Sunday, February 13, 2011

We have things to learn.

We had a list of thing that we, as parents, wanted to teach our little dear before her little brother gets here.
1. Get her sleeping in her big girl bed in her new room.
2. Potty training.
3. Get rid of the pacifier.
We had a plan. We were prepared for the struggles. We were ready!

1. Right after we got home from Christmas, we took her bedding out of the crib, put baby brothers crib bedding in and moved her to her big girl bed. Success! She loved it! We loved it! She did great! She didn't get up. She didn't cry. It was awesome! We were thrilled!
2. Feeling very confident that we were awesome parents for getting our daughter to sleep so well in her big girl bed, we moved on the potty training. This was at a bit of a delay, because Brynlee got pneumonia and 2 ear infections. So once she was better and we were back on track we bought a potty, underwear, treats and made a potty chart. We were set to start MLK day. We were committed and there was no looking back! Well that didn't work out. We found out that my grandma had passed away and we would be taking a trip back to Arizona within the week. By the time we got back from Arizona it was to close to my due date to try training her. Darn. Maybe we can try again this summer when thing have calmed down a bit. Disappointed, but things happen and we know that she will be just as ready this summer. No big deal.

3. On to the pacifier. I really was in no hurry for this one, to be honest. She is a great sleeper, due in part to her love for her "cici". She is very attached to her pacifier and she only gets it at bed time, so she is very motivated to go to bed and take a nap. Last Sunday we were reading scriptures to Brynlee and Bryce noticed that she had bitten her pacifier. Naughty. So we decided then and there that tonight was the night to get rid of her "cici". She is 2 after all. Time for it to go. Bryce cut the tip of the pacifier off and place it very unsteadily back together. When he handed it to Brynlee it broke! We thought we had explained that it was broken and we didn't have another one and that she was a big girl and didn't need it anymore. She cried all night. Terrible. Each day that passed she cried less, but her naps were getting shorter and shorter. Her crying at night changed from wanting her paci to wanting us to cuddle her. It was a night mare! We caved! We gave in! We changed our plan. We failed! After 2 days in a row with no naps and lot of crying and bed times at 10 or 11, she won and we gave her her beloved "cici" back. Its a good thing that Bryce is going to be dentist because her teeth will be wrecked for sure.

This week, Brynlee has been keeping herself busy during her non-naps. Fine with me. Whatever she wants to do in her room for an hour, just as long as I get a break. So she was been "reading stories", coloring on her chalk board, and playing dress ups, or should I say dress downs.
That's right. She took off her clothes, pulled on a snow hat, and put on her.....

"fancy shoes".
Oh we love her!

Needless to say our confidence level as parents have wavered some in the last month and a half. Live and learn and hopefully we can get it right with the next kid.

2 comments:

Marissa Noe said...

I've been here... and honestly, I think you are doing a wonderful job. It's probably for the best though with the last 2 things... children tend to regress with new changes like a new baby so the potty training may have gone out the window anyway. Also, what's the rush? We tried with Joselyn at 2 and succeeded, but when we moved she started having accidents again so we waited until she was 3 and she was a CINCH to train! I've heard 3 is a better age anyway since they can sleep through the night without accidents.

PACI. I've heard, although I could be wrong, that it won't really affect the teeth unless they have their paci's until they are like 4. Like I said, I could be wrong. But you may also want to try other things that are more permanent in her mind. We talked it up for days, counted down and tied the kids' paci's to balloons (both were VERY attached.) Jos didn't cry but was sad, Landen cried a LOT but was over it in a day. We never thought it would have been that easy, but I think it helped to explain and for them to see them go into the sky never to come back. I've heard other people doing similar things like putting all the paci's in a build a bear so they can still hug it at night etc.

Sometimes it's so easy to get discouraged and to feel pressured for our kids to reach those milestones. But what's the rush? I felt enormous pressure to have Joselyn potty trained fast especially... it was a social thing. But in the long run, they will get to it when they're ready!

Just know you're doing just fine :) and do what feels right for you!

Angela said...

Oh man, every mom has SOOO been there. You gotta loves the potty/paci right of passage. If only kids didn't have such strong opinions parenting would be easy, right :) There is a GREAT book at the library called Paci's Aren't Forever. We read it to Grant (around age 3) and explained that now that he's older he doesn't need a paci, and that we need to give them to the new babies that need them. A little white lie I suppose, but it helped. Good luck!