Channah Grace

Please allow me to (finally!) introduce you to our newest precious blessing, Miss Channah Grace. She made her entrance into the world on May 15 at 9:55am. She was 7 lbs. 10 oz. and 20 inches long, making her our biggest baby.

Now that we've covered all the obligatory stats, let me answer your real question: How do you pronounce her name? I'm glad you asked. Think of it like "Chanukah." The "Ch" makes an "H" sound (although if you want to be technical it is the gutteral "chet" sound in Hebrew) and both a-sounds are long. HAH-nuh.

"Channah" is (obviously) a Hebrew name meaning "grace" or "gracious," which makes her name "Grace Grace." In keeping with the meaning of her name we have chosen 2 Thessalonians 1:11-12 as her life verse:

"To this end we always pray for you, that our God may make you worthy of his calling and may fulfill every resolve for good and every work of faith by his power, so that the name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in you, and you in him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ."

Channah arrived as scheduled, via c-section. I was very much relieved that we didn't have a surprise trip to the hospital since that meant that my parents had arrived to care for the other  three children, we were able to finish our homeschool year, my doctor of choice was able to do my 4th c-section (about which I was a little extra nervous), and we were able to have our photographer friend come to the hospital and capture the special day.

We arrived at Labor & Delivery around 6:45am, were checked in by the receptionist, and were escorted to Room 13. Obviously knowing the drill, I put my hospital gown on and sat down in the rocking chair to wait for my nurse. 40 minutes later we were still waiting for someone to come in and get the party started. My cell phone rang. I didn't recognize the number, but answered anyway, out of pure curiosity. It was a labor & delivery nurse from the hospital wondering if I was planning to come in for my delivery. Totally confused, I said something super-intelligent like, "But I'm here!" She responded, "Oh great! Are you on your way up to Labor & Delivery?" "No. I'm here. Like...here...in Room 13." I don't exactly recall how that conversation ended but less than a minute later several nurses rushed in the room. The nurse who had called me started apologizing profusely. Apparently since we came close to shift-change we had just sort of fallen through the cracks. We thought it was hilarious and once they realized that we weren't upset we had a great time joking about it and laughing about the mass chaos going on to get me ready for surgery at 9:00. There were four nurses working on various preparatory procedures as well as the nurse from the nursery who would attend the birth, the anesthesiologist, and several other people in and out of the room. It was fun to recognize several of the people involved in Channah's birth who had also assisted in the births of our other children. For example, the nurse who called my cell phone was actually my (very much beloved) labor nurse when I delivered Benjamin.

After a rather frenzied hour of prep it was a case of "hurry up and wait" as my doctor was in another surgery so we waited for about half an hour before they were actually ready to take me to the OR. Once I was there it seemed to take longer than normal to get things started. People kept coming in and introducing themselves to me - an assisting nurse, the anesthesiologist (a different one than the one who came to my room earlier), the assisting surgeon, the neonatologist, etc., etc., etc. - but they still had not brought Seth in. They were putting up the sheet that prevents me from seeing what they are doing to my poor gigantic belly and getting ready to start and he still wasn't there. I was honestly panicked that they had forgotten. I remember saying, "WAIT! Where's Seth?" (They hadn't forgotten him, I guess I was just a little out of it. :) ) He came in a few seconds later.

I was really nervous about the c-section this time. There was a slight possibility that it could have been a little extra complicated because of where my placenta was attached in proximity to where the incision would be, but my doctor had told me she didn't think it would be a problem. I'm not sure why I was scared, but I spent the first few minutes tensely listening for signs of how everything was going. It wasn't long, however, before I felt the gigantic push and heard the sweet sounds of my precious baby girl. That first cry is always my favorite part!

One of the most exciting parts about the birth was that I actually got to see Channah just seconds after she was born. I was in an OR I had not been in before which was set up differently. With the other three children the warmer, scale, etc. for the baby has always been at the foot of the operating table so I have never been able to see more than a glimpse of the babies for the first 10 minutes or so after they were born. My first memories of each of their lives are of what I could hear alone. This time they had the equipment for the baby situated near the head of the table so I was able to watch all the cleaning and diapering and weighing and foot stamping sweetness. I am so thankful I was able to share in these moments.

Channah is very much adored. The kids love their new baby sister. The girls, especially, love to hold her and amuse her during her brief periods of wakefulness. Benjamin is also very sweet and patient with her crying. We aren’t sure who she looks like. She is unmistakably a Rodriquez baby, but she doesn’t look exactly like any of the other kids. When she was first born I could see Benj in her face at times and Talia at others. I was fairly certain she didn’t look much like Leila, but over the past week she has started to look much more like Leila. Her hair is lighter than any of our other babies, more medium brown as opposed to the black/dark brown hair the others were born with. So far she does not appear to have curly hair (Leila’s was curly at birth!), but in true Rodriquez fashion she has plenty of it. One distinctive feature is her super-long toes. They are adorable.

This delivery was by far the smoothest, even though it was my fourth c-section. One of my nurses told me that she read in my chart that I barely had any scar tissue at all! Considering that I had so much 2 pregnancies ago that I had stretched internally to “paper thinness,” this is beyond amazing to me. My recovery was also amazingly easy. Many of the normal symptoms that I have experienced each time were not an issue at all. God has truly answered our prayers and blessed us immensely through Channah’s birth. Another amazing answer to prayer is that I am feeling emotionally normal. Usually by the third day I start to feel mildly depressed or at least weepy and slightly irrational. By the time I left the hospital I was still feeling totally like myself. During our first week home Channah developed some issues with nursing and I had a few meltdowns due to frustration and the sheer pain of it, but overall I think it is safe to say I am avoiding the postpartum depression I have experienced with previous deliveries. I am so thankful!

We are definitely experiencing an adjustment period with the kids. They immediately loved and accepted Channah as a member of the family, but we are seeing the transition take place in other areas like obedience, getting along with each other, and responsibility. Already this week has been much better than last week, our first week “on our own,” but we are currently in the midst of obedience boot camp and would appreciate your prayers.

It takes me forever to upload pictures to the blog. Trying has delayed this post more than once, so please click here to see more pictures.

A Purposeful Summer

It took about one week of being on our own after all the grandparents left to motivate me to find something constructive for these children to do all summer. They definitely need some direction. *I* definitely need some direction!

So, I know I'm starting a little late, but I got on Pinterest and my search engine yesterday and dug up some ideas to give our summer some purpose. I thought I might not be the only one who didn't have a plan, so I thought I'd share my idea list. If you are in our area I included some helpful links too.

Goal Setting

To start out, we plan to have each kid set a goal. I read about families who set goals in 3-4 different areas or who set multiple goals per child, but that seemed overwhelming to us so we thought one goal per child would be doable. Since this is our first time doing this I thought the kids might have a hard time with a "blank slate" so I thought of some examples of goals they might want to adopt.

• Academic - Read x books or read x minutes per day, write and illustrate a story
• Personal - Learn to tie shoes
• Physical - Learn to cross monkey bars, learn to swing by myself, learn to ride a bike, learn to throw a frisbee
• Spiritual - I don't have any examples, but I thought this was a good category for another year

I also set my own goals for the kids to give me an idea of what type of loose structure I would like to have. Here are my goals for the kids:

• Re-train them to do their independent responsibilities every day (we've gotten off track)
• Read everyday (join reading programs)
• Play outside everyday
• Start doing some chores for pay
• Do 10-15 min. summer school everyday (to keep up math & handwriting skills)
• Do something special for someone else everyday (to help with "me" focus)
• One outing per week
• Each child work on one character trait that needs improvement (occassional Bible Study time with Mommy, memorize verses, accountability, etc.)

For the sake of example, and because I need some new motivation and accountablity for myself I set a few personal goals too:

• Try not to be on the computer unless the kids are resting or in bed
• Say “yes” more
• Discipline more, yell less
• Work on self-control with my words when I'm frustrated

Summer Reading Programs

One thing I remember doing in the summer when I was a kid was choosing new books to read. I remember participating in the summer reading program at the library. I remember my mom taking me to the bookstore in the mall to pick out a new classic to take on a trip. I remember spending summers in high school devouring my summer book list for my AP English classes. Our kids love to read and they are good readers, but I figured a little motivation couldn't hurt. I searched for "summer reading programs" online and found lots of great options! The kids are excited that they can win prizes for something they do anyway.

• Local Library
• Barnes & Noble
• Scholastic
• Pottery Barn Kids
• Half Price Books

Fun at Home

Sometimes all we need to make a normal day into a memorable summer day is a good idea. Here are some fun ones I found around on various lists and posts or came up with on my own:

• Outside Play
• Water play (sponge bombs, pool, wagon, sprinkler toy, hose Homemade slip n’ slide
• Sidewalk paint/chalk
• Bubbles
• Build a fort
• Wash the car
• Board Games
• Camping (esp. backyard &/or basement)
• Watch the Olympics (July 27-Aug 12, 2012)
• Read chapter books outloud
• Catch fireflies
• Ice Cream for Dinner
• Fondue Night
• Grilling/Eating Outside

Outings

I need a little motivation to get out of the house most days. These ideas motivated me; how about you?

• Farms/Farmers Markets             
• Free/Cheap Summer Movies    
• Swimming
• Library
• Play Dates/Play Group
• Parks (playgrounds & splash pads)
• Feed ducks
• Yard Sales
• Picnics
• Hiking
• Free classes at Lowe’s (ages 5+) – every other Saturday, 10:00, 1 hr.
• Free classes at Home Depot (ages 5+) – 1^st Saturday of the month, 9:00
• Free classes at Michael’s (usually ages 3+)           
• Bass Pro Shops’ Family Summer Camp, June 9 – July 15 Tu, Th, Sa, Su 1pm-5pm (Free photos, crafts, activities, workshops)

Projects

I remember learning to type as a summer project one year. Seth, his brother, and his dad worked on models in the summer. This inspired me to think about some summer projects we might undertake. Here are a few ideas:

• Memorize a Bible passage as a family
• Do a hard puzzle as a family
• Do a simple sewing project
• Learn a new hobby

How about you? What do you have planned for the summer?

P.S. I apologize for the (as Talia would call it) "wiggy waggy" formatting. For some reason I can't figure out how to fix it.

Nursery Update

I was hoping to do a "Nursery Reveal" post of the finished nursery, but I just can't wait anymore! :) So instead I am posting an 85% finished nursery update.

Once I had the basic color scheme and theme decided, my biggest inspiration for each element was the cheap factor. Even though we became DEBT FREE--except the house--earlier this month (this topic definitely deserves its own post), we still have some big financial goals to hit and so are working hard to live as frugally as possible. This means I didn't really have a budget for decorating the nursery, aside from a little bit of "fun" money I had saved up and what I could squeeze out of the household category in our regular monthly budget. It's a good thing I have a huge stash of fabric people have given me, Pinterest, and an obsession for awesome deals. :)

As you walk in the doorway you see the crib area. The first thing I made for the nursery was the crib bumper & skirt. I ordered the fabric from fabric.com (there went that "fun money" I mentioned) and just happened to hit Hancock Fabrics on a huge sale weekend when I went to buy the batting and a few other materials. (Yay!) The colors are so bright and cheerful. I love them!

Here is a close-up of the mobile. I made this using the idea posted here, but with some modifications. (For example I did NOT hand-sew each bird--no thanks!--and I hung it with skinny grosgrain ribbon instead of clear wire.) I think the mobile is my favorite element in the room so far. :)

I couldn't resist using the header from the blog as the inspiration for the wall art behind the crib. (Who knew I was this drawn to birds??) As I pondered what to put on all these blank walls, I was really trying to avoid spending $3-4 each on canvases, but it seemed all the DIY wall art I was finding started with a canvas as a base. Of course $4 is better than the hundreds you could spend on buying wall art, but I kept stubbornly searching for an alternative. Eventually I found this idea. I decoupaged scrapbook paper on as the base of my "canvases" to give it a softer more whimsical look than the paint used in the original tutorial.

I decided it was finally time to recover our yard sale rocking chair. The original English farmhouse upholstry didn't match the nursery at all and was wearing very thin. I thought this would be a pretty quick project, but it ended up being a 2-man, lengthy ordeal. Let's just say upholstry tacks aren't the easiest thing in the world to pound into a piece of hard wood. Thankfully Seth saved the day with his handy dandy drill and precision drilling skills. Thanks, Babe!

I still need to make a pillow for this chair. I'm thinking a taupe pillow with a bright yellow rick-rack flower in the center.

I saw an adorable bird painting for sale ($110--ack!) and immediately thought, "I could totally do that!" The way the birds were depicted reminded me of thumbprints and an idea was born. Here is our version featuring the thumbprints of baby girl's 3 older siblings. I didn't keep track of who's prints are who's, except that the dark pink, light pink, and medium pink birds at the bottom of the tree were stamped by Benj, Talia & Leila, respectively.

I made these little birdhouses just for fun (I found the pattern here) because who can have a bird nursery without birdhouses? I also saw some adorable tiny wooden birdhouses at Michael's that I was sorely tempted to purchase, but since I could make these for free I exercised all my willpower and went with this version. I'm thinking about hanging a branch on the wall above the changing table and hanging or propping these in it with some birds dangling from the branches.

Lastly, here is the shelving under the changing table. Never having had an actual changing table before (we have always used a long dresser with a changing pad on top), I was not sure what to do with all this shelf space. After perusing lots of nursery decor blogs I decided that baskets were really the only option. Of course, you know me...I was not interested in spending the money to buy 4 large baskets so I set about searching for an alternative. I orginally found an idea to cover diaper boxes with canvas, but I had a huge piece of taupe cotton fabric in my stash that I wanted to use instead of buying canvas. So I found a slip cover for plastic crates and modified it to fit diaper boxes instead of the crates. My friend Stephanie found those cute magazine boxes at the dollar spot at Target. I have no idea what to put in them yet, but I think they go perfectly! :)

I still need to paint and hang some shelves to go above the rocking chair, find a lamp & a clock, and figure out what to do with the window, but it's definitely coming together!

Thanks for looking/reading!

A New Season for Couponing

Not so very long ago I was full to the brim with couponing energy. I had a great system that was working well for me and was saving tons. Our grocery budget for our family of 5 was about $250 per month and things were ticking along like clockwork.

Then two little pink lines on a little stick from the Dollar Tree changed all that. Don't get me wrong, they weren't unwelcome lines. They were actually lines we were hoping to see, but these lines were very distruptive to my serene little clockwork routine. Even when morning sickness was finally over (if you are still lost on the "lines", yes, I'm talking about baby #4 on the way) there were projects to complete, preparations to be made, and transitions to be initiated. My coupon-devoted Sunday afternoons were a thing of the past.

So what to do. I don't like spending money I know I could be NOT spending, but I was having trouble finding a new couponing routine. One afternoon I sat down and wrote to my coupon mentor (I don't even know her, but she's taught me tons), Crystal, author of my favorite coupon blog (moneysavingmom.com.) My basic question to her was: how do you effectively use coupons without it taking over your life? Today I found out from a friend that my question (and Crystal's answer) had actually been posted on MoneySavingMom! If you have the same question (or are just curious about how mine was answered), take a look.

I share this for two reasons:

1. Friends have often shared that they wish they could coupon, but they just don't have time. If this is you, maybe the tips and ideas shared both in the original post and in the reader comments will give you some fresh ideas. I definitely got some fresh inspiration!

2. In the interest of keeping it real! While it's much more enjoyable to write about successes and the clockwork seasons, reality is, folks, that life is kinda rough around the edges right now. It's not pretty, but it's true. You may remember I hate the supermom myth (and I hate it some more here), so here it is, folks: I can't keep up with everything right now! In so confessing I found some inspiration to regroup, restructure, and keep right on doing the best I can.

Decorating Projects!

My "nesting" phase seems to be manifesting itself in decorating projects this time around. Of course, that is largely prompted by the fact that we have majorly changed the room arrangements in our house over the past couple of months.

Talia and Leila are now sharing the bedroom in the basement. When I started looking for ideas for a sweet, girly room I was enthralled with this. We are not really wanting to paint at this point, so I went about recreating the color scheme with fabrics instead. Here is the first installment:

I made the duvet cover from some clearance sheets I got at Wal-Mart. I got 3 sets of full-sized sheets for a total of about $10! I made all the throw pillows from tutorials I found on Pinterest and modified another throw pillow tutorial to create the shams. I love the way they turned out!

My next projects for this room are tall, skinny bookshelves on either side of the bed (any ideas for cheap??), something to frame the head of the bed (still trying to decide what I want to do), and some button wall art.

Meanwhile, I am also working on the nursery. Believe it or not, we have never owned girl crib bedding (for a normal-sized crib). When both of the other girls were born we were in our teeny, tiny house and the kids were sharing one teeny, tiny bedroom so we bought a mini crib (the size church nurseries usually have) and I made bedding for that. Since we can use our normal sized crib again and this baby will have her own room (praise the Lord!!!), I was excited to be able to finally decorate a girly nursery.

Early on when I was trying to decide what I wanted to do I got stuck on the idea of having a bird-themed nursery. Later I decided on a pink, yellow and taupe color-scheme. This is what I have done so far:

 
I made the crib bumper and crib skirt using Benjamin's store-bought crib bedding as a pattern and sort of making it up as I went along. I still need to add ties to the bumper and some big, pink bows at the tops of the box pleats on the bumper (can't really see from this picture).

My next projects for this room are: faux canvas wall art (SO excited about this!! cute and cheap!) and recovering the rocking chair with an awesome white & yellow damask print.

What else would you do in these rooms? All you decorating-savvy friends out there, I welcome your input!

Potty Training "in a Day" (or 4)

Be forewarned: this post will most likely only be interesting to moms of toddlers who are looking for a potty training method. Unless you are in this category I would skip it if I were you. :)

Since Seth posted that we subscribe to the "potty training in a day" method on facebook a couple of weeks ago I have had a few people ask about how we do this. I decided this is a good time for me to write this post since any pride I had in the fact that our first two children were potty trained in 1-2 days is demolished. :) Leila took 4 WHOLE...LONG days. But! She is completely potty trained now, and for what it's worth, here's how it happens at our house....

(Disclaimer: As with many subjects within the realm of parenting, I think this is one good way to do it. There are also other good ways to potty train that work better for other families. Just so you know.)

Overview
This will be a long post, so here are the basics in a nutshell:

• This method requires my total and complete attention for 1-4 days.
• It is important to make sure the child is "ready" for potty training. None of my kids have really shown the classic signs that we are usually taught to associate with readiness (asking for a diaper change, going off to "do business" privately) but I do look for ability to understand and receive instruction, interest in other transitions that we deem "big boy/big girl" milestones (crib to bed, for example) and age. Our kids have tended to be ready closer to age 3 than to age 2.
• Once we take off the last diaper, we do not wear anymore diapers (or pull-ups, except for nap & night).
• Since this process is not a behavior-based process, but rather the learning of new skills, we use rewards to reinforce the desired skills. We have used both sticker charts and food "treats."
• "Staying dry & clean" earns one reward.
• "Using the potty to stay dry & clean" earns double rewards.
• We set a timer and sit on the potty every 10 minutes throughout the day (extended to 15 or 20 later in the day, depending on how we are doing). This is not optional for the child. When the timer rings it is simply time to sit.
• After the first success we call Daddy to share the news. This is always a big moment. :)
• When an accident occurs we practice the entire process 10 times in a row to reinforce the new desired habit. (Please note: This is intended to reinforce habit & muscle memory, not to punish the child.)
• When we graduate from the every-10-minutes phase we sit on the potty at (loosely) scheduled times: before meals, after meals, before nap, before bed, etc.
• At an appropriate time in the process the entire family participates in a "Yay!" party.

Preparation
The first thing you must know about potty training in a day (or four) is that it takes complete commitment to this one, and only this one task. I completely clear my schedule. No school, no chores, no errands, no phone calls. I am prepared to work with the child almost exclusively for at least one whole day (but I plan on 2-4 days). I don't plan on sneaking in a load of laundry or dishes or even making dinner.

Before we started this time I sat my older two children down and explained to them that they were going to need to play by themselves a lot that day, that I wasn't going to be able to help them as much, and that they were going to need to be very patient when they needed me. I played up their maturity and independence and explained that when they were Leila's age I spent an entire day with them, teaching them how to use the potty. (During this conversation I also explained that Leila was going to be getting some special drinks & treats to help her learn how to use the potty. I told them I would give them their own treats later on in the day, but the potty treats were just for Leila. I also let them in on the "secret" that when Leila learned how to use the potty we would have a "Yay Leila!" party and we would ALL get to taste the special treats that Leila had been getting.) I have read that it is best to send the older kids to grandma's house for the day, or weekend to avoid all this. I don't have that option, living 2,000 miles away from both sets of grandparents, but if I could I would definitely do that!

There are several things I gather before the Big Day:

• Plenty of clean underwear/panties. We have about 12 pairs.
• Plenty of clean pants. I like sweatpants, jeans (esp. lined with jersey knit), anything absorbent. I put these all in a big stack in a central place, along with the underwear/panties.
• "Fun" drinks, different from what my kids normally drink. We used lemondade this time.
• Treats. Something with lots of small pieces like M&Ms, smarties, fruit snacks, Skittles....
• A timer.
• A doll (We do not use an expensive "potty doll.")
• An absorbent pad. I use chux pads from the hospital, but you could also use a folded up towel.
• Pull ups (for nap & night).

The Big Day
I always start potty training after breakfast so as soon as we get up in the morning I make a big deal about changing the LAST diaper! We start really talking up the underwear/panties that we are going to put on after breakfast.

After breakfast I make sure I have everything assembled in one place that I will need for the day. I actually wear an apron with pockets so I have the treats, my phone, and the timer handy. I prepare a sippy cup with a special drink, gather my stack of dry clothing, and get a stash of books, games, and other things to keep us occupied in one area.

Once I am prepared the big moment has arrived. We put on the underwear/panties! Then I say for the first time what will become my mantra for the next few days: We are going to learn how to keep our panties dry and clean. I explain that when you feel like you need to go pee pee you need to stop your pee pee until you sit on the potty, then you make your pee pee go in the potty.

To illustrate I take the child to the potty, along with the role-play doll and our sippy cup. I give the child a drink from the sippy cup and encourage her to give her doll a pretend drink. We play with the doll for a few moments and then I ask the child to check to see if her doll is dry. I show her how to check with two fingers and, of course, the doll is dry! We break out the treats! The child gets to give her doll ONE treat (which, after the doll pretend-eats, I let the child eat). This is one M&M, one smartie, etc. I explain that we get one treat for having dry and clean panties ! Then we take another drink and play for a few more moments. This time we pretend that the doll needs to go potty. We go through all the steps: pulling down the doll's panties, sitting on the potty, making a "ssss" sound (I pour water in the potty from a little cup) and then looking to see that the doll went potty! Time for more treats! This time the doll gets TWO treats and I explain that we get two treats for using the potty to stay dry and clean. This is usually the end of the usefulness of the role-play for us, but it gets the point across of what we are trying to do.

Then I start the cycle I will repeat throughout the day:

• Remind and encourage the child to drink frequently.
• Set the timer for 10 minutes at a time.
• We play together and I ask frequently (every 1-2 minutes at first), "do you need to go potty?" (While we play I have the child sit on the absorbent pad.)
• Sometimes we have our first accident before the timer rings (see "First Accident" below), but if we make it the whole 10 minutes without an accident I announce that it's time to check to see if we are dry. We both check for dryness and if dry, I give the child one treat.
• I have the child sit on the potty. I don't ask, I tell them, "OK, it's time to sit." We sit on the potty for no less than 4 minutes at a time to give us a greater chance of having an "accidental success." I usually read books until they get bored. Between books I reinforce the language: "Now you are sitting on the potty. Can you make your pee pee go in the potty?" 
• If nothing happens after a little while we pull up the panties and re-set the timer for 10 minutes.

This is the basic process most of the day.

First Accident
We have always had our first accident before our first success, so I'll talk about that first.

Once it becomes obvious that the first accident is occuring or has occurred (I can usually tell by the surprised look on their faces) I jump into action. I remind the child "stop your pee pee until we get to the potty" and get them to the potty as soon as possible. The first time there is usually nothing left to actually go in the potty, but we sit anyway and talk through the process again: "when you feel like you need to go pee pee you need to stop your pee pee until you sit on the potty, then you make your pee pee go in the potty. We want to keep our panties dry and clean." To reinforce the language I am using I sometimes gently press the wet panties against the child's upper thigh to illustrate "wet" and then, as we change into dry panties we talk about how "dry" feels.

It is important, especially with the first accident, to maintain a fun, encouraging tone and to reassure the child that he/she hasn't done anything wrong! Learning to be a big boy/girl takes practice. I try to focus on how proud I am that they are trying and how exciting it will be to figure it out!

After the clothes are changed it is back to the beginning of the cycle. I re-set the timer and start the 10-minute process again, alway pushing the drinks! (Note: In the overview I talked about practicing 10 times when an accident occurs. I have tried this process after the first accident and found it frustrating. Therefore, I now like to wait until we have had a successful trip to the potty once or twice before I introduce this element. One thing at a time. :) )

First Success
I mentioned above how important it is to handle the first accident appropriately. Surprisingly, it has been my experience that it is equally important to handle the first success with sensitivity. Two of my children have been somewhat startled by the new sensation and needed reassurance that they really did the right thing. Leila actually cried after she went in the potty for the first time!

Of course the first order of business is to reward the success with a double treat! Next, we call Daddy with the news. (I do this while still sitting on the potty in case something else happens to come out while we are on the phone. :) ) Then I introduce the habits that go along with using the potty: pull up the panties & pants, flush the potty, wash hands, etc., all the while encouraging and celebrating this big step towards being a big kid!

When we are done with all this I start the 10-minute cycle again.

"Number Two"
We have handled bowel training differently with each child, depending on his or her personal schedule. For us, being potty trained and being "bowel trained" have been two separate events, with the later occuring about a week after the former. I don't have an easy answer for how we have accomplished it, other than if the child has a particular time when I know she does her business I make that a scheduled time to sit on the potty for awhile. I have even set the potty in front of the TV and put on a short DVD to keep her sitting there for a good long time. Other than that, I do my best to catch them at the very beginning of the act so I can help them start to form the new habit. Leila is still about 50/50 on getting her #2's in the right place. I do have a few tricks that worked with the first two, but I'll spare you the details. If you are interested email me. :)

Accidents
Once we are into the process and have had a couple of successful trips to the potty I start introducing the muscle memory/habit reinforcement process. When an accident occurs we do everything we did for the first accident and once everything is cleaned up we practice the process 10 times in a row. I first tell the child that we are going to practice staying dry & clean 10 times, then we do it.

Here's what that looks like:

• We go back to exactly where the child was and what she was doing when the accident happened.
• I say, "When you feel like you need to go pee pee you need to stop playing (eating, or whatever) and go to the potty. You say, 'I need to go potty!' and you stop your pee pee. Keep it inside your body. Go fast, fast, fast to the potty!" (All the while I am physically maneuvering the child, helping her jump up, walk quickly to the potty - or even carrying her - etc.)
• When we get to the potty I help her pull down her pants/panties, to show how we need to do it fast and sit.
• I say, "Now you can let your pee pee go in the potty. See? You stayed dry & clean! (I rub the dry panties on her leg.)"
• We get off the potty, pull up the pants/panties and I announce cheerfully, "Great job! That's ONE."
• We repeat the entire process, counting each time and keeping the tone light & fun. Sometimes I have experienced meltdowns after several repetitions. If I can distract and keep going I do, but if it becomes a major issue I let it go. With Leila I actually didn't introduce the practicing element until day 3 because I thought it would cause more problems than it solved. Once she was more comfortable with the process we introduced this element and that is really when we turned the corner and began to see the lightbulb coming on!

Celebrating
A fun thing to do once everything is "clicking" and the child is definitely getting it is to have a family party. Whenever we are celebrating a success in our family we tend to call it a "Yay! Party." In the case of Leila being potty trained we had a "Yay Leila! Party." This was a time for us to celebrate Leila's success and also a time for everyone to get to share some of the treats Leila had been receiving as part of the potty training process. For example, we all drank lemondade and had M&M's for dessert.

Nap and Nighttime
With experience my personal philosophy has become that nap & nighttime dryness will come in time. I really don't do anything extraordinary to push it. For Benj it came almost immediately. He wasn't napping anymore by the time he was potty trained so that wasn't an issue. He wore pull-ups at night for about 3-4 months but was almost always dry so after awhile I quit. I can't remember that he has ever wet the bed. Talia had a dry pull-up consistently after naptime after a couple of weeks. She took a long time to become night trained (8-9 months?) I just let her wear pull-ups until she was consistently dry in the morning. (I personally think that uninterrupted sleep is worth buying pull-ups for awhile.) It eventually happened and she almost never wets the bed now.

A word about naps for the first few days: The first day the child definitely needs a break! I put a pull-up on and don't worry at all about instructing her not to pee in it. With Leila, since the process took a few days, I did skip a nap one day because I felt like we were really losing momentum each day at naptime. It seemed like she would "save it up" to empty in her pull-up and then by the time we got enough liquid back in her to cause her to need to go again it would be that hectic time of day when Daddy is getting home, dinner prep is underway, etc. and lots of accidents would occur. The one day I did keep her up from her nap I had her sit next to me (on her absorbent pad) on the couch and look at books. It did help to be able to keep the momentum going on this one day and it was not necessary to skip another nap.

Conclusion
If you are still reading you must be definitely interested in this method, in which case I will encourage you: the benefits are worth the high time investment! I have really enjoyed that the short process helps us keep a positive focus. Although there can definitely be frustrations or discouragement, eventually perseverance pays off and both of you can look back and say, "Look what we did!"

About time...

Well, I decided that it's about time to put an end to this unintentional silence. I hate the first post after a long lull. It's extremely daunting to try to sum up a period that kept one so crazy-busy that she couldn't even put together a blog post. So I've decided just to write what comes to mind and move on with my life. (Sound familiar? That's because I wrote essentially the same thing here the last time I was trying to get things re-started. Apparently that's how I roll. :))

Well, here goes...

Most obviously (especially to those who have seen me recently), I am now 23 weeks along with Little Rodriquez #4. This has been my most difficult pregnancy, by far. I was horrendously sick from about week 8 until somewhere between Thanksgiving & Christmas and so was pretty useless for awhile there. Poor Seth had a hard load to bear between all his normal duties and mine. Now that I'm past the sick phase, however, things are humming right along with no complications. We found out 3 days before Christmas that we will once again be breaking out the headbands & hairbows for a Baby GIRL, which was quite a surprise as we unanimously thought it was a boy. Poor Benj had his heart set on a brother. He cried when we told him. :( He got over it that same day, though, and is excited to have another little sister to protect. The other night when we were giving hugs & kisses before bed he hugged and kissed my belly and said, "I love you, baby sister. It's going to be a happy day when you come out to see us!" That happy day will be sometime in early-ish May.

In October I somehow mustered up the oomph to make Benj a birthday cake (he turned 6 which, for some reason, really threw me for a loop) and participate in his chosen birthday activity, a family trip to Dinosaur World.

We celebrated Halloween with a "first" -- we actually carved our pumpkins this year! (A luxury that Ph.D. life couldn't really afford.) Leila surprised me by having a definite opinion about what kind of pumpkin face she wanted. We designed our faces here and when we put the mouth on her first creation she said emphatically, "No! Scary!" Benj decided to be a fisherman complete with an enormous cardboard fish on the end of his new birthday fishing pole. Talia & Leila both dressed up as Raggedy Ann in dresses made for me by my mom when I was their ages. :)

We enjoyed a visit with my mom in early November. She came to help me get my house & life back in order since I was starting to feel better at that point. She was a trooper, helping me with all my laundry, dishes, and various projects like our massive seasonal clothes swap-out.

We had a quiet family Thanksgiving, which turned out to be a super relaxing day! We had invited several different families and groups of people to join us, but it seemed everyone already had plans this year. I really didn't want to have a sad, whimpy Thanksgiving so I decided to go ahead with a full feast. This was the first year I have ever made everything myself! It was a lot of work, but so worth it! As an extra perk, Benjamin was able to eat everything this year since I made it. I'm not sure he appreciated the significance, but it made my Mama heart happy anyway. :) Thanksgiving morning we each shared 3 ideas of things we would like to do during the day and put them on slips of paper inside a little bag. We took turns throughout the day drawing activities from the bag and doing them. We played with Legos, started a puzzle, played with the Lite Brite, sang Thanksgiving songs, did a Thanksgiving craft, and lots of other fun activities throughout the day.

Our Christmas season was fun but very, very full. A little too full, truth be told. :) At the risk of sounding grinchish, I was honestly glad when it was all over this year. That's not usually like me, but by December 26th I was ready to move on! We enjoyed a fun after-Christmas visit from Seth's parents. We had a relaxing few days with them, taking a few little field trips here and there, but mostly just visiting and enjoying each other's company. (No December pictures downloaded yet.)

We are now over halfway through our school year, which is going very well. Benjamin is making great progress in reading, handwriting, and math. Talia is enjoying her own preschool work as well. She joins in with Benjamin for reading with Mama, weekly science experiments, and other fun  activities such as language arts games. Leila has taken a renewed interest in her tot school activities (we took a break for awhile since she seemed happier just playing nearby) and has now mastered the art of buttoning/unbuttoning, stringing Cheerios, and matching shapes. She is working on recognizing her colors by name and one-to-one counting. We are hoping to finish our school year just a couple of days before the baby is born!

With the new year came a new burst of second trimester energy for me. I have been attacking my project list with a vengence!

Just after the new year began we moved the kids' bedrooms around. The girls are now sharing a room (and a queen sized bed) in the basement. The transition has gone surprisingly well. Leila has embraced her new "big girl" status with an air of responsibility. She is staying in bed well and the girls don't seem to be keeping each other awake at night like I feared. Benj, who has shared a room with Talia for as long as he can remember, was a bit lonely after the transition. Partly to help him feel like he was gaining something by having a boy bedroom all to himself and partly because the location seemed more logical, we moved him to Leila's old bedroom. He got several new "big boy" items for Christmas so it is nice timing for him to have his own space. Just after we finished moving the rooms around Leila came wandering over to me one day asking "Mama, where's my spot?" Not sure what she meant, I coaxed her to explain more. She elaborated: "Benjamin took my spot!" Poor babe. I reminded her that she had a new big girl room downstairs. She seemed happy with that and hasn't mentioned it since.

Our latest project has been potty training Leila. It's a lot of transition for one little girl, but there's only so much time before this baby is born. The potty training is another story for another time. Meanwhile, I feel purged and ready to start blogging again. :)

Thanks for reading & TTFN,