Or maybe I should call it potty training 101. I have been looking forward to this time for will about a year. I have had potty chairs scattered around the house and M and M's all around. I had cute underware with characters that Max liked but what I didn't have was a kid who cared about going potty in the potty.
I had on occasion tried to potty train Max. Putting him on the potty every so often and then getting frustrated when he would sit on the potty and then pee while he was washing his hands. Then I got pregnant and I couldn't deal with that sort of mess on the floor, made me want to vomit. So the training waited.
So last Sunday on my way out of church another mom asked me what was going on and I said my son was naked at home and I wanted to go home and get the potty report, she laughed and said that's what they were doing too. I got home to find the kid in a diaper and a dad that had given up on the idea for the day. Fine.
Last Monday though I got serious! The second his little diapered butt hit the last step to the living room I removed the diaper brought the potty chair in the living room and told him if he wanted to watch his Mickey Mouse video he needed to try and potty first. Sat down and peed the first try. Yeah for you. Diaper again during nap, take it off and then had to go tend to Sam. Came down stairs and he had peed in the potty all by himself with out having to be reminded, I was so proud and so was he.
So fast forward to Sunday and we are doing pretty well. He pees and poops in the potty pretty regularly. However, I still mostly let him be naked only because we are at such an early stage I'm afraid he would sit down on the potty with his under ware on and piddle.
Apparently this task is multi step process. We were at the I have to pee and there is the potty what a coincidence. Now we are at the I have to pee where is the potty stage. We still have to get through the pull your pants down to potty, potty before you leave and finally potty standing up.
Why did I share all this? Because I could never find any positive info on this subject online. All I found was "help I have a 4 year old who won't train" or "help my kid won't poop on the potty" Never a site that gave info what worked for them. So I hope this helps someone.
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Sunday, August 14, 2011
Wednesday, August 3, 2011
Busy week
One week ago today I had the bright idea of taking both the boys to the doctor because they both needed shots and I thought I would save myself a trip. They started with Max, I told them about his issues with peanuts and they gave me a epi pen. Max dropped a chair on his toe and was a wreck for the next 30 mins. meanwhile the doctor is looking at Sam with great concern. I told her about how he had been to the eye doctor and how he has Optic Nerve Coloboma, a hole between the eye and optic nerve that may dissrupt how much info the brain receives,. She continued to look over Sam all the while Max is in a heap on the floor cause his toe hurts. Long story short she refers us to a geneticist and neurologist for Sam and an allergist for Max. You see Optic Nerve Coloboma is associated with a rare genetic disease called CHARGE syndrome and the doctor thought Sammy might have it. So I am trying to digest this info and the nurse comes in to show me how to use an epi pen and to give the boys their shots. Fun for all involved let me tell you.
Phone rings that afternoon and its neurology wanting us to come in in the morning. So we pack a bag in case its a long visit to the hospital and arrive at 9:30am at Mott hospital. After a full day of echo cardiograms, kidney ultra sounds and blood work not to mention our initial neuro visit I and Sam were spent. But the good news is Sam's kidney's and heart are normal. Both organ systems can be affected by this syndrome.
Now we wait for our MRI at the end of the month and further appts in early 2012 with genetics and optomology. Their is so much we don't know at this time. We don't know how well he can see, if he will have any developmental delay or anything else. I do know that after the initial shock wore off I realized that I love my sweet little Sammy and all this other "stuff" wasn't going to affect that. He has the nicest smile.
Even though so much of what went on this week has been scary I feel blessed, blessed that this should not effect his life expectancy and blessed that we got to go home from the hospital on Thursday because many of the kids we saw that day have to stay because they are so sick.
Phone rings that afternoon and its neurology wanting us to come in in the morning. So we pack a bag in case its a long visit to the hospital and arrive at 9:30am at Mott hospital. After a full day of echo cardiograms, kidney ultra sounds and blood work not to mention our initial neuro visit I and Sam were spent. But the good news is Sam's kidney's and heart are normal. Both organ systems can be affected by this syndrome.
Now we wait for our MRI at the end of the month and further appts in early 2012 with genetics and optomology. Their is so much we don't know at this time. We don't know how well he can see, if he will have any developmental delay or anything else. I do know that after the initial shock wore off I realized that I love my sweet little Sammy and all this other "stuff" wasn't going to affect that. He has the nicest smile.
Even though so much of what went on this week has been scary I feel blessed, blessed that this should not effect his life expectancy and blessed that we got to go home from the hospital on Thursday because many of the kids we saw that day have to stay because they are so sick.
Monday, July 4, 2011
Not a creature was stirring...
The whole family is asleep at far as I can tell, even the cats. I haven't had time to write in such a long time with the addition of Sammy. Every time I read my friends blogs I think I should really post to mine but then I look at the clock and think "to heck with that I'm going to bed!" But now the family, better known by the neighbors as the "Man Farm" is asleep so perhaps I do have time.
Max turns 3 in just a few weeks which will come in handy when I want to holler at him to stop acting like he is a 2 year old cause now when I do it well it just sounds stupid, but on the other hand its a reminder to me that he is only 2. We are going with a Mickey Mouse themed party this year since that is his latest interest. Max is making good progress on the language front. He is starting to use sentences a little more. Although I notice he the sentences he does use are ones he has heard from me. Such as "it's dark in here" "the dog is out". I don't know if the speech therapy has been helpful for him or not but he enjoys it and its free. He is in full parrot mode which mean if you are driving and some one cuts you off and you yell "thanks jerk" he will too.
Sammy just turned 3 months old last week. He is doing well also. He has found his hands and loves to look at them. He can also smile and laugh which is so cool. Much more fun when you can interact with them. We do have an apt to have his vision checked because he doesn't seem to focus on any one object, his eyes do a left right left right motion most all the time as if he is scanning the environment. I am hopeful that this will be something that is correctable or at least not intrusive to his life.
We had the kids pictures taken last weekend. I think we got some pretty good pictures.
Max turns 3 in just a few weeks which will come in handy when I want to holler at him to stop acting like he is a 2 year old cause now when I do it well it just sounds stupid, but on the other hand its a reminder to me that he is only 2. We are going with a Mickey Mouse themed party this year since that is his latest interest. Max is making good progress on the language front. He is starting to use sentences a little more. Although I notice he the sentences he does use are ones he has heard from me. Such as "it's dark in here" "the dog is out". I don't know if the speech therapy has been helpful for him or not but he enjoys it and its free. He is in full parrot mode which mean if you are driving and some one cuts you off and you yell "thanks jerk" he will too.
Sammy just turned 3 months old last week. He is doing well also. He has found his hands and loves to look at them. He can also smile and laugh which is so cool. Much more fun when you can interact with them. We do have an apt to have his vision checked because he doesn't seem to focus on any one object, his eyes do a left right left right motion most all the time as if he is scanning the environment. I am hopeful that this will be something that is correctable or at least not intrusive to his life.
Thursday, May 12, 2011
Breast Feeding 101
So we have been breastfeeding for 7 weeks now and I can honestly say it isn't as big of a deal as I thought it was. My first son was really really bad at breast feeding. He couldn't latch on or would do it wrong and I didn't know how to teach him and we both ended up pissed off. I got out the breast pump and used that thing for 9 months.
When my second son was born I was determined we were going to get this right. He latched on right after delivery and the nurses were all impressed. I was thinking yeah well my other kid the same thing and we ended up attatched to the breast pump and I'm not doing that again. So the whole time we were in the hospital Sam and I worked on breast feeding not that I had anything else to do but that's what we did. Sam had some issues but nothing major, I think visitors were ammused at my little pep talks to Sammy as he tried to latch, "Come on now, this isn't new, get your hands out of the way."
Once we got home we still had some minor issues mostly just getting him to find the nipple and not his hands. The important thing I realized was that this was never supposed to hurt. With Max it hurt all the time every time and it made me dread feeding him. I know I could have gone to a lactation consultant but I had already given up in my mind, and it freaking hurt anyway. With Sam nothing hurt really, I could feel it but I can also sleep through it so its not bad at all.
I had been told give it two weeks and you can breast feed anywhere. Well, I think for us it was more like a month. When Sam was at the OB with me when he was first born I was all embarrassed that I had to breast feed in the waiting room. As if I was the only one had ever breast fed there. We had to go to the OB again today and I had no trouble feeding him in the waiting room. The modesty fades with time I think. Although when we were first feeding I was all about using the nursing shaw, now its like if you don't wanna see it don't look at it but Sammy needs to eat.
Their were a few things I had been told in the past that either arn't true or Sammy never read the book on the subject. Things like nipple confusion where they can get confused between the breast a bottle and a pacifier. Sam knew early on, if you suck on it and it fills you up keep sucking, if it doesn't spit it out. Also he takes the breast and a bottle, also something not every baby can do I guess. He on the other hand will drink from anything and not only that but I his mom, the one with the boobies, can give him the bottle.
When my second son was born I was determined we were going to get this right. He latched on right after delivery and the nurses were all impressed. I was thinking yeah well my other kid the same thing and we ended up attatched to the breast pump and I'm not doing that again. So the whole time we were in the hospital Sam and I worked on breast feeding not that I had anything else to do but that's what we did. Sam had some issues but nothing major, I think visitors were ammused at my little pep talks to Sammy as he tried to latch, "Come on now, this isn't new, get your hands out of the way."
Once we got home we still had some minor issues mostly just getting him to find the nipple and not his hands. The important thing I realized was that this was never supposed to hurt. With Max it hurt all the time every time and it made me dread feeding him. I know I could have gone to a lactation consultant but I had already given up in my mind, and it freaking hurt anyway. With Sam nothing hurt really, I could feel it but I can also sleep through it so its not bad at all.
I had been told give it two weeks and you can breast feed anywhere. Well, I think for us it was more like a month. When Sam was at the OB with me when he was first born I was all embarrassed that I had to breast feed in the waiting room. As if I was the only one had ever breast fed there. We had to go to the OB again today and I had no trouble feeding him in the waiting room. The modesty fades with time I think. Although when we were first feeding I was all about using the nursing shaw, now its like if you don't wanna see it don't look at it but Sammy needs to eat.
Their were a few things I had been told in the past that either arn't true or Sammy never read the book on the subject. Things like nipple confusion where they can get confused between the breast a bottle and a pacifier. Sam knew early on, if you suck on it and it fills you up keep sucking, if it doesn't spit it out. Also he takes the breast and a bottle, also something not every baby can do I guess. He on the other hand will drink from anything and not only that but I his mom, the one with the boobies, can give him the bottle.
Sunday, May 8, 2011
Happy Mothers Day!
Actually its the day before Mothers Day but who's counting? I became mother of tow six weeks ago yesterday. On the last two Mother's Days I have been a little less likely to celebrate for my self but this year I decided I at least want something semi special like my favorite dessert. German chocolate cake it is then. I like having two kids, it makes me laugh at all my friends who have one baby and are over whelmed. The even funnier part is I was over whelmed with one kid also. Now I look at Sam and Max and think man it was easy when I only had one baby. If it is the case that you grow more efficient with each additional child just imagine how efficient Michelle is of the Duggar family.
Sunday, April 10, 2011
Sammy
Posted all about our new baby....Realized I didn't include a single picture.
My son Max seems to really enjoy his brother.
My first thought when I saw him was "he looks like a naked mole rat!" Now I have a degree in Zoology and I say it with love.
Going home outfit. If Sam look big to you its because he is. 8lbs 11oz.
Max being attentive
Sam with is dad
Saturday, April 9, 2011
Welcome Sam Bowers!
On Friday March 25th we had our second son Samuel Wayne Bowers. He weighed 8lb 11oz and was 20 inches long. When we went to the hospital to have our scheduled c-section my doctor had not informed the hospital of the date and time so when we arrived at 8am on Friday nobody knew why we were there. The really nice thing was that even though we "didn't have an appointment" since the operating room wasn't booked they allowed us to be fit into the schedule and 4 hours later we had our son.
The OB nurses are really very nice and I know they have a hard job to do. Pregnant women can be very very cranky. However, this buisness of having my and Sam's vitals checked in the middle of the night is kinda lame. If they must do that can they at least do us both at the same time? I was so tired after spending 2 nights at the hospital I asked to go home early. The best part about the hospital stay though is that you don't have to cook. When you get hungry you just have to call a phone number and they bring you food. I guess when you are staying in a room that costs thousands of dollars a day the least they can do is feed you.
I can't help but continually compare and contrast Sam and Max in my mind. The way they both have very long fingers and were born with a full head of black hair. That Sam figured out breast feeding right away and after a week of trying to latch on with Max we gave up an pumped for 9 monthes. I assume this is normal.
I also can't believe how much harder it was to have one baby than two. With our first it was like all we could do to keep up with what he needed and the house was always a mess. I feel so much for efficient with the 2 kids. Today we took care of the baby, did our taxes, the dishes, and vacuumed the floor.
The OB nurses are really very nice and I know they have a hard job to do. Pregnant women can be very very cranky. However, this buisness of having my and Sam's vitals checked in the middle of the night is kinda lame. If they must do that can they at least do us both at the same time? I was so tired after spending 2 nights at the hospital I asked to go home early. The best part about the hospital stay though is that you don't have to cook. When you get hungry you just have to call a phone number and they bring you food. I guess when you are staying in a room that costs thousands of dollars a day the least they can do is feed you.
I can't help but continually compare and contrast Sam and Max in my mind. The way they both have very long fingers and were born with a full head of black hair. That Sam figured out breast feeding right away and after a week of trying to latch on with Max we gave up an pumped for 9 monthes. I assume this is normal.
I also can't believe how much harder it was to have one baby than two. With our first it was like all we could do to keep up with what he needed and the house was always a mess. I feel so much for efficient with the 2 kids. Today we took care of the baby, did our taxes, the dishes, and vacuumed the floor.
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