Baby Girl Update

I wanted to give an update on mine and Riley's progress. Over the past three to four weeks I have been having very painful contractions in the evenings that come and go, but stop after I get completely still. I shared this news with my doctor this past Wednesday when I went in for my check-up and she was a bit concerned. It turns out I was already dilated 1cm. (which apparently isn't uncommon for a second pregnancy) at 31 weeks and 4 days. I have an ultrasound coming up in less that two weeks where they can get a better look at what's going on. The doctor says that everything looks alright, but that doesn't mean things can't change very quickly. At this point, if there were enough contractions to send me to the hospital they would do everything they can to stop labor until I pass 34 weeks (which is Labor Day weekend). Beyond Labor Day (no pun intended), she is alright with the baby being delivered. Really all this doesn't mean anything because Miss Riley is going to come whenever it is "her time". The main thing we learned for all this is that I need to take it easy for the next two weeks. After the ultrasound, hopefully we'll know more about what's going on and have a better idea of when to truly expect our precious arrival!! I'll post more information as I have it.

Adventures in Potty Training

Well, we survived... sorta! We decided to try the famous "3 Day Potty Training" method that was recommended to me by several moms. Friday morning we got up and started the day by throwing all the diapers away and moving to "big boy underwear". Ben had a few accidents before lunchtime, but by noon he was not only telling me he needed to go, but making it to the potty and "keeping his underwear dry". If I have learned anything about parenting, anything that seems too simple is probably not over yet! Jason came home from work early that day and once Daddy was here to distract from the process accidents began to happen sporadically. Late Friday afternoon I started getting a tickle in my throat and a headache (more to come on that). Friday night he went to bed, we tried underwear, woke him up an hour after going to be and got him to go potty, put him back down, but he still had a rough night with a few accidents. All in all, Friday was a pretty successful day, especially for the very first day.... then came Saturday.

Saturday was an absolute disaster. I woke up feeling like absolute poo. I had some sort of upper-respiratory infection. Needless to say, I was not quite as ready to go on Saturday morning. By Ben's naptime (early afternoon) he had been through twice as many pairs of underwear in half the time of Friday's events. We put him down for a nap and in an attempt to feel a bit better I got in the bathtub while Jason ran to the store. I had been out of the tub for no more than two minutes and a three foot tall critter appeared in the bathroom doorway (talk about sending a pregnant woman into labor). The little monkey learned how to climb out of his crib on day two of potty training. (Mind you, I had just ordered a second crib for the baby four days earlier.) So, as you can imagine, Saturday continued in the downward spiral that was already in motion. I had no energy to run Ben to the potty and felt completely drained. By bedtime Saturday night I was having painful contractions that were bad enough we were timing them and I had to lay in bed completely still to get them to stop. Talk about drama!!

Sunday morning we were woken up by Ben (who climbed out of his bed on his own). We spent Sunday continuing potty training, which for some reason just came back to Ben like no big deal. No accidents, no problems. We converted his bed into a toddler bed and it was like he literally grew up in 24 hours. No diapers... no crib. By Sunday night all was quiet on the Evans front. Ben was using the potty like a pro, contractions stopped, I sounded terrible, but felt better and our three days of terror was over.

It's funny, all the transitions in Ben's life that I worry about so much go over like no big deal. I was so worried about moving him into a "big boy bed" and he did it all on his own with no problems. Why he had to do it on the same weekend as potty training, I guess God was ripping the band-aid off for me.

I only have one picture from the weekend of terror that I plan to put on here, but if I don't at least I have documented our 'exciting' weekend!!

Here is our weekend summed up in one picture!