Sleep and Potty Training

Well, after my last post, Tyler has continued to just improve in his sleeping at night. I do still have to get up most nights to give him his paci, but it's dwindled down to just once, maybe twice, and most nights it doesn't happen till around 5 in the morning. He's still getting up anywhere between 6 and 7am so I think he is starting to wake up a little and realizes that he's getting hungry at 5 but not quite enough to want to actually get up and eat yet. I hardly ever have to get up at that time and just stand in his room to keep giving him his paci anymore. Now my biggest issue with him is figuring out his eating schedule each day so he'll be eating his last bottle at 8pm so he'll sleep to the time I want him to. Depending on what time he gets up in the morning, I might have to really fiddle with his feedings so he'll eat at the right time and so that enough time will have passed after his last bottle so that he'll actually take a good amount of his bedtime bottle. He hit a growth spurt a couple of days ago so that has messed with his eating times. Also his naptimes aren't happening at consistent times every day either (because he doesn't always get up at the same time every day) so that also affects the times he eats. *sigh* So needless to say I really look forward to the day when his bottles and naps are coming at pretty much the same times each day. But since he is sleeping through the night, the shifting daytime schedule doesn't really bother me that much. I know that given time it will all even out once he gets used to sleeping all night, especially since I'm putting him to bed at the same time every day. Also, when he starts on babyfood, that will probably help get things on a more regular schedule too. I'm planning to start him on cereal when he turns four months old, so just one more month till I have that to help add some structure. I just can't believe he's going to be three months old next week!!!

The potty training saga continues with Jake. He is still doing really well with the peeing part but the pooping part is still an issue. A couple of weeks or so ago (or it could have been sooner than that, my brain isn't functioning at full capacity these days) I bought him a model-sized car from Wal-Mart. The doors and the hood open and it's about 5 times the size of a matchbox car. I knew he would love it because he has something similar that he played with constantly until one of the wheels fell off. So I got it and showed it to him the next time I tried to get him to go #2 on the toilet and told him he would get the car when he pooped. So for probably a week, every time he would sit on the toilet he would ask to look at the car (still in it's box) and I would let him and then he would sit there and look at it till he got bored and wanted to get down. I talked till I was blue in the face trying to convince him to try to poop because he would get his new car. A tip here for those of you who don't have boys my son's age, apparently there is NO reasoning with a three-year-old boy. I could swear that Riley was fairly easy to explain things to by this age and she could answer simple questions and even tell me how she felt about things. It's impossible to try to explain why pooping on the toilet is an important thing to a child who is twisting their head around, laughing at nothing and trying to take swats at your hair (one of his favorite games is to smooth my hair down and then pull it all forward into my face). Errr. Anyway, one day, apparently on accident some poop slips out with some gas and in an effort to reinforce what I wanted him to do, I gave him the car even though I knew he hadn't really intended to go. Of course because I have either the most stubborn three year old in the world or the most oblivious, it didn't work. He continued not going on the toilet. BUT today we had a breakthrough (or so I thought). Today he finally went on the toilet and he really meant to go that time. So my big hope was that now that he knew it wasn't a big deal, he will now go on the toilet all the time. I don't know why I thought it would be that easy. Before he went to bed, he again informed me that he needed to have his diaper changed. Double errr. So now I don't know what to expect. I'm just glad that he's gone again. That gave me hope again that I wouldn't still be changing poopy pull-ups when my son is in kindergarten.

Riley has continued to fill her summer afternoons spending time with her friends. She is starting to really get tan just from playing outside a few hours most days. I'm kind of surprised because in the past I hardly even worried about putting sunscreen on her (of course I still did, especially when we went swimming) because she hardly ever looked like she had set foot outside even when she would be out there all day long.

On a side note, for those of you moms with new babies or getting ready to have new babies who read my blog (you know, Lydia and Steph), if you end up needing a cure for cradle cap, I have it. Tyler had a fairly mild case of it and at his two month check-up, his doctor told me to do these things: during bathtime, first put oil of some kind on baby's head (she said any kind of oil, including olive oil but I used baby oil...I mean, come on, I'm giving him a bath, not sauteeing him) and let the oil sit for a couple of minutes; next take a toothbrush (preferably one no one is needing to use) and scrub the oil in to baby's scalp; after that I went ahead and rinsed the oil off at least a little bit although I can't remember if she said that was necessary; next put a special anti-dandruff shampoo with the ingredient ketoconazole on to baby's head and let it sit for a couple of minutes (I found the shampoo at Wal-Mart and the name on the bottle is Nizoral); finally rinse carefully since the shampoo isn't tear free. She said to do this no more than twice a week. I actually only did it three times and Tyler's head is completely clear. The doctor did say that the cradle cap will clear up on it's own if I didn't want to do all of that but that this procedure would just speed up the process. And really, what mom can pass up the chance to keep her baby's head from looking scaly. Oh, and as an added benefit, if you love the bald baby look, this procedure also helps achieve that as well. I think it's the toothbrush step. :)