Really??

I think my son may be potty trained!! Well, I won't say 100% b/c I still put a diaper on him at night, but doesn't that take a while for all kids to get the hang of, waking up at night to use the potty? Also, since he is so independent about it (doesn't tell us, he just goes on his own...and slams the door in our face if we follow him!), I'm not sure how he will handle things in public. But I guess I can safely say that Jayden is 90% potty trained in only 6 days?!?! He actually woke up this morning and tugged at his diaper and said "Buzz" b/c he wanted to put on his Buzz Lightyear underwear. And just a few minutes ago he was playing in his haunted house we built for him yesterday and then I heard him calling to me from the bathroom, "Mommy!!! YAY!!! MOMMY!! YAY!!!!" And there he was, sitting on his potty and it was filled with pee! My kid is so smart and I'm so proud!!

Day 4

Wow. So far so good! He had school (MMO) this morning so we put a diaper on him. I know the books say not to do this b/c it will confuse them, but he cannot verbalize the fact that he has to go, so we have no other choice until he learns to use the sign consistently or learn to tell us that he has to go. So anyway, he wore the diaper at school and then during a nap. After his nap, we took the diaper off and put on his Buzz Lightyear underwear. He did wet them a little, but we could tell that he felt himself getting wet and he stopped. We took the underwear off and let him run around with just his tee shirt b/c I kind of figured that he was wanting privacy, but didn't quite know how to pull his own underwear down yet. Well about an hour after I took off the underwear, he roamed into the hallway, so he was either going to his room or to the bathroom. I called to him (b/c it's not wise to let a naked, not quite potty trained, toddler run unsupervised through a house that you are trying to sell)and he said "Yes???" and came running back into the living room squealing "YAY!! I DID IT!" We totally thought it was a fluke, but sure enough he peed in his potty, all by himself. I think when I called him, though, I disturbed him b/c he had some on the floor as well and then about 5 minutes after that he went back to finish, without anyone telling him to go. So he just walks into the bathroom and sits on his potty when he has to go :)

But here is the BEST part! I didn't expect to have any luck with the bowel movements due to his celiac disease and the fact that he needs a daily stool softner to help him go. Add to that, the fact that he hadn't had a bowel movement since last week on Wednesday, so I wasn't expecting him to be able to do it in the potty. Well, he kept grabbing at his butt and running to the bathroom (SO FUNNY!!) and we would peek in on him and see him sitting on the potty, but then he'd get up and come back in the living room. This went on for about 45 minutes. Next thing you know, I'm on the phone with my sister and my husband is on the phone with his mom and he (my husband) says "Oh mom, I have to go!" Jayden was in the bathroom handling his "business"!! He had also "attempted" to wipe himself and clean up the little mess he made on his way to the potty, but we were so happy that he did this all by himself!! He got TWO lollipops for that! Now, I do still expect the bowel movements to be a bit tough for him b/c it was obvious by the mess in the bathroom that when he has to go he has to go NOW! And he can't hold it. But he gets the point and that's what matters. I'm so very proud of him and he may be out of diapers by the time he's 3 after all!

Potty Training

So, we know it's time to ditch the diapers. Jayden will be 3 in December and most (I think ALL) of the kids in his social circle are out of diapers by now, and they are all boys so the excuse "boys are harder to train" just won't fly! LOL! We are expecting him to have a hard time with bowel movements due to the fact that he has to have a daily stool softner and even with that, he only goes 3 times a week and he can't seem to control it so we will have to see how that goes, but we won't rush him.

So our intentions were to start him today, 3 days of no pants or a diaper. He actually woke up Thursday morning (I was still in Slidell at my parents and he was home with Daddy) and said "pee pee". My husband thought that he wantd his diaper changed so they went to Jayden's room to change him but Jayden started crying and crossed his leg. So my husband sat Jayden on the toilet and Jayden said "3 2 1..." and peed,and then yelled "YAY!!!" So yesterday after his nap, we went to walmart and let him pick out some briefs (He chose Toy Story) and even though I highly despise potties, we got him one that plays music whenever he pees in it. We want to make it fun for him, so I need to forget about my disgust for those pots and do it for him! Today, he had ZERO accidents and peed on the potty twice. He seems to be holding it until his bladders hurts him though so hopefully he gets used to the idea and this won't become a problem. I do sit him on the potty once every 30 minutes even if he doesn't ask, just to try. He also took a 3.5 hour nap today (in a diaper) and woke up dry! Day 1 was definitely successful!

Awakenings

4am this morning. Well, actually, I heard him tossing and turning in his bed at 2:30am. I was so tired that I just went back to sleep though. At 4am, I heard him banging toys together. SIGH. I went to his room and the toys were all over. He was having a ball. At 4 (FOUR!!!) am :( I told him to go back to bed and he said "Ok" and climbed back in bed. I immediately removed all of the toys. I attempted to go back to sleep, but it's very hard for me to fall asleep especially when my husband is in bed snoring. So I was up, and guess who else was?? Yep, Mr. Insomniac. I watched him on his monitor and the poor thing was trying really hard to fall asleep but he couldn't. He tossed and turned. Tried one end of the bed, then the other. But he never went back to sleep. So, last night he fell asleep at about 10pm and he was up for the day at 2:30am (maybe even earlier). So he only had 4.5 hours or less of sleep. He had MMO this morning and I was going to just keep him home so he could sleep, but the child NEVER went to sleep! When we went to get him out of his room he was bright eyed and ready to go, but he did stay in bed until we went to get him. So he's at MMO now and judging by the way I feel, I can only imagine that Jayden must be tired!!

Now, I have completely cleared his room of toys while he's off at school this morning. I went through his toy drawers (3 plastic drawers on wheels from walmart) and threw out the broken toys and the ones he no longer plays with are going to goodwill. I put the toy drawers in the living room. I took the train table out of his room as well. No more toys in his room. However, I honestly don't think the toys are the reason why he wakes up in the middle of the night and can't go back to sleep. He's had those toys in his room for over a year now and we've never had this problem. Besides, when I took the toys out of the room at 4am, he still couldn't fall back to sleep. It seems as if something is waking him up out of his sleep and then he's just too wired to go back to sleep no matter how hard he tries. So, just like any other person, he gets bored laying in bed with his eyes open so he plays with his toys. I just don't know what's going on with him or what to do. I feel sorry for him. I know a child should not only get 4.5 hours of sleep. Nothing has changed as far as his bedtime routine goes. He still gets his bath and warm rice milk right before bed. We brush him (sensory), read him a story, turn on his sound machine, and say good night. He's been to the Dr for his eye (allergies) and they said his ears were clear, so no ear infection. These sleep issues have been going on for over a month now though so I just don't know. What I do now is that I am TIRED!!!!

Can't help but worry a little...

For the past 2 months or so, Jayden has been having a really hard time falling asleep. We put him in bed every night at 8:30 and he goes without a fight, but it takes him a while to finally fall asleep. Usually at 10:30, 2 hours after getting in bed, we still hear him in his room moving around in bed and humming. Some nights I still hear him close to midnight! I wasn't really worried about it then b/c I figured he's just not too tired by 8:30 anymore and that eventually he'll start to fall asleep sooner. Well, now he can't seem to stay asleep. We've had 3 am awakenings at times and I can go in the room and tell him it's still too early to wake up and he'd eventually go back to sleep. Well, for the past 2 weeks, he's been waking up for the day at 5am. There's no convincing him to go back to sleep at least until the sun comes up! He doesn't cry or even get out of bed when the sun isn't out yet, but he's awake by then and can't seem to fall back to sleep. Now, Jayden has always been a great sleeper. By 3 months old he started sleeping 12 hours at night and that continued up until now, so I could just be spoiled by having a good sleeper. But what concerns me is that he has gone from sleeping 12 hours a night to sleeping 6 or less, which is not okay. During every evaluation Jayden has ever had, we've been asked if he sleeps through the night. We always say "OH YES! Never have a problem with that." But now, I think that's changing. My concern is that something may be happeneing in his sleep, neurologically, causing him to wake up and not be able to fall asleep again. Also, last week at behavior therapy, he stopped in his tracks on the way to the therapy room and clenched his arms and started trembling. It lasted all of 10 seconds and then he was running again. I figured he was just being silly but the therapist was concerned b/c right after he had a limp and his right foot was turned in when he walked. Shit. We always noticed his foot turned in at times and he walked with a limp at times, but it was never ALL THE TIME, so now I can understand her concern. Well, he did this again at the neighbor's little boy's birthday party yesterday. He trembled, this time a bit longer, then started liming but kept on playing. However, he got irritable and no longer wanted to be around the other kids.

I want to believe that I'm just looking to deep into things since I know that he had an abnormal EEG and have to wait until Nov 11 for an explanation for this. Now, of course, we pick a part every weird thing that Jayden does. But this significant change in sleep pattern and the trembling and limping are just causing me to worry a little. I am going to keep a journal now until his appt, to have this info to give to the neuro, but until the 11th, I'm not sure there's much more I can do. So until then I'll remain worried...and EXHAUSTED!!

34 lbs!!!

We had to take Jayden in to the Dr this morning for his eyes, so of course they weighed him. I seriously squealed with delight when she said 34lbs!! I knew he was looking chunky in the thighs!! I'm so happy he's finally gaining weight...and fast!

10 on Tuesday

1. I think a certain little boy is getting sick :( I figured he was when he started to bring back behaviors that we hadn't seen in a while. Sensory issues are known to heighten when the sickies come along. He cried the pitiful cry through lunch, almost fell asleep sitting up, and woke up with swollen, yucky eyes. We'll see how he looks when he wakes up in the morning.
2. We put the house back on the market this week, without a realtor. By dropping the realtor, we were able to drop our asking price by 5k. Now we just have to work on marketing. It's already here, so if you know of someone searching for a nice home, in a nice neighborhood, for a NICE price, send them that link!
3. I've been trying to decide what I want Jayden to be for Halloween, but I think he is determined to be spiderman! My baby is growing up too fast!
4. So it's October, and you know that's when I start brainstorming ideas for Jayden's birthday in December. Of course, there's no question that it will be a spiderman theme, but I think I'm going to do his party at home this time around. Last year his 2nd birthday party was just as huge as the 1st b/c he has SO MANY cousins. Having it here in MS will guarantee less kids! LOL ;)
5. Have I mentioned here just how much I love Jayden's new Occupational Therapist? She is so thorough and you can tell that she cares about the kids she works with and their parents and she is the only one of his 3 therapists who seem determined to have him to meet his goals by December when he will need to transition to the school system. We are hoping that he won't even need OT by January!
6. And while I'm spreading the love, our new case worker rocks as well! She came by this morning to have the OT to sign off on his updated IFSP so she could fax it to the school he's going to be enrolled in. She sat through therapy and watched how his behaviors affect his 45-60 minute therapy sessions. She agreed with me that his behaviors at home and at the behavioral clinic are like night and day. He's an angel at the behavior clinic b/c he gets to play in a room FULL of toys. No need to get frustrated when you are surrounded by new toys, oh and let's not forget the candy! Behavior therapy is when the behaviors need to be present so she can help us work through it. The case worker suggested that we have the therapist come to our house as opposed to the clinic. We're going to see how she responds to that tomorrow.
7. I am so excited about the photography clients I've been getting lately! They are so into my style and I love that. I can simply do what I do without any pressure to pull away from my style to make them happy. LOVE THAT!
8. Just got the call from the after hours clinic about Jayden's eyes and they believe it could be pink eye. Drops are being called in for the poor boy now.
9. I've started "homeschool" with Jayden on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. There's only so much school you can do with a 2, almost 3, yr old but we do an interactive story, arts and crafts, fine motor activities, music skills, and nursery rhymes. I also do a letter of the day. Hopefully this will help him with his transition into the school system by next year.
10. Yesterday's arts and crafts assignment was a fall tree and I am surprised at how well it came out: