Missing The Diapers

Okay- Georgia has been potty trained now for what- seven months now?  Since January I believe.  She has even been night trained for at least two or three months.  That's why when she started peeing the bed EVERY NIGHT for the past two and a  half weeks (which has made my sleep really restful), and then having multiple accidents during the day, I became a bit worried.  

I suppose I should admit that while Georgia was the earliest and easiest to potty train, she is also the one who is the most defiant about going to the bathroom, and had the most accidents.  Half the time when she announces she has to pee, she has already let a little go, leaving her underwear anywhere from a tiny bit wet to soaked and needing a new pair.  She just can't be bothered to stop her play with her sisters to take two minutes to use the bathroom.  She might miss something important in those two minutes!  This is usually how getting her to use the potty goes:

Georgia dancing around holding herself.

Me- "Georgia, do you have to pee?"

G- "No."

Me- "Are you sure, because it looks like you have to go."

G- "Nooooo!!  I don haf to!"

Me- "G-go to the bathroom, it will take two seconds."

G- "Nooo! I don't haf to goooo!"  Still dancing and holding herself.

It's at this point that I eventually convince her or force her to go.  Usually the underwear is wet and we get new ones.  As you can imagine, this is not helping my incredible laundry situation.  

Then a couple of weeks ago, she started wetting the bed at night.  I haven't had a pull-up on her in months.  The first night or two it happened I didn't think anything of it, because she will have an accident every now and then.  But when it started happening every night, I had to put the pull up back on.  Still, I thought it was just something weird for the moment.  Then she started having pee accidents during the day.  One while standing on Lana's bed, one in the bathroom, one in my bedroom, one in her car seat when she fell asleep on our way to the Getty museum, and then the one that sealed it for me.  The one AT the Getty Museum.  THAT was fun.  

The good news was we were  in the Children's room at the museum and not in front of some priceless piece of art where everyone would be walking by with disapproving stares. (YOU try to get her to pee disapproving people!) No, this was just while she was standing on a stool coloring with Sonya and Lana.  I had asked her about two minutes before if she had to use the bathroom.  Of course her answer was no.  I knew her bladder had to be filling up because she had drank so much at lunch time.  I told the girls we had five more minutes.  Then we had to leave that area and find a bathroom, since I was sure Georgia would be asking for one at any moment.  No need for finding the bathroom though because, as they all stood drawing and coloring, Georgia calmly said, 

"I'm peeing."

Just like that.  No warning.  No, "quick I have to go now!".  Just, "I'm peeing".  It was like telling me she was hungry or tired. 

The pee ran down her leg and quickly puddled on the stool.  Stupidly, I tried to tell her to stop, but come on, I can't do that myself so how is a three year old going to?   I grabbed some wipees, cleaned up the mess on the floor, took the girls and went in search of a bathroom to change her.  The bad thing, or even worse thing, about this situation was I had no extra underwear.  I had put her extras on her when were in the car and I discovered she had peed herself on the way to the museum.  I did have stretch pants and a shirt for her though.  So Georgia went commando for the rest of the afternoon.  

The next day I called the Doctor, because this just didn't seem right to me.  My youngest sister Megan, who is a nurse, thought it was a good idea too.  She thought that there was a small chance that she could have a UTI, even if she wasn't complaining about any pain.  On Wednesday afternoon we took a little trip to visit the pediatrician.  After I explained the situation, the nurse  handed me a cup for Georgia to pee in. 

 "Nice.  That should be easy," was my sarcastic thought.  However, as it turned out, it wasn't that difficult and it became the highlight of every one's day.  Especially Georgia.  For the rest of the afternoon she talked about peeing in the cup.  As soon as Andy came home from work, 

"Daddy, I peed in da cup!" 

The next morning when she woke up, she told me about how we went to the Doctor's the day before and she- "peed in da cup!!"  She's going to be super excited when she gets pregnant some day and has to pee in the cup! every time she goes to a prenatal visit.  

They did an initial test of her urine at the pediatrician's office, and they didn't see anything unusual.  No UTI, no diabetes, so that was good.  The Doctor asked me if there was anything unusual or stressful going on  in her life, but there isn't unless you count the summer craziness.  I suppose it's just a phase she's going through.  At least that's what we're writing it off as for now.  She has been better the past couple days and hasn't had any accidents.  She's even been dry at night, but I'm keeping the pull up on her for a few more days.  I need the sleep.  And less laundry.  

Let this be a lesson for all you parents out there itching to get your kid out of diapers. As you can see it's not always what it's cracked up to be.  You still have to change your kids and clean them, more often than you expect.  Not to mention it's a bigger mess without the diaper to contain it.  As it turns out- underwear-not so absorbent.  

Help Wanted

Usually, I tell you all stories about the girls and what's going on in our household.  Today I was hoping to get a bit of advice from those of you out there who may have gone through a similar situation, either with your kids or when you were a kid.  Here it is.


Lana has been potty trained for a year now.  However, at night she is not.  She wears a pull-up every night and every morning it is soaked.  We have never had a night where she's woken up dry.  On more than one occasion she has asked to wear "unders" to bed and not her pull up.  I usually allow this and then I always end up changing her and the sheets in the middle of the night. This is always a fun fifteen minute exercise at two in the morning.  The problem is, she doesn't even wake up when she pees the bed.  I only know she's peed, because I check on her in the middle of the night, and if there is no pull up then she is laying in wet, cold sheets and pajamas.  I've been letting it go, figuring she'll just grow out of it and eventually she'll learn to hold it at night.  She managed to figure it out for nap time a few months back.  Every once in a while she still wets the bed at nap time, but not on a regular basis.  I always make her pee right before bed, and I've tried not giving her a drink for at least an hour before, but neither of those things seems to make a difference.  On the one hand, I'd still be willing to just let this go and try to let her work it out for herself.  She's not yet four, so this is not that unheard of, I've been told.  However, the situation has recently become a bit more complicated since Georgia has potty trained.  


Georgia has been successfully potty trained for about two weeks now, which is so awesome.  Life without diapers is so sweet.  I still put a pull up on her for naps and at night, but for the past week she has kept those completely dry.  This is fantastic for her, not so fantastic for Lana.   Now her little sister is just about to give up wearing pull ups to bed after JUST learning to potty train, when she has been out of diapers for much longer, but still needs the nighttime help.  So what the hell do I do??  I don't want to leave GG in a pull up at night if she doesn't need it, but I don't want Lana feeling bad for still wearing one.  Plus I know when she realizes that Georgia is not wearing a pull up at night, she is going to want to do the same thing.


That leads me to you, Internet friends!  How on earth do you get a kid to stop peeing the bed at night?  Especially if they don't even wake up when they do go?  Anyone out there have any advice in this area, OTHER than withhold drinks and pee before bed?  Again, I'm not even sure it's something I should even push at this point, I'm just worried that it's going to cause some issues soon, so I just want to have a game plan in place.  If you have something that worked for you or someone else let me know.  Leave it in the comments section.  


Ah the Internet!  The place to get solicited mom advice at the push of a button.  Well, and the writing of a blog.  I will keep you updated on what happens!

Solidifying Her Place as "The Easy One"

There's something that has been going on with one of my girls lately that I haven't written about on here. Mostly because I was afraid if I wrote about it, she'd stop doing it. I think it's okay to write about now, since its been a while. For the past two months Georgia, most days, has been pooping in the POTTY! THE POTTY! You know... the toilet. The thing that you flush the waste down and don't have to even THINK about cleaning a messy diaper. The place I STILL get no peace. That's right my friends, in that potty. I can't even begin to tell you how excited this makes me, and let me assure you this was not ANY of my doing.

During Lana's potty training a couple months ago, Georgia would sometimes tell me she wanted to go potty. Usually it was when Lana was going. I would oblige her, but most of the time she wouldn't do anything. I never pushed her, but when she asked to go, I'd put her on.

Then one day she said, "I poo-poo in pa-yee!"

This was in her seat during breakfast and she was making a face that told me even if she didn't get to the "pa-yee", she was going. So I gave it a try. Lo and behold, she did indeed go in the toilet. I made a big deal about it, gave her M&M's and sent her on her way. I was sure this was a one time deal, and I wouldn't give it another thought for at least a year, when she was closer to real potty training. Both her sisters did the same thing once her twice at her age. She decided to prove me wrong and beat then in the potty training game. The next day she said the same thing and we went through the same routine.

Now here we are two months later, and she has used the potty more than I've had to clean up a diaper. There have been some days where she's woken up from a nap with a dirty diaper, because she didn't tell me in time. Other times I didn't get to her soon enough as she was yelling for the potty, but for the most part, she is poop potty trained. And really isn't that the part we're really looking for anyway. As far as I'm concerned, I'll change pee diapers for the next two years if it means not cleaning anymore dirty ones.

I never really believed people when they said their kids potty trained all on their own, but now I understand. I guess the most obvious reason why, is because she watched Lana potty train and wanted to do the same thing. Lana was just a baby when Sonya potty trained so it was never the same. As it turns out, having babies REALLY close together DOES have it's advantages. Like the potty training each other! There's also the fact that soon they'll even be wearing the same size clothes. Then I'll only have more drawer and closet space! Oh the possibilities! I suppose it sort of makes up for the entire year of sleep I lost having a newborn and a 15 month old. Sort of.

So now, technically, I only have half a kid in diapers now. The light at the end of the Diaper Genie is burning oh so bright!

HALF!

Final Destination

Well it's official!  I only have ONE in diapers now.  ONE!!  That's only one more than zero, which might happen within the next year.  I can't even imagine zero, so for now I'll be happy with one.  For 18 months now I've been changing the diapers of two babies and it feels so freeing to only have to deal with one now.  Especially since I'll have to wash diapers less.  While I still like the cloth diapers, washing them EVERY DAY was getting old.  Quickly.   Again I'll admit, Lana was WAY easier to train than I ever expected, and even though we've had a few bumps here and there I think as of today I can call it.  

The past couple days she's been telling me when she has to go, and she hasn't had an accident since Sunday.  Maybe Monday, but who's counting? All the poop has gone into the toilet since last week, so I could care less about the pee-pee accidents.  She is sometimes resistant and stubborn when I tell her she needs to go to the bathroom, but that's just Lana anyway.  I think she's figured out how to hold it now, so I suppose I can back off on telling her to go. 

 All the prizes are gone and I told her this was the last day of the M&M rewards.  She only gets them when she remembers to ask anyway, which is surprisingly not all the time.  Thank goodness, because I am getting tired of the other two crying and whining about not getting a lollipop or M&M.  It was impossible to try and explain it to Georgia and Sonya just claimed it "unfair".  It didn't seem to matter that she got the same rewards when she potty trained.  I guess when you don't remember it just doesn't count.  Fair enough.   The sucky thing is I'll have to go through that again in a year when Georgia potty trains. 

 We've been on many outings to Target, the mall, the grocery store all without accidents.  She still wakes up with a wet pull-up or diaper in the morning, but that will end in time.  She was doing really well at nap time.  Her diaper had been dry every day since last week.  Well, until yesterday. She decided she didn't need to wear anything  other than her underwear for her nap.  I let her try it.  I changed the sheets.  Today she's in a Pull-up for nap.  

I suppose I decided to claim final victory when she went to the bathroom this morning telling me she had to poop.  I put her on the potty and she asked for her Elmo book.  I handed it to her, then she said,

"Mommy, can you get out?  I wan som pivacy." 

"Sure, Lana," I told her.  This is something she's obviously learned from both her parents and her older sister.  I started to walk out, then heard,

"Cose the doe too!" she shouted.  I walked back, giggling to myself and shut the door behind me.  

Not only is she now potty trained, but she's learned the meaning of pooping in peace.  

ONE!!