A Big Day for Laura!

Laura had ZERO accidents today! I think she has got this potty training thing down. She runs around all day in just her shirt and whenever she needs to go, she runs into the bathroom and climbs up on the big toilet (she doesn't like to use her own toilet). She doesn't tell me she needs help and if I don't hear her in there, she will just finish and climb down and start playing again. She doesn't act like it is a big deal at all. I stopped giving her a treat each time she went because she didn't expect one and acted surprised when she got it.
I feel like that was way too easy. We will see if she keeps it up. The next big steps are going to be 1)Getting her to wear pants during the day and 2) Taking her out of the house with out a diaper. This last one really scares me because she doesn't ever tell me when she needs to go. She just takes care of it herself. So I don't know what we will do if we are in a store and she can't run to the bathroom by herself. I think we might give it another week before we take her out with out a diaper.

I feel like my little baby is growing up into a big girl. I'm not sure I want her to grow up this fast!

I made her this little dress out of one of my old sweaters. Doesn't she look so sweet? She is starting to get a little bit of hair. Just enough for me to give her pigtails.

A Long Day

For those who thought that potty training was going way too easy for me, you will be happy to hear that today didn't go well at all. The singing toilet remained quiet all day- we had 3 accidents and 0 successes! I think Laura has decided that it is no longer fun to sit on her toilet.

I am going to give it one more day. If I don't see a little bit of improvement tomorrow, I think we will pack the singing potty away for a few more months.

Potty Training Update

Laura had 4 successes and 2 accidents today. I think she is doing pretty well. I don't have to tell her to go, she just runs in there and does her thing. Good thing her toilet plays music when she goes so I know I need to come in and help her finish up.

I don't know how people with carpet do this. It would be a lot harder and a lot messier. Hard wood floors are awesome for potty training.

Laura- 20 months

Yesterday, Laura surprised us by going potty in the toilet all by herself!

For the last couple of weeks, her favorite thing to do is take off her diaper and run around the house yelling "pee pee" and then climbing up on the toilet. Since she has such a little bum she had to be creative in how to sit on such a big seat. So this is what she came up with:
After a couple of seconds of sitting in this position, she will yell "all done" and climb back off. I figured since she had no idea she was supposed to do anything while she was on the toilet potty training was still months away. Plus, she is still my little baby, not a big girl. But yesterday, while running around the house with her diaper off, I saw her start peeing on the floor. I went over and told her that was yucky and that we only do that in the toilet. While I was cleaning up the puddle, Laura ran into the bathroom, climbed up on the toilet and finished the job. Does this mean she is ready to start potty training?

After talking to my sisters who are experienced in potty training, I figured I would give it a try. I went and bought a pink potty and pink panties at Target. (Don't you love buying pink stuff for little girls?) Laura looks so cute in her big girl panties, I figured she didn't need to wear any other clothes. Plus, more clothes means more washing for the accidents I know are bound to happen. And it is always a fight to keep Laura in clothes anyways, since she is constantly yelling "off' and trying to remove them.

We officially started potty training 3:00 this afternoon. Laura loves her potty and hates her panties which means she has been running around naked for the last few hours and has spent quite a bit of the time sitting and playing with her potty. So far, we have had 3 successes and 1 accident. Not too bad for the first day.

I still think she is way too young to learn, but I figure it can't hurt to try.

I took her in to the doctor today because she has an eye infection and has not been sleeping well the last week. Sure enough, she has an ear infection as well. Poor thing. No wonder we were up all night last night.

Laura is so much fun these days and I love staying home with her all day. She is repeating everything she hears and is constantly amazing me with how smart she is. I love this age!

She is still loving her play kitchen. I just wish she loved to clean up all the pieces as much as she loves taking them all out.

Laura's First Birthday Party

Laura got invited to attend her first birthday party. The theme was "pink." I dressed her up in the cutest little pink outfit and she looked so cute with the little girl's present in her hand as she walked into the party. She was the youngest one there and Stacy, the mother of the birthday girl, told me she spent more time in the girl's bedroom playing with her toys than she did with the older girls doing the party games and activities. She especially loved the pink cake and icecream.

Our Baby

A week before Christmas, Peter and I went in for our 18 week ultrasound to find out the sex of our baby. The doctor found some serious abnormalities in the ultrasound and recommended that we do an amniocentesis to find out more information. A few days later we received the difficult news that our little girl has trisomy 13.

Trisomy 13 is condition in which the baby ends up with an extra chromosome 13, which is similar to down syndrome where the child has an extra chromosome 21. However, the extra 13 chromosome is much more serious and in most cases, as the nurse told us, is incompatible with life. Eighty percent of babies born with trisomy 13 die within the first month and the rest rarely live past a year. We have an appointment next week to meet with a heart specialist who will do an ultrasound of our baby's heart, the most serious defect, and help us better prepare for what to expect for our little girl.

It is obviously not what we were expecting, but we are grateful to learn the news ahead of time so we can appreciate each day of pregnancy as precious time we get to spend with our little girl as part of our family.

Thank you for all your prayers, love and support. We are doing fine. It is hard to be sad or depressed when I spend my days taking care of our beautiful, healthy daughter who is constantly reminding me how alive (and busy) she is! And I have the most wonderful husband in the world. We are grateful that God is giving us this special baby girl and hope that we can spend a little bit of time with her before He takes her home.



21 Weeks Pregnant with Daughter #2