Updates: Lorelei and Charlotte
Good news! Mostly. Baby Lorelei has decided to stop faking us out and everything has stalled. This is very good, because we’re now quite confident we’ll reach the all-important 37-week mark on Sunday. Translation: Our kiddo ought to be fully baked. This is an enormous relief—I desperately want this little girl’s lungs fully developed and her tiny body ready for life in the outside world. Getting another week of work accomplished (for both Chris and me) is good as well.
Of course, everything stopping introduces the question of exactly when this child will be born. After Sunday, I’m going to actively encourage labor. Unlike with Charlotte, who surprised the heck out of us, I’ve had a week to mentally prepare for this child’s arrival, childbirth, and so on. I’m ready, not to mention feeling pretty guilty about getting my mom onto a plane a wee bit too early. Many long walks are in my future this weekend.
That said, Lorelei stalling has allowed us to consistently continue Charlotte’s potty training. I worried her little sister would show up before we could lay a strong potty-training foundation, so I’m a happy camper. Charlotte is doing GREAT at potty training. Honestly, I’m sort of shocked. She now tells us when she needs to go potty and stays dry until she gets on the toilet. After drinking a big cup of milk in the morning, the child is able to HOLD IT the entire long drive to school and then pees (in the toilet) at school when we arrive. She’s also wearing undies the entire drive home, sans accidents. Yesterday, she only had one accident all day long. Most importantly, Charlotte is recognizing when she needs to go and getting to a toilet in time instead of relying on Mommy or her teacher to plop her onto the potty every 10 minutes.
At this point, she’s wearing a diaper only during her nap and at night. I think we’ll begin to work on the nap diaper next week. Nighttime will be a big challenge, but we’ll eventually deal with it.
I’m so proud of my Charlotte, and I think giving her a month-long break from training was a good move. The fact we’re going through WAY fewer diapers is fantastic too. I mean, just two diapers per day? That’s pretty awesome. I wrote “diapers” on the Costco list then crossed it out. We’re just not going through enough of them to justify buying 200 more! Happy sigh.
So, things are the same as a few days ago, really, but just a little better. Having another set of hands around the house (Mums) has been swell, especially with the time-consuming fuss that Charlotte’s potty breaks require. On Saturday, we’re going to go apple picking one more time (hey, different apple varieties are available!), so Nana can watch Charlotte run around the farm. (Again, the farm is about 5 minutes away. It’s not an all-day event for us country bumpkins.) We’re also hosting fellowship hour at the church this Sunday, so I have back-up for baking and such. And, well, having the beds magically made every day and the dishwasher run and unloaded by the time we get home from work, not to mention dinner started, makes the daily grind a lot easier too. It frees up time for me to get lunches made, potty accident laundry moving, and cars unloaded so much faster. The result? We go to bed earlier. And that, my friends, is crucial right now. Mommy is exhausted.
When your extended family lives on the opposite coast, you don’t realize the daily load your tiny family carries each day solo—until someone else starts taking on bits and pieces of that load. You know? I mean, having my mom simply handle Charlotte’s bath just once freed me up to get about dozen other items DONE.
Mums arriving earlier than planned is also giving Charlotte some Nana time before her little sister absorbs a lot of the spotlight. Charlotte loves the novelty of having a new person here to dote on her, and yesterday, she marched into Nana’s bedroom, shouting, “Nana, wake up!” Um, little girl? Nana might still be on West Coast time.
So, after last weekend’s unexpected hoopla that hijacked what I feared would be my last chance to get some good Charlotte time pre-Lorelei, it looks like I’m being given a second shot to happily hang out with my girl.
Of course, everything stopping introduces the question of exactly when this child will be born. After Sunday, I’m going to actively encourage labor. Unlike with Charlotte, who surprised the heck out of us, I’ve had a week to mentally prepare for this child’s arrival, childbirth, and so on. I’m ready, not to mention feeling pretty guilty about getting my mom onto a plane a wee bit too early. Many long walks are in my future this weekend.
That said, Lorelei stalling has allowed us to consistently continue Charlotte’s potty training. I worried her little sister would show up before we could lay a strong potty-training foundation, so I’m a happy camper. Charlotte is doing GREAT at potty training. Honestly, I’m sort of shocked. She now tells us when she needs to go potty and stays dry until she gets on the toilet. After drinking a big cup of milk in the morning, the child is able to HOLD IT the entire long drive to school and then pees (in the toilet) at school when we arrive. She’s also wearing undies the entire drive home, sans accidents. Yesterday, she only had one accident all day long. Most importantly, Charlotte is recognizing when she needs to go and getting to a toilet in time instead of relying on Mommy or her teacher to plop her onto the potty every 10 minutes.
At this point, she’s wearing a diaper only during her nap and at night. I think we’ll begin to work on the nap diaper next week. Nighttime will be a big challenge, but we’ll eventually deal with it.
I’m so proud of my Charlotte, and I think giving her a month-long break from training was a good move. The fact we’re going through WAY fewer diapers is fantastic too. I mean, just two diapers per day? That’s pretty awesome. I wrote “diapers” on the Costco list then crossed it out. We’re just not going through enough of them to justify buying 200 more! Happy sigh.
So, things are the same as a few days ago, really, but just a little better. Having another set of hands around the house (Mums) has been swell, especially with the time-consuming fuss that Charlotte’s potty breaks require. On Saturday, we’re going to go apple picking one more time (hey, different apple varieties are available!), so Nana can watch Charlotte run around the farm. (Again, the farm is about 5 minutes away. It’s not an all-day event for us country bumpkins.) We’re also hosting fellowship hour at the church this Sunday, so I have back-up for baking and such. And, well, having the beds magically made every day and the dishwasher run and unloaded by the time we get home from work, not to mention dinner started, makes the daily grind a lot easier too. It frees up time for me to get lunches made, potty accident laundry moving, and cars unloaded so much faster. The result? We go to bed earlier. And that, my friends, is crucial right now. Mommy is exhausted.
When your extended family lives on the opposite coast, you don’t realize the daily load your tiny family carries each day solo—until someone else starts taking on bits and pieces of that load. You know? I mean, having my mom simply handle Charlotte’s bath just once freed me up to get about dozen other items DONE.
Mums arriving earlier than planned is also giving Charlotte some Nana time before her little sister absorbs a lot of the spotlight. Charlotte loves the novelty of having a new person here to dote on her, and yesterday, she marched into Nana’s bedroom, shouting, “Nana, wake up!” Um, little girl? Nana might still be on West Coast time.
So, after last weekend’s unexpected hoopla that hijacked what I feared would be my last chance to get some good Charlotte time pre-Lorelei, it looks like I’m being given a second shot to happily hang out with my girl.
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