Party in the potty, in the potty!

Yesterday I imported all of my previous blog’s posts into this blog. I can’t believe how easy it was, especially since my previous blog wasn’t on WordPress. It even imported all the tags (called categories here) and comments! I’m officially a fan of WordPress.

Today is day three of my attempt to blog daily. So far, so good, although I’m not sure if I’ll be as successful going forward. I have the next four days off, and I blog mainly at work. FH doesn’t know about this blog. Yet. I have managed to keep it semi-private. A few random friends know about it, but for the most part, it’s anonymous.

This morning, my son pooped in the potty. You can read about my views on early potty training here. We have been putting him on the potty once a day (while one of us is on the toilet ourselves) for the past two weeks. He’s been peeing in the potty once a day for the past 2 weeks. Today was the first time he went number 2. At some point soon (tomorrow?), FH and I will start putting him on a few times a day, and hopefully he’ll start getting used to eliminating in the potty and not in his diaper.

Let me just emphasize that we are in no way forcing him. He gets a big hug and lots of kisses if he goes in the potty, but if he doesn’t, it’s not a big deal. We are using the same training method that would be done on an older child, just at a younger age. He is still in disposable diapers. We would love to switch to cloth, but we don’t have access to a washer/dryer so that makes it difficult. This is our humble attempt to reduce the number of diapers that end up in landfills.

I am so proud of my little man. And I am thrilled to have a partner by my side who shares my views. Since FH takes care of Z while I’m at work, it’s important that he’s on board with this whole early potty training exercise. I love that he’s open to every unconventional idea I throw at him.

Next up, the bottle vs. sippy cup debate.

When the parents are away…

My mom is taking care of my child for a week and I am scared. Not for his safety, I’m 100% sure he’s going to be in one piece when we return. I’m afraid he’s going to be a whiny brat when she gives him back.
The thing is, we have been lucky and have the least fussy baby in the universe. He doesn’t need constant attention, and only gets a little pouty when he’s hungry. As long as this baby is well fed, he’s perfect. We have been nurturing this by letting him play by himself. I put him in his exer-saucer and walk away, or sit him on the floor (propped up by his boppy so he doesn’t fall over) and out his toys in front of him. We put him to bed while he’s still awake and let him self-soothe, and fall asleep on his own. We take him everywhere. He’s been to dinner, to happy hour at bars, he’s been held by random strangers, he’s even been to one of his father’s rock shows. I fully understand that you can not do this with 99% of the babies out there. I am aware of how easy we have it, how lucky we are.

My mother can not leave my child alone for more than 2 minutes. She is constantly holding him. If someone else (like my dad) is holding him, she can go about 10 minutes before she takes him back. She hovers. She is constantly trying to entertain him. She puts him to sleep in her arms. No amount of reasoning with her is working. She smiles and nods, but does not follow through. So I’m worried that all the training that S and I have put in will be lost during the week we are not around him. They say that it takes 3 days to make a habit. What will seven days do?

I hope that at some point (by the second day or so) my mom will realize that she needs to shower and has to put him down. She’ll realize that, right?

Life with Z

Tried a few times but I can’t seem to bang out a whole blog post because I keep on going back to where I left off, talking about the delivery and everything that followed, but then the blog gets too long and I lose interest or have to interrupt myself to go tend to Z. There are quite a few entries in draft form, and they’re going to stay that way because I don’t edit.

So, I’m writing in bullet points. And this will probably not be in chronological order. But at least if I have to stop before I’m finished I can just finish off my bullet point and post.

Here goes:

• Z is 6 weeks old today. He’s starting to cluster-feed in the evenings, and is getting fussy around this time as well. Clusterfeeding as in he constantly wants to be on the boob, and can’t wait the customary 2-3 hours he normally does. At the moment he’s on my chest, resting, not quite asleep, and will probably want to nurse again in another 15 minutes. I used to worry about this behavior, before I researched, before I found out that it’s so common that it actually has a name. It happens in the evenings, before he goes to sleep for 5-6 hours straight. What’s great is that he started sleeping for these long stretches at 4 weeks, without any training from us. We are the luckiest parents in the world.
• He’s an angel. And I’m not saying that because I’m his mother. I was prepared for the worst. I was prepared for constant crying, sleepless nights, and other terrible situations that new parents go through. What I go from the first second of his life outside the womb was a calm, Zen-like baby. When they took him up to the nursery he was the only child in there who was not screaming his head off. He was also bigger than most of the babies, but that’s another bullet point. In the beginning all he did was sleep, eat and poop. He only cried (and cried is a strong word, whimper/whine are probably better descriptions) when he needed to be nursed. (He also latched onto my nipple right away, and has also not had any problems being fed expressed breast milk from any bottle.)
• One of the ironic things is that I’m not a Zen mother. I constantly worried over him in the beginning. I didn’t sleep the entire two days I spent in the hospital because I was way too nervous. I analyzed every detail. Everything seemed too perfect. I was constantly waiting for the other shoe to drop. I also experienced the “baby blues” during the first two weeks, which did not make things any easier. I was constantly crying about nothing. I expected the mood swings, but I also worried that it would last longer and turn into post-partum depression. Luckily, my hormones normalized after two weeks and I started feeling like myself again. I also lost 30 pounds, and was back to my pre-pregnancy weight after two weeks. Yes, I’m a lucky, lucky gal.