So, first, I'll start with the good news. I have deliberately not posting about potty training, well because, you don't really care, and you don't want to know the details. But at this point, I'm going to give you the details, so deal. ;)
Suffice to say that it has been a long road. We started when Jeanne was 3 months old, and she had consistently pee'd on the potty (Thank you Elimination Communication books!). Pooping took longer, but she got that down around 6 months, and was good to go. She used the potty several times a day and night, and would even remain dry throughout the night at times due to sitting in the potty pre-one year old. Moving, a nutritional switch to (non organic/ GMO) soy milk switched all that and we had a girl with horrible belly problems for 3 months (poor thing). Once we figure out it was the GMO soy, we took her off it and she was all better within 2 weeks.
The other set back was a second child. Everyone told me that she would have a setback, but I was stubborn and didn't believe. I thought she was pretty much done and had bought panties when she was 20 months old. Yeah, a very needy, colicky, screaming infant who could not be put down really changed the dynamic in the house and she very seriously had a long, tiring setback.
Ten months later (that's now), I am very happy to say, that Jeanne has been in panties all day, everyday, in the house, and out and about and has been dry for 3 weeks now. Of course, now that she is out of cloth diapers and is wearing panties, her pants fit her differently now and she looks so big. She has an amazing vocabulary, better than some 4 year olds, but has the emotional maturity of an 18 month old. Eh. That's my girl.
Loki.
Loki is 10 months old now. At his 9 month visit he weighed in the 2th percentile, which was a reduction for him. The Doctor also, very condescendingly, told me that babies his age should either be sleeping thorough the night or perhaps waking once. So I tried to not pick him up every time he cried (which is somewhere between every 3 to 4 hours). I tried to space out his nursings to only every 4 hours. I tried to rub his back and shush him back to sleep.
I did this for 3 weeks.
Sure, I was able to shush him back to sleep, but it would take a full 15-20 minutes, and he would ALWAYS wake up within 60 minutes of going back to sleep. ALWAYS. He would also ALWAYS wake up hubbers when he was home. Since I was now out of bed and standing up in my cold a$$ room, I would be absolutely wide awake and would have difficulty going back to sleep, but it didn't really matter since Loki would wake up again so soon. One morning, after another difficult night, hubbers took Loki out of the room at 5am so I could get little sleep. He brought Loki into the living room and put him in the playpen which is next to the couch. Loki was standing in the play pen and every time he fussed, hubbers put a cheerios in his mouth. He said he did this for almost an hour. When I got up, hubbers looked at me and said, "I think the kid is just hungry Crystal. I think he really does need to eat/nurse".
So now, I am back to nursing him, all. night. long. This makes for a quieter Loki during the night, it allows my husband to sleep longer, and doesn't wake up my daughter. It also leaves me frustrated and annoyed by the morning. I feel like a small leech lives in my room. It doesn't matter if I sit up with him, nurse him then put him back in his crib or if I bring him into bed with me. Either way he wakes up at the 4th hour, then 3 hours later, then 2 than 1. It's like he knows all he has to do is SCREAM and I will lift my shirt. I live in a 3 ROOM apartment. Allowing the only person who brings money into this apartment to sleep is important. Allowing my daughter to sleep is important. Her potential for grumpiness and being loud when tired is high, and I rather she sleep and be well.
My son, is a needy, weak, fragile little boy and there is just no changing that.
My husband recently remarked that he is glad we didn't name him Leonidas (it was a favorite of his for a short time). That would have been hilarious. Loki, though, fits him perfectly in every way.
This is my life. I nurse.
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