Potty Partay!

So I bought Cooper a potty when he was about 18 months old. Everything I have always read said that is the earliest a child will be ready for potty training. We didn't do anything with it, just put it next to our potty and were able to relay its purpose with various books. I started inviting him with me when I went so he could get used to the idea. 

He was really interested at first. In fact, he kept diapers dry for a whole weekend. But at the time, he was in a classroom that wasn't focusing on potty training and to be completely honest, I am not sure I would've gotten the partnership necessary for being quite successful, plus he was really young.

We stopped for the most part after that. If you have ever read anything about potty training, although there are many different theories and ways to be successful, every single one stresses the importance of keeping it exciting and not putting ANY pressure on the child. It just wasn't Cooper's time. He ended up getting really sick after that so it actually worked out for the best. It would've been pretty difficult potty training in a hospital room hooked up to machines all the time.

Fast forward 8 months...

Last Thursday, Cooper woke up dry. After 9 hours of sleep, he was completely dry. I started jumping and cheering and dancing so he of course followed suit. We raced to the potty and he went! We called Daddy (he was out of town for work) and told him what happened. Daddy knew just what to do so Coop would stay excited. We went to work and told all of mommy's friends the good news, everyone did exactly as they should. Coop was glowing! 

Over the past several weeks, Coop started showing all the signs. He was waking up from nap dry almost every day and only going in his diaper 4-6 times each day, sometimes lasting 4 hours in between. It just so happened, this weekend we had no plans so it seemed like this was the time.

That day, I talked to his teacher about coming up with a plan and really encouraging him to sit every diaper change. Coop only wet 3 diapers during school that day. As soon as we got home he went in his potty!

Friday, I brought some potty treats and a potty chart for his teacher. Together they had a mini potty party, hung up his chart in the bathroom and talked about the treats. He sat on the potty but it was clear to his teacher that the potty was a little scary. She said he acted like he might fall in and suggested I bring an insert for it.

Friday after school, Rick and I took Coop to target to pick out his potty seat. He was pretty excited and upon arrival home carried it all around the house. We pulled out the underwear we had gotten back in February, showed them to Coop, hung up his potty chart and checked out the potty treats. We talked about how tomorrow was going to start our Potty Partay No Pants Day! Needless to say Coop was excited.

So I guess I should get to the theory. The theory is the 3 day potty training method. We varied ours a little, shortening it to 2 days instead of 3 official days being that Coop had 2 successful days of "holding it" at school. We also didn't stay completely naked. Saturday morning Coop was really sad after he WENT POTTY that he couldn't put a diaper on so we had to make a minor adjustment. I whipped out his rock star elmo underwear and suggested we put the diapers away for good and wear his big boy pants instead. Thankfully, Coop was excited and that was that.

Over the course of Saturday, Coop had 1 #1 accident and 1 #2 accident. Both were back to back and in the morning. During his #1 accident I thought he was going to cry because he hated it on his legs and feet and underwear. (This being a good sign to his momma!) He stayed dry, going in the potty every time until bedtime. Right before bed, he had another very small accident during story time, in fact I am wondering if he started to go and then stopped because it was so little. Not too shabby for Day #1!

After polling other moms, we were unsure what to do for the night. He stayed dry during nap, but as I mentioned before he has been dry after nap for weeks. We got some waterproof training pants meant to go over Coop's underwear but he HATED them, and I really can't blame him, they are awful. We opted for continuing with the underwear and just used a mattress protector that snapped to his bed rails. 

Coop was SOAKED when he woke up. We cut off liquids around 7pm and he went right before bedtime which is usually 8:30pm. Rick and I quickly agreed we would be going with night time pullups for awhile.

Today, I was super nervous. I have heard that others who have tried this were met with insane resistance the 2nd day. I really had no idea what to expect and honestly was exhausted from being excited about peepee all day the day prior but Coop did wonderfully. He started to tell us when his 15 minute alarm went off no potty mommy. When he actually had to go he would get really excited and race to the potty.

Today, Coop had 1 #2 accident. But ALL of his peepee ended up in the potty. Even after he got his pjs and "nighttime pants" as we are calling them, he went 2 more times before he actually went to sleep. Halfway through today, he would go to the potty and wouldn't even ask for his sticker or treat. We had to remind him and his response was "oh, yeah sure!" like it really wasn't that important.

Throughout the day, Rick and I just kept looking at each other, like is this really happening? I was pretty confident he was ready going into this weekend, but I really had NO IDEA it would go so well.

Thankfully, I warned his teacher last week that if this weekend went well, I would be packing him a basket full of laundry and underwear and we would be going cold turkey. She was totally on board so that definitely helped with our momentum this weekend.

So we said bye bye diapers. We will see them again when the new baby joins us. And hopefully that is far enough away that Cooper won't revert back when the baby comes, but we know that is definitely a possibility.

Don't get me wrong. Coop isn't 100% potty trained. He hasn't gone #2 in the potty since February. And I am sure we will have some accidents tomorrow and the next day and probably over the next several weeks. But all of the success stories I have heard and witnessed were cold turkey, so here we go.

So here we are about to embark on the school week. I am super nervous but as everyone is reminding me, he is super cooper, he will rock it out!

I want to point out we didn't really do anything special. Cooper was ready, and we are just responding to the signs he was sending us. I do know that window of potty opportunity can come and go (I have potty trained a few 4 year olds in my day) and we wanted to give it a shot. Just like we let it go when he showed us signs he wasn't quite ready back in February. Wish us luck! The work is far from over! :)

[Other variations: We didn't leave the house at all on Saturday. We did take him outside Sunday afternoon in the backyard, but the deal was he had to go potty first. This is supposed to teach them to pee on command,and associating the importance of peeing before leaving the house.

We also let him wear pants over his underwear on day 2. He is going to have to wear pants to school. We opted for sweatpants. I only packed him pants that don't need to button for school tomorrow, and he may live in those for the next few weeks, which is totally fine with me. 

And by no means are we going to follow that part about keeping him naked for the first 3 months following this weekend. I am pretty sure the moms of his classmates wouldn't appreciate that.]

30 Days of Thanks

I am participating in the 30 days of thanks this year. My goal is to try to be on a deeper level than listing off 30 things/people I am thankful for but truly finding the best thing about the day. My hope is that it will help me to do this everyday even if the date doesn't start with November. 

Don't get my wrong, I would call myself a grateful person. I use my manners, tell people when they do or say things that mean something to me and even help Cooper list all the people we love each night before bed. but lately with all the things that have happened recently, and my raging pregnancy hormones, maintaining a positive upbeat attitude hasn't come as easily as I would like. Participating in the 30 days of thanks can only help with that. 

So here goes...

November 1st: Today, I am thankful for my season tickets to VCU Basketball. I am so grateful to be able to raise cooper around something I LOVED growing up around. Some of my earliest memories are of ordering roy rodgers and shirley temples at the presidents club with our homemade vcu sweatshirts... and getting candy at 6th street to take into the game. Thank you mom and dad! 

November 2nd: My son's jibberish... It reminds me to be patient, take my time and listen to every sound. What he is saying is as important as he thinks it is because he is really just 2 and its not fair to expect him to be anything but 2.

November 3rd: Today, I am most thankful for ability to spend the entire day with my son. I am so lucky to have a husband to pick up the chores so that I am able to give Coop my undivided attention for potty. I feel like I know Coop better than I did yesterday and no matter whether our potty party is successful or not (although it happens to be going wonderfully), that makes the day totally worth it.

November 4th: Today, I am most thankful for the love my husband has for our son. Listening to rick cheer for coop in the potty after naptime makes me smile. I'm laying in bed now listening to him and cooper play in the backyard and you don't have to know rick to know he's having as much fun as coop. I know he cares so deeply about coop and he will do whatever it takes to be a good dad. I am so excited to see him with our #2.

Coop's School Pictures!

It's official (if it wasn't already!) I am that mom. Yes, that mom.

Ya know the one that cries at everything... (which I can blame on the pregnancy now but what was my excuse 15 weeks ago?) and thinks her kid is the cutest. boy. ever. EVER.

Oh, I said it. I swore I wouldn't be that mom but clearly I can't control it.

So, first you need to go check out his unbelievably amazing school pictures here...
[Go to Orange Room, type the password: oisfororange AND enter your email address to view. If you don't know which one is my kid, you probably shouldn't be purchasing them anyway:]

And then you should probably go to the photographer's website, Carmen Doherty Photography and BOOK HER! Because lets be honest, every single picture posted is pretty amazing (Yeah, even that mom, this mom is admitting it ain't all my kid!).

While you are at it, you are welcome to purchase photos, although if you are related to us, obviously I will supply photos like I do every year and perhaps even a holiday card if I am feeling like an overachiever this year... we shall see.. 

So yeah, I am that mom and although I am not proud of that fact all the time, I sure am stoked on my son in all his rockstar cuteness and that really is all that matters.

Cooperisms!

I know I am a true slacker. I owe posts on how my son went from pneumonia to airway exploration tests to surgery. I owe a post on how my son grew over an inch in 8 weeks because he actually had oxygen moving to all of his cells. And I definitely owe more than one post on how we are preparing to welcome another rice baby in April. But, right now I need to tell a few stories before the hilariousness (oh its a word when you have a 2 year old) is lost. I must preserve these wonderful memories so we can revisit them later.

Cooperism #1
Cooper walks into the den with his face buried in the opening of his rainboot shouting "Oops!" Moments later I realized he is also saying "Silly Turkey!" And then it clicked. He was acting out his favorite book: Blue Hat, Green Hat. Silly Cooper! (You can watch a version here.)

Cooperism #2
Cooper: Grabs hammer and starts pounding daddy's foot.
Daddy: What are you doing?!
Cooper: I fix it! And points to the booboo on daddy's foot.
Daddy: Well, okay!

Cooperism #3
Cooper walks into the den and he has soap all over his hands up to his elbows. Once Rick realizes, he tells Coop that they need to wash it off. After Cooper is all cleaned up, they walk back through the living room and Coop's trike is in the middle of the room COVERED in soap. Next to it sits a wet wad of toilet paper and a bowl of water.
Cooper: BATH!

Cooperism #4
sidenote: If you haven't heard this story in person, consider yourself jipped. I am pretty sure I have cried laughing every time I have told it.
We walk into the grocery cart to get a few things. Coop wants to push the kid size grocery cart. I shop a little on my own and when I catch up, I see Cooper staring at his Daddy in the household aisle. When Rick turns his back, Cooper grabs something off the shelf and throws it into the cart. I realized he is being sneaky and walk over to the cart.
Me: Uh, Rick, what do we need duct tape for?
Rick: Uh, I didn't get any duct tape...
Me: Well what about this 20 pack of tupperware?
Rick: Yep, no that wasn't me.
Me: And the gallon of dishsoap?
Rick: Immediate laughter as he realizes what Cooper has been up to.
Me: So I am going to guess the giant bottle of febreeze isn't ours either...
Laughter so intense I can barely stand up as Cooper stares at me as he realizes his plan is foiled. All I can think of is Fight Club and my son is the next bomb maker.
When we finally make it to the checkout, we unload Coop's cart and we find a single banana, realizing his sneakiness began at the beginning of our shopping trip. This is by far the funniest Cooperism yet.

a happy hospital birthday part 2

So I never finished the updates from the hospital. Friday night went great. Coop slept through all of his nurse visits throughout the night without even waking up. He woke up at about 4am but then we fell back to sleep in the big chair until 8am.

Saturday was also great. Cooper was definitely himself, in fact it was very hard keeping him in one place even with the millions of cords and oxygen he was hooked up to. His chest xray showed a lot of improvement, the best one yet. By 4pm they had turned his oxygen down enough that they were ready to start our 24 hour window. He had to keep the nasal piece on just in case something happened overnight but everyone was feeling very confident.

I don't think I mentioned this before but the pediatric pulmonary specialist we have been seeing, Dr. Elliott, stopped by every day. In fact, he followed Cooper's progress throughout each day via phone with the intensivist while he was managing his practice. We saw him by dinner time each night and even on Saturday, he and his CPNP came by for a visit. It made me feel a lot better knowing there was at least one person consistent, especially the person who had promised to figure out what in the world is going on with Cooper's respiratory system. Throughout our stay, he was convinced it was time to do an exploration of Cooper's airways via Bronchoscope. As scary as anesthesia can be, with this being our 2nd stay totally 6 days, I was very ready to take this step. I wanted to find out what was going on just as bad as the doctor did. He played around with the idea of maybe trying to get an OR for Labor Day. He said he was a little concerned that Cooper's "well" was what we were seeing. He was concerned that Cooper may not get "better" in the usual sense of the word and we would need to weigh the risks. We discussed all different kinds of things that could be wrong as I mentioned in a previous post. But for this pneumonia to cause this much trouble was definitely concerning. It suggested there was something bigger going on.

Cooper's progress over the next 24 hours was unbelievable. Saturday evening, they unhooked him enough to leave his room and take a little wagon ride around the PICU. By Sunday, morning I was begging the nurses to unhook him from everything so he could move around. Turns out they were so impressed with his progress they wanted to discharge him. Watching him really walk for the first time was definitely hard. He wobbled on his tiny legs he hadn't used in days. But walking I have learned, is like riding a bike.

Dr. Elliott decided to keep our original appointments for Tuesday (follow up chest xray and cystic fibrosis sweat test...which was NEGATIVE, by the way!) and we would schedule the bronchoscope (which will be this coming Tuesday) following that appointment. It was obvious Cooper was going to beat this pneumonia and everyone was more comfortable with anesthesia if Coop was as healthy as possible.

I can't even begin to say how thankful we are for the PICU nurses. I felt like they were in this with us the whole time. We had 2 nurses that were mediocre but I think they only stood out because everyone else was so amazing. Each day/night different nurses were assigned to different patients, even the nurses that weren't assigned to us would stop by and say hello or check to see how Coop was feeling. It was pretty amazing. I wish that everyone who ever has to stay in a hospital is blessed with nurses like them.

Coop Update

I suppose I should write an update since we are going on Day 3 in the hospital.

Wednesday morning, Cooper started coughing in his classroom uncontrollably. Our nurse brought him straight to me and through a blur of tears and coughing, we decided he needed to go to the hospital. My friends from work gathered our things and organized my friend Lauren to leave her classroom to drive us to St. Mary's. I called our pediatrician and asked them to let the ER know we were en route so we could skip the line. She told us to pull over and call an ambulance. When the ambulance got there he was still coughing (this is going on 30 minutes straight). His pulsox was 87 so they started some oxygen and a neb on the way.

In the ER, his chest xray looked slightly worse than the one a week prior. They decided his stats were too low and his breathing too labored to release him and admitted him to the picu, although he is considered a step down from needing to be in intensive care.

Wednesday Night, Coop did great. He slept and played and was happy. Thursday, the coughing fits started again. Some were definitely worse than others. They had us all ready to be discharged and then he started a fit like the one that got us here and it was a collective decision we shouldn't go home. Shortly after that, the amazing St. Mary's nurses brought Coop a mini toddler sized cake, complete with a candle as well as a card and present to unwrap. Coop and Rick and one of the Pastors from our church were playing and talking and all of a sudden Cooper stopped breathing. After about 5 seconds he was able to cough but it was the scariest thing I have ever seen.

The fits continued. They did another chest xray and results showed much improvement from the last 2. Dr. Elliott, our lung guy, came to visit. He talked about a bunch of different theories but ultimately decided to do albuterol 3x daily with chest phisotherapy to try and break up the mucus.

Last night at about 1pm, another fit started. Coop's stats dropped to the point they thought his pulsox was bad. They switched it out but his stats were the same. That was when Coop's case switched from the house pediatrician with some communication to Dr. Elliott to the intensivist, Dr. Dylan and Dr. Elliott calling all the shots.

They ordered another Xray, another round of breathing treatment and oxygen via nose. The xray showed no change from the last but his phyiscal exam they heard wheezing in his right lung and is still coarse in both.

He has been able to sleep some since all of that and we are praying the worst is over. We appreciate all the support we are getting from everyone.

Sayonara, Gallbladder!

Unfortunately, Cooper is not the only one being passed from doctor to doctor with no answers. Thankfully, my answers did come, they just weren't what I wanted to hear.

Back in June I had my IUD removed. 24 hours later, I was in some serious pain. I called my OB and of course they wanted to see me that day. After some tests and an ultrasound, they said everything look great, set up a follow up with a GI doctor and off I went.

24 hours after that my abdomen was so bloated I looked 3 months pregnant. I had so much pain in my stomach, I could barely think straight. I went to Patient First after work that day only to be sent to the ER. After a catscan and several blood tests, they said everything looked perfect, gave me a pain medication prescription, said I should keep that appointment with the GI doctor and sent me on my way. To say I was frustrated, is an understantment. 

Finally, in July, it was time to meet with the GI doctor. After a TON of questions, and some tapping on my abdoment. Dr. Mitchell concludedhe thinks I may have gallbladder stones or something else wrong with my gallbladder. I was sent to have an ultrasound, which came back normal. Then I was sent for a HIDA Scan. (I should probably mention how much I Googled all of this gallbladder stuff, this was obviously pre-Dr. Elliott's Googling hex.) A HIDA Scan is performed by a nuclear scientiest (scary right) where they inject a radioactive tracer into your blood and for 2 hours monitor your digestive systems function through a catscan type machine. I watched as my liver took the liquid and move it through to my gallbladder (I think I feel asleep at that point.) They also do a 2nd test where they inject a substance that emulates a fatty meal, that test was pretty painful.

Two days pass and Dr. Mitchell, not his nurse, calls to let me know my gallbladder is extremely low functioning and needs to be removed and referred me to the Richmond Surgical Group. So although my answer came pretty quick, I am not exactly happy with it. 
What's crazy about it, is that I have had pain like this my entire life, it had just never been enough to interrupt my life. I can remember being pregnant with Cooper and thinking it was weird how his feet always wedged under my right ribs, but really that was my gallbladder the whole time. So I am not happy, but I am sure my life will be much better without it.

I have my consultation October 8th. In the meantime, I am on a no-fat, caffeine-free diet, which is way harder than I ever imagined. But so far, I have noticed a huge difference in the pain. So I am not happy with my answer but I am sure my life will be much better without it. Sayonara, Gallbladder, I don't really need you anyway!

(image source)