Our Merry Little Christmas, Overnight Potty Training and Expectations for 2013

This is a long post, so brace yourself, folks!

My little family of three had a merry little four-day Christmas weekend. The time off was much appreciated and greatly needed. Zoey was spoiled rotten, but she’s two so I guess it’s okay. ;o) Her big gift from Santa this year as a Melissa & Doug easel with all the items to go with it… spill-proof paint cups, brushes, finger paint, regular paint (ALL washable), a smock and a roll of paper. She already painted two pictures on Christmas day. She got several other things, but the easel was the biggest deal this year.

Unfortunately, Glenn ended up feeling sick most of the time and his sickness peaked the day after Christmas, but he’s mending well. I ended up with one of those weird fever viruses kids seem to get, but it left as quickly as it came. Hopefully we’ll all be healthy as we ring in a new year.

This time last year, I was setting goals as a mother for 2012. I set three things that I am happy to say we accomplished well before I expected:

1. Weaning off the paci

2. Transitioning from crib to toddler bed

3. Potty training

It’s crazy to think that this time last year we were just breaking Zoey of her pacifier. It was a lot easier than I anticipated. All I did was cut the tip off and told her it was broken. From that moment forward, she was done with it! The crib-to-bed transition was pretty easy, too!

The potty training… well… it wasn’t too bad. Going straight to panties has seriously been the best thing we could have done for her. We started the potty journey officially in June. Shout out to her daycare center for helping, too! Today, we still carry two extra panties and pants with us everywhere we go, mostly because I am OCD when it comes to carrying mom supplies around, but her accidents are minimal and are never a completely released bladder. Usually she just doesn’t make it to the potty in time because she doesn’t want to stop playing long enough to go. The weird thing is she goes more overnight now that she is trained than she did when she was in diapers. Our solution to the problem has been an introduction to cloth diapering: Best Bottom Potty Training Kits.

These little kits are amazing, so take notes if you want to save money and avoid pull-ups! Zoey is a pretty heavy wetter overnight, so we ended up purchasing these overnight soakers to snap in underneath the normal inserts.

I love this system! We have two of the kits, one green and one purple (each comes with one pant and three snap-in liners), and an additional set of three overnight soakers. This system works well for us and holds her overnight peeing. She has an extremely fluffy bottom with these pants on, but it keeps her bed dry so that is all that matters. Most of the time, only the liners get wet so we can reuse the pant an additional night without washing. I usually let her go two nights with the same clean liners if she doesn’t wet them at all. She still understands when she has peed herself, but sometimes she just doesn’t wake up and that’s okay. I’m thankful she’s daytime trained so we can deal with nighttime later!

So what about 2013? Last year I had three goals. This year, just one. But the thing is, this one is kind of big and the size of three. We want to grow our family. Preferably without medical intervention. Possible? No idea. Hopeful? Yes. My PCOS comes in waves. Sometimes, my one cycle is the length of two for normal, healthy women. Then sometimes, I have a totally normal 30-day cycle. I don’t expect to actually have another baby in 2013. We’re about out of time for that. I do hope to at least be expecting by the end of 2013. Again, without intervention/assistance. This will put me where I always expected to be… having another baby in 2014 when Zoey is 4 years old. Isn’t that weird though? To think that in just three months she is turning 3? Didn’t she just come home from NICU yesterday? It blows my mind.

For now, I have to be patient and wait. Other PCOSers know how much of an emotional/mental game TTC is for us compared to others. It can take normal/healthy women a while to conceive, but it takes us twice as long and it’s twice as hard. It also doesn’t help that there is pressure as a woman to be able to do this naturally and whenever we want. How easy people forget that it isn’t that simple for all women. Some of us actually struggle. Sometimes people forget the journey it took to conceive and then safely deliver Zoey. They ask when we’re having another one and try to tell us to not wait too long. Really? I know they mean well. I just laugh it off. It’s all up to God, not me. Only He knows. It’ll happen when it happens. That’s all I can keep telling others as well as myself.

Now that Christmas is over and New Years is upon us, I’ve started planning Zoey’s 3^rd birthday party. It looks like this year we’re going to have a Tangled/Rapunzel-themed birthday! Mostly because I am dying to make some of these “paint brushes”:

http://pinterest.com/pin/207024914091648425/

Cute, right?! I have a ton of ideas saved on Pinterest, of course. As a mom, I always want my children to feel special, especially on this one day where we get to celebrate their birth. I know some don’t see it as a big deal, but to me it is. Children are a blessing and I want them to always feel like it. Plus, I love, love, love party planning. Guilty pleasure. ;o)

Happy New Year, friends!