No fuss for us Potty Learning

I can't really say I ever "dreaded" potty training. Of course I also never looked forward to it. I never thought it would be easy or hard. It would just be. And it is.

Lost?

Turtle-Love is 2 1/2. He is still in diapers. Disposable diapers to be specific. While moving last year we switched to them full time and when I tried to switch back he refused. I've tried a few times since then but he is not interested and I'm just not willing to go to battle about it. We tried a few times to start potty training but it never really fit our groove and he quickly lost interest. Through it he has become acquainted with the little potty, the big potty, and the potty adapter. We tried bribing him with stickers on a chart (we earned stickers to show him how it worked) and with matchbox cars and hot wheels (which sort of worked - for two days). We tried pull-ups with the fading pictures and with the cold stuff. I bought cloth trainers and underwear and he refuses to wear either with the exception of the random day here and there. All of it was a no go for us. It either didn't feel like a good fit or he wasn't interested.

And so he is still in diapers. And we are completely okay with that.

But he is still potty learning.

What? Let me give you an example.

Last week one morning we were in the pantry trying to decide what was for breakfast when he declared "I need to go potty" in a very not-a-big-deal way. Just a statement in passing. I encouraged him to go sit on his potty. Any time he says he wants to go potty we take him, no exceptions. He stopped for two seconds before we took his diaper off and I knew by the look on his face we were a little too late, but we stripped him down anyways and he finished up on the potty. I'm not talking a trickle of pee either. He pooped. Turns out he recognized the feeling, but in that two seconds of immobility in front of the potty didn't control it enough so he had a little in his diaper, but finished up on the pot.

Good for him!! He knows what his body feels like when he needs to go! I'm gonna say that is a pretty nice step in the potty learning direction.

He has plenty of examples to show him as he gets older we use the potty. We have several other children in our house, and an infant(Little Bean). Only he and Little Bean are in diapers even though his cousins aren't far from him in age.

He is a social potty goer. If his potty-using friends go potty when we are out with them, he wants to go too - and the attempt is rarely in vain.

We congratulate his potty successes and encourage his potty tries.

We never belittle him for not making it, or force him to go.

Anytime he says he wants to go potty we take him, no exceptions.

I'm not saying this is the fastest way to get things done. But I do feel like it is the most empowering for him. He is learning how to use the potty in his own time as he is ready - with our guidance and encouragement. Maybe we will be doing this for another year, or maybe he will decide he is ready for underwear next week. We are willing to wait and find out.

Birth Boot Camp Review

I am currently editing the birth story for Little Bean. In the meantime, I owe you all a review of Birth Boot Camp.

I mentioned before that we were using Birth Boot Camp to prepare for the birth of our second child. I talked about it a couple of times. Some people thought we were silly for taking birthing classes for our second child - especially since their births are only 2 1/2 years apart and we had taken a birthing class before Turtle-Love was born. I have to say, we are both very glad to have gone ahead with the Birth Boot Camp classes.

We live in Virginia, and at present there are no Birth Boot Camp Instructors here (maybe in the near future I hope), and Toad's work schedule is a bit crazy because it is event based, so we likely wouldn't have been able to attend all of the in person classes anyhow - so we went with online classes.

There are ups and downs to online classes - I do really well with them because I can take them at my own pace in my own spare time. Also because the videos are pre-recorded and available to you for 3 months (even though it is a 10 week course) you can go over them as many times and as often as needed. Toad, however, is more of a hands on learner so he found the classes a little more difficult to focus on. After a couple tries, he found what worked for him to be able to focus.

Even though we could take the classes at our own time, we still had scheduling difficulties. His schedule and my schedule rarely worked up to give us time other than at night to do the classes when we were very tired. Also, Turtle-Love is 2, and I didn't want to give up any more time with him than vitally necessary which made it difficult to do the classes as well. Imagine watching a video you need to pay attention to while your 2 year old decides he has discovered he can climb o.0 We ended up having someone watch him a couple times - which meant he was hanging out downstairs with family while we were in our apartment because of our unique living situation. There was also a tragic death in our family that kept us away from birth preperations for a bit. As we started running out of time we watched a couple videos sperately and discussed them together afterwords. Even still, I had to email in and ask for an extension to our access, which was happily granted, the week Little Bean was born because we hadn't been able to finish all the classes just yet.

Birth Boot Camp really covered so many topics and provided so much information. I really didn't expect to learn as much as I did since this was our second birth, but I was so thankful for the resources provided. My pregnancy went swimmingly well, even though we did face a couple *almost* complications. Little Bean was breech for a while, and then we thought we might have to talk about induction as we quickly approached her due date.However, we never panicked because we had all this great information right at our fingertips!

There is also a wonderful workbook that comes along with these classes. It is great for sparking conversation between you and your birth team so everyone is educated and knows what to expect, and what you want and need. There are exercises and coping techniques, diagrams and charts, and even a diet plan to help you stay on track with your prenatal vitamins, water intake etc. Don't freak out over the word diet - I looked at it more as a suggested food and servings list and it really helped. I'm not sure if that is how it is meant to be honest, but I suck at diets in general and usually eat what I'm craving ;-p Hey, while you are pregnant that is absolutely allowed!

Anyhow - as I've been trying to write this on and off for TWO WEEKS now I'll wrap this up...

Whenever I meet someone who is pregnant and interested in birth classes, I pimp Birth Boot Camp out.
Anytime I talk about the birth of Little Bean I pimp Birth Boot Camp out.

The lesson here is that Birth Boot Camp helped me rock my pregnancy and my birth.

Don't worry, that story (Little Bean's birth story) is coming soon. (Lord help me, I swear it is already typed I just have to edit it and add pictures.)