In our experience compared to others we've found that it is MUCH easier to teach a baby (18-23 months) than it is the 2.5-3yo crowd. We have a just turned 3yo and I could see her being willful about this though she would understand perfectly. I don't know how I'd handle that so I'm not much use to you....

I don't think it was me as I can't remember posting about potty training lately. But I can tell you our "method" of potty training changed significantly after I read the potty training in a day thing. We did "normal" potty training with our oldest two as soon as they turned two. With Elizabeth I used elimination communication techniques (just a smidge) when she was 15/16 months to name her bowel habits. We had great success with that and she was fully trained to potty "on command" by 18 months and could be reliably left in underwear at that point. We came to find out she was just easy peasy. :) Becca's potty training didn't go so well, but part of that was just her food/behaviour stuff and part of it was she is easily sidetracked, so though trained by her second birthday, she did have an accident almost every day for a long while. I read the book with Tim. There is an actual book, an old one, and it does work. It is the difference between training to potty and training HOW to potty. :) There is a HUGE difference between those two and I never realized it. For example, with my oldest children I trained them to successfully hold it until Mama took them potty. Now I do it entirely differently and not TOTALLY according to the book, but an even less painful way. Once they get to about the right age, and can do word association, you can teach them what "pee pee" and "poo" means without effort. 1. Every time you see them go poo, name it. "Poop? You're going poop? Okay, good girl, let's change your poop." It's as simple as that. 2. I put the potty chair in the bathtub and anytime I notice she's dry when I expect her to be wet, I sit her on the potty and let warm water run over her feet. It's instinctive and they can't hold it. They pee. We name it. "Good girl!! You went pee! Pee!" This is a long term goal for me. The first few weeks, I use the water. When I think they're getting it, I stop the water but keep the potty in the same place. After they are successful at just peeing on the word, then I can move the potty to a convenient place. It's NEVER a sit until you go type of a thing. If they go, great. If they don't, oh well. I may not do it every day. I DEFINITELY don't do it often. I'm just trying to build a word association. A "key" word. That's all. They're about 17-18 months at this point. (With Elizabeth she was 15/16 months.) I do this on OCCASION. This is NOT potty learning. This is simply teaching them word association. There are those that will then want to use the potty for pottying once they understand the connection/praise thing. Then, once you have that word association thing down cold, you're set, just pick a day. You'll know because they'll begin telling you when they are pooping. They may or may not use the word, but you'll hear a grunt and a point, or they'll show you, or something. Generally if you're quick on your feet in the AM, they'll start staying dry at night. So, you've picked your day. Now what? 1. The day before stock up on apple juice. (This should be a treat, not the norm. They should be totally used to water in their cup so this is a big deal.) 2. Pick up something or somethings salty. The goal? Feed the child salt, make it thirsty, give it a lot to drink, make it pee. The more opportunities, the better the training. :D ONLY put on underwear, NO diapers. *Make this a day (or two really) when you are NOT multi-tasking. This is your priority. Your only priority. Give it the importance it deserves and you won't turn it into a two week job. Your goal today is not simply to place your baby on the potty and have them pee. That is not success. If you do this you are doing the same thing I did and training the child to potty on command. It's a definite plus over diapers, but it's not where you want to be. Where YOU want to be is with the child taking himself/herself potty. So, you have them go potty on the potty, praise. That's enough for the first time. But then you need to have them walk themselves to the potty. No carrying, no hand-holding. You have THEM take off their underwear. (This is why pants aren't so great for a little while, or if you do easy up/down pants.) You don't sit them on the potty, they sit on the potty themselves. Then they go, praise. If you have enough fluids in them, this works remarkably fast. You'll take them about every 15 minutes. If they go, wait another 15-20 minutes. If they don't - only wait 5-10. Don't make sitting on the potty a chore. It's fun. They don't sit until they go. They sit for a short bit, telling key word association that they understand to be the relaxing of muscles. If it doesn't work, then wait five and repeat. Accidents happen. If you're doing this when they are 18-23 months accidents just WILL happen. The sooner you accept that, the better. My son Tim was about 22 months. He really didn't have accidents, he really did potty train in about one day. It was great. Rebecca DID have accidents. Often. She is like me, easily sidetracked, and we'd have an accident (potty) about 3-5 times a week. It happens. Abigail had accidents 1-2 times a week. Sarah was pretty much potty trained once she was potty trained with an accident on rare occasion. Daniella is 18 months on the 20th. She is showing definite awareness of being wet - grabbing her bottom when she goes pee, trying to take off her diaper, etc. She's ready, I'm just not. :D We expect the new baby sometime this month and I'm just not up for it right now. *I need to add that my children are in cloth diapers. This creates a LOT of awareness of wetness that your average child may or may not have. It may still work just as smoothly but I've not tested it. :) This is the book we read: by Azrin He goes into more detail, using a doll as an example for the child, etc. We never did use a doll. He doesn't do the word association thing. We picked that up from the Elimination Communication crowd.

We don't drink black tea. We blend herbs based on their nutritional profile and use it as our multi-vitamins. I use tea as a prenatal - Red Raspberry Leaf & Nettles being VITAL to my iron and folate intake. Tea is ready assimilated by the body with the nutrients in it being so well absorbed. That said, bottled "tea" (like the Lipton green STUFF) is awful for you. It's still full of HFCS. But then again, those of us who define tea wouldn't DARE call it tea. That stuff IS the same as soda. And I consider soda incredibly nasty for you.

Currently: What is a Family? - Edith Schaeffer The Core - Leigh Bortins Knit Picks magazine

I think this could pay rent every month.........

It's adorable. Oldest - Pacifier baby turned thumbsucker when we took it away. DS - Same DD - Neither DD - Neither DS - Thumbsucker (Extreme) DD - Thumbsucker DD - Thumbsucker (Only at bedtime) DD - Thumbsucker Two of them we saw sucking thumbs en utero. :lol: We suspect that's what we saw on one of the current baby's US too. DH & I suspect the high suck need is inherited - both of us were thumbsuckers as well. Thumbsucking is just as "breakable" of a habit as a pacifier. None of my children have had less than perfectly shaped teeth so far, DH actually has an underbite, but I DO have an overbite. I will say this - when Sarah Elaine was born and she was a fussy baby I prayed and prayed that she'd find that thumb. A huge sigh of relief over beginning to suck her thumb. Thumbsuckers DO make for happy, peaceful, sweet babies. :D

Loved it. I don't think our family would fit in that one, lol, but I'd ADORE downsizing... by a lot. 18 months ago we moved from a small house. We loved that old farmhouse. It forced us to get rid of "stuff." We moved to a really big house, thinking we'd love the room. :glare: We don't. And like she said, it's a LOT to maintain. Plus, the stuff? I think it breeds in the closet.

That was an awesome list... So many of the names we've considered. Hadassah is my first choice pick. We even watched One Night with the King in hopes of inspiring love for that name. It was a no-go. It was SO vetoed, lol. Eva is a name I like - too short for DH. Offered Evalyn, but nope. Lydia WAS in my top three. No go. Serena was suggested (as he would like the middle name Serena or Serenity) and Serena Isabelle would be survivable for me. We really are at a hurdle. My list of names are about five long right now... His list? One. We HAD lists - five names each but he has slowly grown to not like those names so much and fell in love. Sigh. I love Michaela. And one of my top picks is Mikaiah. DH has mentioned Michaela before... So far we are at an impasse. I have said, out loud, and maybe with a little regret, that if he absolutely HAS to have that name, he can have it. Part of me truly, truly means it. The other part of me hopes in a horrible, manipulative, and very WRONG sort of way, that my willingness to give will equate to him NOT using that name. So, so, so, very wrong. First choice of the day? Juliana I think.

Bwa Ha Ha... Um, no. The meaning *I* have found for Rebecca is captivating. Perhaps that's the same, but the sound of "captivating" is so lovely! :D

The understatement of the year for us. :glare: Sigh. (We expect the baby around the 20th.... Of THIS month. No name yet.) Georgia sounds nice. We have a little girl with the middle name Faith - Abigail Faith. :)

Frankly? How much does your husband hate his mother that he would consciously go behind her back and do something he knows she wouldn't allow? I haven't read the other comments, so I'll just go out on my own. The CHILD is 14. The MOTHER has the right to make these decisions. It reallly doesn't matter if you agree with them on a sliding scale (Twilight vs. Potter) or not. It's her child, it's her call. Moreover, my feelings on Harry Potter aside, and yes I DID indeed read them in order to make my decision on whether or not our children could read them, I can tell you that giving a child of mine contraband items would absolutely insure limited contact. If he loves his sister and she loves him and he takes that relationship very seriously then planting this root of sneaking things by Mom isn't something a responsible adult not only applauds but actually introduces.

We rent on hardwood floors. Our dog has been trained to be in the house on a 5x7 rug on the floor. He doesn't move from that location. Ever. He was an outdoor dog before this but the massive amounts of rain here, we felt horribly sorry for him. We had to pay an additional pet deposit for him. If our dog can be trained to do this and to stay off the floors I would think a search and rescue dog certainly could. That said, you'd have to trust that these people would obey the rules as you've specified. And you might really want to consider an "interim" visit in about 3-6 months to make sure - planned, but you could at least tell if a dog's nails were ruining the floors.

So, if I'm remembering a previous post correctly, I'm wondering how many puppies she had? :lurk5:

Praying! Our time in the NICU was very hard. That little one will be in my thoughts and prayers.

ETA: I'm a dork and didn't read the whole post. :blushing: I like prefolds. I LOVE prefolds. After diapering babies since 2000 pretty much constantly I've made my way back to prefolds. That said... Making some fitted diapers for the newborn stage is GREAT. Because, bf baby poo is very leaky. And when you aren't using a fitted diaper cover you'll end up with poo all over your wool. Wool is my hands down, absolute favorite, first choice bar none, cover option. :D You CAN make fitted wool covers. The catch 22 is that wool must be washed when soiled with poo and then takes a bit to dry so fitted newborn diapers are so great. I'm actually sewing a bunch this afternoon for our new baby. (At garage sales watch for knit baby blankets. Often they are two sided and you can pick them up for a little bit of nothing with cute prints for the outside part of the diapers.) I will switch to prefolds, but I really like to contain the poo when they're itsy bitsy. And honestly? I'm not a fan of fitteds, for a lot of reasons... Except when they are newborns. :lol: They get changed SO often when they are little I've found that I like to do a simple 2-3 layer fitted and then do a lay in doubler. Then they dry super fast but you don't need a lot of absorbancy when they are little. You will find with wool you have fewer leaks too. Seriously, if you have wool on hand (look on Ravelry under soakers or longies) and/or thrift store sweaters, you are SO blessed. You can't buy a better cover than wool. (I'm such an addict.) I know a little bit of nothing about flats but I adore my prefolds and my diaper stash. :) (We used disposables on Ella this week because I bought a pack to go camping last weekend... I've had three leaks so far and one of them was poop. I have more disposables left to the package. I think they'll just sit there until I'm in the hospital HAVING the baby. Truly, I prefer cloth.)

At about $2.50 per diaper, I'm not sure you could find flats a whole lot cheaper? But you know, since you said you can sew, you might want to check out this link: Free Patterns: http://handmadebyrita.blogspot.com/ Diaper Sewing Forums for all questions: http://diaperdivas.proboards.com/ I think there are better patterns out here than these but it's a GREAT site for getting you to think of what you can use to sew free diapers: http://fernandfaerie.com/frugaldiapering.html

I don't think so. Hannah was our second daughter. This one is our eighth daughter. I'm only 34 and it seems as though we have a tendency towards girls. If this had been a boy we were going to slam the poor kids with THREE names (James, Nicholas, and William) after two grandfathers and DH just because boys are SO hard to come by in this family, lol! On names: * He has tossed out all unusual ones. So, yes, I tried Aliah, along with a few others and even a couple less unusual like Alicia and Felicia. *He has tossed out all that don't end with an "a" - So out went Naomi. There are a couple non "a" girly names - Elizabeth, but again, because of a special reason, and Abigail means 'a father's joy' so you can see how we ended up with this one, lol. As for Briana/Brianna - the Ana in my signature is actually Briana Joy. :D The truth? The truth is that if I absolutely said, "DH, I cannot and/or will not use this name," he wouldn't do it. He'd give. He probably wouldn't even argue about it. I just don't want to DO that. I want to find a name he likes as well so we can NOT use Isabella. I REALLY like the name. But I REALLY don't to use it. Drat. Should naming a baby REALLY be this hard?

Hannah died when she was very, very little. We conceived Elizabeth just weeks later. Elizabeth Grace is an incredibly special name to us because she's named after her big/little sister. :)

Nope. :) The middle name is deadset. From the moment we started saying names I had had Katherine picked out from BEFORE I was pregnant and DH said he wanted Serene or Serenity to fit with the other girls. (Three have middles named after someone but the rest are Joy, Grace, Faith, & Hope.) I loved it. So the middle name is definitely Serene or Serenity whichever fits better. You have NO idea how much I like this man. :) (And I made him coffee this morning and homemade turnovers, does that count?) :D

Yup, we call her Ella Bella too. I don't WANT to override madly in love. I've given in to "really LIKE" a few times. Briana was a joint decision. Hannah was mine. Elizabeth was a given (named after her sister.) I didn't LOVE the name Rebecca, but Dh really liked it and it has beautiful meaning so I gave it to him. Then we were pregnant with Abigail and could I really turn down a name that he picked that mean "A Father's Joy?" Of course I couldn't! Then he liked Sarah. Which horrible mama is going to tell her husband, "No, please don't name the baby princess?" :D Plus, he gave me Elaine (my grandmother's name) even though he hated it. I named Christian, he named Timothy. We debated LONG & HARD over Daniella - he wanted Daniella and I wanted Danielle. Obviously one of us won. I promise it isn't just selfish wanting, lol. Mostly because he is my FAVORITE person in the world. :D I actually really like him. But the idea of having two children with the same meaning really makes me want to just cry my eyes out. And I don't cry. But I WANT to give him the name he loves.... REALLY loves. But it is absolute torment. I HATE the idea of duplicating meanings. :( I feel so torn in half. :(

Whoa! I post, I come back and FIVE pages??? You all are wonderfully helpful! Yes the Twilight thing is off-putting for me. The reason it is SUCH a big deal about the name (Elizabeth/Isabella) being the same isn't that they SOUND the same. It's that they MEAN the same. All of our children have deeply meaninful names. In the past we've picked names we've truly loved, but tossed out names we've LOVED that had less than great meanings. Leah, for instance. We both really like Leah. It means weary. We both REALLY like Rachel. It means ewe. It isn't such a big deal and you have 1or 2 children and you just pick names you LIKE and have all along. But, when you are the tenth child and your nine siblings have these names, carefully chosen, with significant thought applied to the meanings of each, do you really want to be the 10th where they said, "Well, we were running out so we settled?" :glare: That is TOTALLY what it feels like to me. :( I know it's so silly. I really WANT to give him the name he loves. But I can't tell you how badly I really WANT him to fall in love with another name. I like Arabella very much. I also hadn't thought of Isadora... But it is the "bella" part he loves the most I think. :) At least Ara could give us an alternate for nicknames. Every single one of the children are called by a "short" name, even Sarah. Totally NOT off topic. :) It's a name I love/adore - I wanted it for Sarah. But DH really wanted Sarah and was willing to give her my grandmother's name Elaine, though he REALLY didn't like it for her middle name. It was a happy compromise. Plus, my grandmother LOVED that we had named Sarah after her... Then 18 months ago she was diagnosed with quick onset dementia. Do you how glad I am that we had that chance to do that while she was still here mentally? (And can you see what a BIG deal names & meanings are in this house? lol.)

I have approximately 22 days. DH is absolutely in LOVE with Isabella. I understand, really I do. I REALLY like it too. My problems with it? Oh, they're multiple. 1. It's insanely popular. 2. It means the same as Elizabeth. Essentially it IS Elizabeth, only in a different language. We've used Elizabeth. We've actually used Elizabeth TWICE already - once for Hannah's middle name and then our Elizabeth Grace. 3. Nicknames? Bella (We already have Ella) or Izzie (and we already have Lizzie) This is a problem IMO. I think it's a lovely name. Truth be told, if I had NO other daughters, therefore no conflict, Isabella would be settled already. But WE DO! And there is conflict. So, are my reasons silly? Would you use the name anyway? Third, if your husband was REALLY in love with a name for the first time ever would you just deal with these issues? He is literally walking around saying "Isabella" and "Bella" to hear the sound of them. He's never gotten REALLY attached to a name before. And this makes me want to throw ALL my reasons straight out the window. :D And finally, if you like the name Isabella, are there any others you love? It has to have a pleasant meaning and end with an "a" sound. (Olivia and Sophia were on the short list. Sophia has been knocked off. Olivia is our second choice name currently, but he is deeply, madly in love with Isabella.)

It really COMPLETELY depends on the two children as individuals. I have two DC that are less than 12 months apart and I could never combine them. It would be the equivalent of combing a 3rd grader with a K4. However, the youngest of the two combines beautifully with my current 4yo. :) They are almost two years apart. They combine for read alouds and structured table work. They can both do oral narrations, memorization, etc. together. I do phonics work with each separately just because, as with any children, they advance at different levels. Combine wherever you can and do what works for the two of them.

Well, on my part it isn't really about your son at all. It's just about modesty and discretion and changing the baby away from others. So, yes, I do change the babies away from their 12 year old brother. And, well, pretty much everyone else. I don't ask him to dress them after baths nor do my sons & daughters bathe together. And I do breastfeed, in public, but I do so modestly. I've nursed eight babies so far and pumped for another and I consider myself a strong advocate for breastfeeding but it drives me batty when mamas pull their shirts down from the top or unbutton them all the way to nurse. It shows a lack of consideration for anyone else's feelings but their own.

I read about them yesterday. It breaks my heart. :( That poor, poor, poor woman.... to have your babies ripped out of your arms. :(