Guess what J did...

He peed in the potty! Since I had last blogged, J was getting so into the potty books and dvd's, but seemed to lose interest in using the potty because each time I asked, he said no. Still, I changed all poop diapers in the bathroom and sang a song right before flushing poopy down the toilet. Then today seems to mark a new chapter in J's potty adventure. After an impromptu bath from a messy lunch, J's anatomy instantly started growing as if he had to urinate to which J instantly said, "Oh no!" I looked J in the eyes and asked, "Do you want to peepee in the potty?" and to me surprise, he smiles and answered, "Des" (yes). Not about to look a gift horse in the mouth, I put J onto the potty then proceeded to sing "The Itsy Bitsy Spider" and put lotion on J as he did the motions to the song. 2 round of itsy bitsy spider = a little bit of pee in the potty. Adorably, J kept staring down at him self with surprised "ohhhh" sounds. Afterwards, I gave J a great big hug, told him I am so proud of him for making pee pee in the potty, called dh on speakerphone to tell him what J did, then told J that when he decides to make peepee and poop in the potty all day, he can have some big boy Thomas underwear. His little eyes lit up at that offer. So I can't wait to see where this takes us next! I'm wondering if I should do some naked butt time tomorrow to get things along, move J into training underwear and plastic pullover panties, or just stick more with potty prep and letting him ask for the potty whenever he is ready...

Let's Get Ready to Potty!

I've been so excited the past week because I've noticed that J is showing some potty readiness signs! I really hate diapers and have been hoping for an easy/early potty experience with him. As a mother of a boy who has been going back and forth between cloth diapers and disposables, I was not quite sure what to expect. Luckily, I not only have Heidi Murkoff's book What To Expect The Second Year and that is my toddler bible, but I also can tweet Heidi (@HeidiMurkoff) or post questions to her on facebook.com and she does her best to answer every tweet and post that all parents send her way. Further, I have a great support system with my May 2011 mamas on www.whattoexpect.com.

Here are the signs I have seen:

• Staying dry for anywhere between 2-4 hours at a time.
• Occasionally waking up from a nap with a dry diaper.
• Pulling at his diaper when it is wet.
• Predictable poop schedule.
• Going into poop stance - gripping train table, bending over slightly and visibly pushing out poop with a grunt.
• Willingly getting his diaper changed. 
• Very interested in the toilet.

Because my four year old nephew has ecopresis, I have seen what pushing too much when it comes to the potty can do, so I am trying my best to follow J's lead while getting him excited. We have had a Sesame Street toilet reducer and step stool that he saw and wanted about a month ago at Babies 'R Us. However, J's feet just dangle because the stool just is not tall enough for his feet to touch it while on the toilet.

J has been wanting to sit on the big potty every night when we brush his teeth before bed. Jolly (J's physical therapist) recommended a floor potty so I went purchased a Fisherprice Froggy Potty but sitting on it once resulted in instant tears. When I really think about it, I think that not only is J used to sitting on the bit toilet, but he also never liked his own toddler furniture and that potty seat doesn't seem very comfortable. On the upside, I got the froggy potty on clearance with an extra 20% off at Target, so it cost a little less than $10.

I did finally find a solution that J likes and I am comfortable with. We still use the Sesame Street reducer and I found a stepstool that hubby made in high school which is high enough for J's feet to reach from the potty.

J has been been coming into the bathroom with either dh or myself basically since he could walk since neither of us will ever leave him unattended even with a childproofed home. Now whenever he does, I just tell him things like "someday you can flush the potty too" and "when you're ready, you can pee on the potty like Mommy does" in an upbeat tone. Now we are working on the skill of pulling pants up and down, because right now J relies on me to do it. We started reading Everyone Poops and J likes it a lot (I find that book a little weird but I know it is a potty training staple. I periodically offer for J to sit on the potty, especially if he is in poop stance or has been dry awhile. If he says yes, I put him on there for as long as he wants to be there and if he says no, I leave it at that. Yesterday, J saw Thomas underwear at the store and was really wanted it; so I think I'm going to up the ante by buying it and telling him that when he used the potty he can wear it.

Today I took out two books from the library: Once Upon a Potty (boy), What To Expect When You Use The Potty and three DVD's (The Potty Movie for boys, No More Diapers, and Potty Power. When we do potty train, I will be using training underwear with the plastic waterproof Gerber pants, because IMHO pull-ups are still diapers.

I don't think J is quite ready to really be potty trained yet, but hopefully soon! How soon after potty ready signs started to show did you take the plunge with your little one?

Early Intervention Progress Report

Awhile back, I had blogged that J started early intervention and I thought I should follow up with that. J had his 6 month IFSP meeting already and is still receiving physical therapy on a weekly basis; I also work with him at home during our play to try. At now 21 months old, J is walking but still waddling because he barely bends his knees (the waddling is lessened with bare feet and exaggerated with shoes), rolls from belly to back and back to belly regularly, starting to push up on hands and knees and does so successfully about 25% of the time, and attempting to pull up. He also kicks items and we are working on bending his knees to squat and pick things up, but again, he does not willingly bend his knees very far at all. J's right side appears to be a little stronger than the left, and he bends that knee a tiny bit more. There are still concerns over the fact that J cannot transition positions 100% on his own yet, which keeps him from being completely independent as he should be.

In shoes, Jeremy falls at least once every time and lands in an odd position that causes him to limp a bit which I informed our PT Jolly (name has been changed for her privacy). As a result, Jolly asked me to have J's feet remeasured at the shoe store, and just tell them we are concerned he may have too much room in his shoe and what the reasoning is as well as to have the pediatrician check J's hips. Today was a gorgeous day so J and I did take a walk to the local children's shoe store, and the shoes absolutely do fit; I was given tips on how to put them on J to ensure they are tight enough to avoid any foot shifting since Stride Rites are made of leather and thus do stretch out over time.

Just this Thursday, J went to the pediatrician so I voiced Jolly's concerns to the good doctor, and she checked J's hips and also had him walk back and forth both with shoes and in bare feet. Dr noticed that J walks with his left foot facing out a little bit but didn't not hear anything strange with his hips; now our priority is going to a physiatrist very soon because there are worries of hip dysplasia even though J had a normal (non-breach) birth.

Ever since birth, J has had various health issues and we have been going to specialist after specialist. Sometimes it feels like there is no end in sight, but I keep telling myself that all of this is going to pay off for him in the near future.

Any other parents have experiences with a child with low tone and gross motor delays, or the early intervention process in general? I'd love to hear your feedback and experiences.

My Reason For An Early Bedtime

I'm no stranger to that look people give me for J's 7ish PM bedtime. People often ask, "Wow and he actually sleeps through the night when he goes down so early?" While I know that many of my fellow May 2011 mamas on whattoexpect.com also do early bedtimes, many people whom I know in real life tend to put their kiddos down at 8 PM or even much later. I have always done an early bedtime, especially since the sleep consultant who helped us to sleep train J recommended that. According to research, an early bedtime between 6-7:30 PM prevents an overtired bub, and sleep begets sleep. I am not going to say that every single child is a textbook case of needing this early a bedtime because I do believe that all parents know their own child best and hence forth, I don't judge others based on how they do things, but J definitely is a textbook case. If he goes to bed at say 8 PM (yes it has happened on rare occasion), he will wake up at 5 AM or earlier. However, when he goes down between 7 & 7:30, J will sleep until at least 6:20 the next day. If J does not get at least 11 hours of sleep at night, he is a cranky little beast all day long, so I do all I can to make sure he gets that.

Yes, I used to be much more obsessive at making sure it was exactly 7 PM on the dot, but as he's gotten older I have loosened up and started to follow his lead more; I don't allow the time he is put down to surpass 7:30, though. My husband and I are skilled at timing of routine. I've learned that my child is a sneaky boy who knows that rubbing his eyes clues Mama and Daddy in the fact that he is tired, and will start by poking at his eyes when he is getting sleepy instead of rubbing. He also will start to get a little bit whiney. Once I see that going on, I start his routine with a good snack (something with whole grains and protein to keep his blood sugar up all night) and it goes from there. When J is sick, as he has been a lot lately, we do keep bedtime more between 6:30-7 and that benefits J (and yes, he still sleeps in til a decent time and actually will sleep more until 7 or 7:30 AM as his body is recovering from illness).

The great benefit aside from a well-rested toddler is that this give my husband and I our own time for awhile to unwind and get quality time together in the evening. Of course, the drawback is that working the job he does, my husband doesn't get home until about 5:30 PM so he doesn't get much time with our son before he goes to bed. I'm sure that J won't need to go to bed so early for the rest of his life, though, so for now we are honoring his sleep needs.

I'd love to hear about when your kids go to bed. If they're older and did at one time have a very early bedtime like mine, at what point were they able to go down later and remain well rested?

That Mama Feeling...Or Not...

When I was pregnant, I had daydreams about having the perfect birth and that insta-connection of feeling like a mama the minute my baby boy was handed to me. I mean, you see in every birth show and movie where a baby is born that the little bundle is placed in mama's arms and she instantly nurses her baby who is eager to find that breast, and the new family has this glow of happiness. Suffice it to say, I didn't have that by a long shot. Birth and being a new first-time mom was pretty complicated due to my fractured ankle (I feel on a messed up piece of sidewalk downtown resulting in the injury) was wearing a giant walking boot that went up to my knee and the traumatizing events of the after-birth. My labor itself was simple, quick, and I stuck to my birth plan of no epidural; that's pretty much the only part that was so simple though. As he crowned, the cord was tight around J's neck and I was yelled at to stop pushing. After delivery, J wasn't crying and didn't for a full five minutes, the scariest time of my life. I had torn in 2 places and the OB was stitching me up as I was craning my neck to try and see what was happening with my eerily quiet baby boy where many nurses and doctors were working on him. Just like in a nightmare I had quite often during my pregnancy, my baby boy was whisked away to the nursery instantly for observation, because his breathing was too shallow and his first APGAR score was only a 6 because of his lack of oxygen at birth. I pleaded with my nurse to let the nursery know that I wanted to nurse my baby and didn't want him getting any artificial nipples, or formula.

As people rushed into the recovery room to visit me, I didn't have my baby with me and visitors told me they saw him in the nursery and that he was beautiful. I truly didn't feel like a mom and life postpartum was not glorious. I was sore, bleeding more so than I should have been so nurses and doctors kept showing up in the room to check me, had extremely high blood pressure, and was so exhausted. I didn't feel like a new mom since I didn't have my beautiful baby in my arms or beside my bed in a bassinet; I felt like someone who had just fought a big battle and lost. I actually missed being pregnant at that time because at least when J was in my belly, I could feel him and he was all mine.

A couple of hours later, a nurse showed up in my room and briskly told me, "You need to feed him now. His blood sugar has dropped dangerously low," as if that wasn't pressure enough for a brand new mom, she roughly pulled my breast out of the gown, jammed it in the baby's mouth and asked, "You know what it sounds like when the baby swallows milk?" I told her I learned in the breastfeeding class that it should sound like a soft "c" and proudly said I thought I heard that. Her response was, "No, you didn't. He didn't swallow a thing and his blood sugar is probably lower." The nurse then asked my husband to step out of the room and informed him that the baby would be hooked up to an IV for glucose unless they gave him a bottle of formula since he got nothing from my breast. Of course, as a new dad, he didn't want the little guy on an IV so he gave the go-ahead. When dh returned and told me this, I burst into tears. I knew that this could cause nipple confusion and that the baby should at least get the formula through a medicine syringe or dropper because I had done my research during pregnancy. At two in the morning, I learned that J was on an IV for hypoglycemia in the Special Care Nursery, and that I was required to supplement with formula after each attempt of nursing in the SCN unless he fed for a full 15 mins per side. I was told that otherwise, my colostrum would not be enough for J as he was a bigger baby (8 lbs 6 oz) with hypogylcemia (low blood sugar). As most would guess, this would be only one of many obstacles with my unsuccessful breastfeeding journey.

For my two day hospital stay, I did hobble to the SCN every 3 hours to attempt nursing J prior to the nurses taking him away and bottle feeding him. I also rented the Medela Symphony pump to try and stimulate my milk to come in sooner rather than later. That walk to the SCN was a lengthy one (ironically it was just down the hallway and around a corner) because of the fact that I had the walking boot, crutches, and a very sore lower end.

Seeing the baby I had carried in the isolettte, hooked up to so many monitors broke my heart and I felt that something I had done during pregnancy must have caused this. It was even worse seeing the nurses prick his little foot with the blood sugar tester before each feeding since he was so small and defenseless, always crying each time.

I was released from the hospital one day before J which was one of the worst parts of new motherhood for me; going home that night without the child I had carried inside of me for 9 months just made me felt empty. My sister told me just to enjoy the very last night of sleep I would get for awhile, but I didn't sleep. I stayed up, pumping every 2 hours and eventually cried myself to sleep.

First thing in the morning the very next day, my husband and I rushed to the hospital so that we could spend the day with J in the parents' room of the SCN. We were told that we could take J home with us that day because J was able to maintain his own blood sugar without the glucose drip over night, which was the happiest moment we had since all that had occurred three days prior to that. I very proudly dressed J in his going home outfit, and got him set up in the carseat so that we could leave the place where I felt all my dreams had been dashed in a few hours time.

I wish I could say that from then on it was all sunshine and roses, but it wasn't. I had a lot of challenges and one of the big ones was postpartum depression, which I talked about here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qje4rmyOcms&feature=plcp

It did get much better, though, and I truly do love being a mom. Yes, I do get extremely sad when I think about this time of my life and J's birth, and still wonder what I could have done differently during pregnancy and labor to protect J from everything he went through as a newborn. And yes, I did cry while writing this blog to my readers, but that which doesn't kill you only makes you stronger and I've needed to do this for awhile.

Wool Care

Since I've done a blog about my nighttime diapering, I thought now would be a good time to explain about how to care for wool. I wanted to wait until I actually needed to wash and lanolize my wool so that I could include pics, thus making it easier to understand my explanations.

Trust me, I know that if you've never used wool it is an intimidating idea. Heck, I avoided it for a long time because I was afraid of it! But I promise, once you get the hang of washing and lanolizing your wool it is such a breeze. First you need to gather your supplies:

                                          Wool Wash, Lanolin, and Mild Baby Shampoo             
I do have to confess that I use liquid lanolin. A lot of people buy a tub of the solid one and melt it themselves, but I chose a slightly easy/lazy route. It makes for one less step, and it is made by Sudz N Dudz, which some cloth diaper retailers sell.

Next, you want to rinse the wool. Rather than running it under running water you will want to fill a bucket, tub, or bowl with luke warm water. Water temp is important because if it is too hot, you can shrink the wool. Then add the wool in and just gently push it up and down with your hand like so:

Once the wool is rinsed, it is time to add the wool wash. I remove the soaker from the bowl, dump the water, refill with water, add the soap and suds it up, then add in the soaker. Once again, I gently pump the soaker up and down. Then I let it just sit there in the sudsy water for about 15 minutes.

And after the soaking is done, once again it is time to rinse but this time you will need to empty the bowl, rinse it out a bit, then add in water and move the soaker up and down until you don't see any more bubbles in it. Now you have a nice clean wool soaker, which isn't really waterproof til it has been lanolized!

Don't worry...lanolizing is simple, especially if you use liquid lanolin like I do! You'll want to make sure the bowl still has nice clean warm water in it and squirt a pea size amount of lanolin. You'll find it tends to just float in a few spots in the bowl.

That is where the baby shampoo comes into play; you need to emulsify the lanolin, which means that the shampoo binds to the lanolin and spreads it evenly throughout the water. When you do that, it'll help coat the soaker a little more evenly. You add in some squirts of shampoo and swirl the water until you see it turn a milky white color.

At this point, I turn my soaker inside out in order to get more of a lanolin coating on the inside, which is where it makes more sense to have all the lanolin to prevent leaks. Then all you need to do is add in the wool and if it floats up, you can weigh it down with a heavy mug! 

As far as how long to lanolize, I prefer to do that overnight and find that I don't need to lanolize again for a couple of months. When I did once lanolize for only half an hour, I started getting leaks 2 weeks later. After however long you decide to leave your wool in the lanolin, you need to let the wool dry. Be warned that the wool will take in a lot of liquid so it is best to roll it between a towel and step on it to really press out as much water as possible. I forgot to get pictures of myself doing this but I know that if you google The Gnome's Mom blog, you'll be able to find even more info on wool and pics of how to dry it. Once you have pressed out the excess water, the wool can be left out to air dry and in my experience, that can take a few days. I like to flip it after 12 hours, turn it rightside in after another 12 hours, then flip again after 12 hours so that air gets to all parts of it. 

I really hope that this blog helps anyone considering investing in some wool. Happy diapering!

Early Intervention, here we come!

I've been wanting to blog about early intervention for awhile but kept coming up with other topics that I was posting instead. This is truly important to me, though, as J is in early intervention and other families could benefit with some knowledge of how the system works.

When J was 12 months old, I knew that he was not hitting milestones he should be hitting. At that age, he couldn't go up on hands and knees on his belly, couldn't pull himself from sitting to standing, couldn't crawl (although many babies skip that milestone now), couldn't cruise, couldn't go from belly to sitting, from back to sitting, and couldn't roll. For months I was just telling myself that J was focusing on his fine motor skills because he was advanced in terms of fine motor. However, I finally had to accept that he really was not where he should be developmentally. So at his 12 month checkup, I mentioned this to his new pediatrician, Dr.H, and she said that he does appear to be gross motor delayed and that I should have him evaluated. After a thorough exam, Dr H said that J has low trunk tone (meaning he doesn't have developed strength in his trunk that he should and that if the evaluation shows him to be severely delayed in gross motor skills, that he should be entitled to physical therapy through early intervention.

Shortly after that well visit, I did call early intervention and arranged an appointment for an evaluation at my home. Of course there is a waiting list so it was another month before J was evaluated. Because his issue was stated to be a gross motor one, there were both a physical therapist and a special education teacher present. It was an evaluation of J overall: fine motor, gross motor, speech, adaptive (self-feeding, dressing, etc), social, emotional, etc. Basically the entire thing was done in the form of play and imitation. At the end, J was found to be advance socially, emotionally, verbally, and with fine motor (he was listed at the age of 14-15 months for those areas) but at the level of a 7 month old for gross motor development. The physical therapist gave me some exercises to work on with J in order to help him make some progress with his gross motor development: they included exercises to strengthen his trunk and help him learn to side step so that he could start to cruise.

The next step in early intervention is an IFSP meeting which occurred about 2 weeks after the evaluation. During that meeting, there was a coordinator present as well as the two people there who evaluated J, and myself. First, we set goals that we would like to see achieved by the end of 6 month's time. Then, the coordinator looked at mine and hubby's most recent income tax return to determine the cost of services, which for us is nothing because our income is so low. About one month after the IFSP meeting, a physical therapist (in this case it was the same one who evaluated J) called to arrange our dates and times for physical therapy (PT).

It was decided that for the summer months, J would have his PT every Saturday morning at 8 AM. Early intervention occurs in our home so that J is in an environment that he knows. PT always happens in the form of play, although of course J does whine when expected to do things that he doesn't want to. Not to mention, one hour of PT is exhausting for a little one. I must say that since starting PT, J has progressed a lot. A month after I started the exercises with him, J starting cruising with furniture and could hold himself up on his hands and knees for at least 5 minutes at a time (he couldn't do it for that length of time initially). After two months, J progressed from walking holding onto 2 hand of another person to walking holding just one hand of said person. At the age of 15 months, J took his first steps and now, almost 3 weeks later he walks all over the place on his own; at the moment he does it with a wide stance and 2 hands out in front of himself like Frankenstein but these were all things he could not do at the age of 12 months. Recently, J figured out how to roll both ways when on the floor and can also sit himself down from a standing position. If not for the PT, my husband and I know that J would not have progressed like this and we are glad that we called early intervention. Apparently, a lot of parents do not even if their pediatrician recommends it, and we are both at a loss as to why parents would deny their child this opportunity. We are both glad that he will be up to par with his peers by the time he is in preschool.

Early intervention is available in every county from the ages of birth to 3 months. PT is not the only type of early intervention offered. Children may receive speech therapy, physical therapy, occupational therapy, etc., all depending on the child's needs. If you think your child may benefit from early intervention or the pediatrician recommends an evaluation, don't turn your nose at it. Early intervention is a wonderful thing!