weeks Old

Ty:  2 Years, 3 Months & 3 Weeks Old

Disclaimer:  This blog will not be for the faint at heart.  The majority of it is about Tyson potty-training!  It was kind of a dull week with my entire family on a cruise and us concentrating on Tyson’s training.  Starting on Monday, we spent the entire week at home (except our normal Thursday night out).  Talk about stir-crazy.  I am a major homebody, but that was ridiculous.

Last Friday I can’t remember much of what we did, except for our normal grocery shopping.  I was pleasantly surprised when Tyson was fantastic in the store again.  Is something starting to click here?  I certainly hope so!  I also hoped that Westin was nursing better, since I was nursing every 3 ½ - 4 hours, instead of 3 hours…as suggested by the doctor.  I thought maybe there was some improvement, but I think I was wishing it to be true. 

Singing the Wheels on the Bus with Amanda on Friday night with Google Talk

On Sabbath I made a mistake.  I didn’t set the alarm.  In order for us to make it to Sabbath School, we have to be up and at ‘em at 7:30 AM.  I haven’t been setting an alarm clock lately, because Westin is my alarm clock.  He is always up at 7:30.  Well, this just happened to be the day that he slept in until almost 8:30 AM!  This would normally be a great thing, but not great on Sabbath.  So I deemed the day a stay-at-home-church day.  With the staying-at-home-all-week thing about to start, I really wish that hadn’t happened.  Guess I will be setting the alarm clock on Sabbath mornings now!  Tyson has totally started to hit the “I’m independent and want to do everything myself” phase.  If you try to do anything for him, he says (a bit rudely, I must admit) “Ty do!  Ty do!”  It’s cute and I know this is supposed to happen at this point, but it does make for delays when trying to get out of the house etc.  After sundown, we headed up to Lincoln (about 40 minutes away) to try to find some winter boots for Heath.  His old pair is completely worn out and leaks.  He has ordered 3 different pairs online and he has had to return all 3.  The sizing just hasn’t been

 right on two of the pairs and the 3rd pair was just overall very bulky and huge.  We struck out again, so that was too bad.  We made up for it by going swimming at the Fairway’s clubhouse again (3rd weekend in a row).  We decided to take advantage of the place, even though my parents were gone.  I didn’t actually go swimming this time, since Westin was due to nurse.  So we just watched the boys instead.  Ty had a blast, as usual.    

No, my husband did not drown...even though it looks like it

Last Sunday was Superbowl Sunday.  It was a busy day for me.  I did laundry a few days early, since I knew that I would be busy with the potty-training and wanted it out of the way.  I folded all of it and put it all away too.  Usually I do that the next day, since I do about 7 loads of laundry.  Westin surprised me by taking his first 2 hour long nap during the afternoon.  That was heavenly, but I also had to keep checking on him to make sure he was breathing!  Tyson did something cute in the afternoon.  I was giving him lunch and I asked him, “Do you want some crackers or some nuts?”  His response was “cookie!”  I busted a gut on that one.  Sounds like my typical response!  The boys & I also hit up the pharmacies while Heath put his ice-house on the lake, getting ready for the upcoming ice-fishing derby on Winnipesaukee.  We got some free shampoo & conditioner, free lotion, and a free Thermacare wrap.  Not too shabby.  So Westin had given me terrible trouble with the nursing again on two different feedings that day, so I decided that we had to try the acid reflux medication.  I got a big surprise and not a good one at that, when we went to Walgreens to get the prescription filled.  The pharmacist told me that Westin’s insurance was getting declined.  She offered to call Cigna for me and I agreed.  They told her that Westin’s insurance had expired on 12/19/2012.  They said that Heath’s employer was supposed to “continue his coverage” 30 days after his birth, but that they hadn’t done so.  I was ripped.  He had two doctor’s visits during that time!  Heath called his HR guy on Monday and it is all set now, but what a pain.  Now I have to get reimbursed for the prescription and who knows how many problems I am going to have with bills coming to me over this.  Have you heard of anything so ridiculous?  Why would we ever take him off coverage?  Why would they have to add him again after 30 days????  Weird.  Poor Westin can’t stand to take the medicine.  I have been so used to Ty loving to take medication, that I wasn’t really ready for Westin’s reaction of screaming and spitting the medicine everywhere.  It’s been a week and he still hates it.  I don’t think there is much improvement, but I think I’ll give it another week to be sure.  I have to say that I really didn’t have much desire to watch the Superbowl at all – probably still reeling from the Pats loss.  I ended up watching the 2^nd half on DVR, fast-forwarding plays and everything.  I didn’t even care about the commercials.  My DVR had screwed up and it didn’t even record most of the first half, but, like I said, I didn’t care too much.  Too bad the 49ers couldn’t pull it off, but their big comeback made it exciting at least.  There’s always next year, Patriots.

Rocking out with Dad before going our separate ways in the afternoon

He loves his Daddy!

Monday was THE day!  Potty-training day.  Camille had sent me this intense 3 day potty-training guide (thank you Camille!).  I used most of the guidelines, but I refuse to do sleep-training right now.  Tyson pees bucketfuls when he sleeps, so that is just going to take some time.  I put diapers on him for his nap and at bedtime.  I call it his “sleep diaper.”  You aren’t supposed to confuse him by putting diapers on him again, but I make a big deal that it is his sleep diaper only.  Ty is so proud of his big boy undies!  When he wakes up from his nap, the first words out of his mouth are “undies, undies, undies!”  He wasn’t so excited about them when I first them on, though.  I had read that some kids are really attached to their diapers and they don’t want to give them up.  It sounded crazy to me, but I couldn’t believe that Ty ended up feeling that way.  When I went to take the diaper off him, first thing on Monday and put him in his undies, he tried to run away and said, “No!  Diaper mine!”  He also whined “Potty, why?” after the first hour of training.  It just cracked me up.  I didn’t keep track of his accidents and his pees on the potty on the first day, but I did on the subsequent days.  The premise of the training is that you put him in his big boy undies and tell him that he is a big boy now and that he has to keep them clean & dry.  You pump them full of as many liquids as possible, so they have the urge often and they learn faster.  All the time, I say, “Ty, make sure you are keeping your big boy undies clean & dry.  Tyson, tell me when you need to go the potty.”  And then you straight out ask him if he needs to go, but the answer most of the time is always “no.”  I was shocked how well he did the first day.  I was so proud.  We lounged and watched potty-training songs & videos most of the day.  Poor Westin got the shaft this week.  I don’t know how many times I would have to interrupt nursing him because Ty would say, “Mama…potty.”  Speaking of his nursing, no real improvements but at least no straight out refusals on Monday.  No matter what is going on, he is still the happiest baby on the block!  I got the cutest video of him laughing at me, while we were hanging out on the floor with Ty.  Wes also slept 8 ½ hours that night.  Awesome.

After 3 accidents on the carpet, I decided I would put down some drop cloths to help a bit

Sharing tummy time together

Ty comforting Wes while he was unhappy during tummy time (he hates it...as did Ty)

Don't ask me why it is turned like this... but it is still cute

The training begins!

Tuesday morning I woke up at 5 AM to the cutest sound.  Wes had busted out of his swaddle again and was sucking really, really loudly on his hands!  He wasn’t crying or upset, just sucking!  I reswaddled him, gave him his binky, and he went right back to sleep until his normal 7:30 AM time.  We were back to the potty-training grindstone.  Ty had an immediate pee accident when coming out of his sleep diaper first thing in the AM, and then he didn’t have another accident in the AM.  He ended up going pee on the potty 7 times without an accident.  I was so confident in the afternoon that he HAD it.  He just got it.  But then I came crashing down.  I don’t know what happened, but he had 5 pee accidents in 1.5 hours starting at 5 PM.  I was pretty discouraged, but it seems to have been a fluke.  Other notable incidents that happened was Tyson taking a 3 hour long nap and Westin taking a 2 hour and 20 minute nap!  Something else that happened was that I caught Westin watching TV, so I have to be very diligent about him not facing the TV at all anymore.  The other big thing was that we attempted to give Wes his first bottle on Tuesday.  It was 8 days before I go back to work and that is when I had Ty try his first bottle.  Heath tried to give it to him and he was hysterical and didn’t want any part of it.  My heart sunk.  How could this be?  After a bit of work, he ended up taking it from me….so that was good. 

"Get that thing away from me!"

Stupid mobile was right in front of his face, but this was Westin going to sleep for the night.  He was laughing, giggling, kicking his feet all by himself in his crib!

Wednesday was day 3 of potty-training and these were Ty’s stats.  3 pee accidents, 2 poop accidents, and 13 pees on the potty without an accident!  Pretty good, I think.  He definitely is scared to poop on the potty, which I hear is very common.  I’m just trying to make it fun & exciting.  Hopefully that works.  Ty will definitely go pee whenever you place him on the potty, but he also does NOT want to stop playing to go.  That is his major problem.  Ty also had a bit of a problem during the day while he was playing.  He decided to run his little electric car on his head.  Well, the wheels got stuck in his hair and a bit of a chunk of hair came out with the car.  It’s not noticeable or anything, but the car is jammed with hair and it won’t work now!  Wow.  Wes refused the bottle again on Wednesday, which made me nervous again…but he has since taken about 3 more bottles…so I hope we are in the clear.  Ty said the cutest (and the most politically correct) thing on Wednesday night.  Heath was being a smart-aleck and said, “Ty, who is better?  Mama or Daddy?”  Ty shocked us both when he said, “Westy!”  I loved that!  I thought that was really smart! 

Having fun playing in his big boy undies

Chicken legs

Booty shot (=

He loves to call the dogs in now!

On Thursday I guess I considered Ty potty-trained.  He is doing awesome.  There will be accidents for awhile, I think…but otherwise he really has it down.  He had 1 poop accident, 1 pee accident, and had 13 pees and 1 poop without an accident.  What a great job!  He did great at the Mexican restaurant and the grocery store and peed on the potty in both places!  So proud of him!  It was the first time we ventured out of the house since Sunday and it felt good to get out!  Ty was accident-free during our trip out, so I thought that was great!  Westin continued his great naps by sleeping 2 hours and 45 minutes!  I ended up waking him up to nurse, so who knows how long he would have slept for!  One of my friends from work came to visit us and we had a great visit.  Ty, who is usually quiet around strangers at first, was in love with Jeannie.  He was so cute with her.  Tyson wore pants for the first time since Monday!  Big accomplishment.  Even though it is harder to tell when he has had an accident, I like him better in pants...since there is now a buffer present and doesn’t create as much of a mess when he does have an accident!  One other cute thing Ty did on Thursday was up the ante with his “kiss, kiss” requests when he hurts himself.  I don’t know what he did, but he had hurt his butt and proceeded to stick his little butt near my face and say, “kix, kix!”  Then he had bit his tongue and stuck his tongue out for me to kiss!  Awkward.  (=  Have a great week!

Amanda made this hat for Wes...adorable!

Ty opening the felts that Amanda sent...he loves them!

He really watches the mobiles now