Why the long silence? Well, I'll tell you.
My dearest daughter is teething, hitting a milestone, having a minor vitamin deficiency, and possibly hitting a growth spurt. Which all boils down to this: in the last two weeks I've been bitten numerous times, I've been sleep deprived, and I've been wanting to rip my hair out. Potty training has been slowly going downhill in the last week until I finally reached a point where I took her only once a day. Ray and I agreed that if she fussed at all about using the potty, we would not force the issue. So our potty break began...snicker. Meal times have turned into a battle of wills...basically she wants only foods that will cause constipation and so I often end meal time early. Then there's the issue of sleep. This and potty training both took a hit with the recent bout of travelling we've been doing. With the aforementioned issues, they've both worsened. She now wakes at least 3 times in the middle of the night and is difficult to get back to sleep.
Oh, and the vitamin deficiency. I went to clip Hannah's nails early this week and discovered that several had slight indentations with some flaking of the fingernail. I recalled this as a sign of a deficiency and looked it up. The results I found indicated an iron deficiency. I promptly started adding more iron to both mine and Hannah's diets and then finally got her an infant's multi-vitamin. So the vitamin tastes and smells terrible, but I believe soon (because her nails grow so fast) we should see improvements.
Regarding the milestones, we have exciting news! Hannah has taken her first steps as of this past Tuesday!!! Sadly, I was not really in the mood to call, text, or blog. Sorry eager Hannah fans. She has since taken to moving from object to object without holding on to something. For example today, she stood up near her potty (as of yesterday she became willing to use the potty again) and sort of took a step/lunge towards the side of the bath tub. Daddy also has taken to walking her down the hall and playing with her while she is standing at the couch (encouraging her to let go).
In regards to potty training. As with potty training at any age, there are hiccups and obviously the hiccups occurring with an infant are different than those of a 2 year old. Any of a number of issues can cause problems with infant potty training and unfortunately, we've been experiencing several at once. Travel, milestones, illness, and teething are some of the main ones. I responded to her obvious displeasure at being taken to the potty by cutting back to the morning potty time and the potty time following naps. Eventually, I gave up those as well this week until yesterday. Now, we're gradually getting back into the hang of things as she indicates an interest. I'll include more on the infant potty training in future posts.
Further news on potty training. Something new happened in the world of potty training today. Hannah wore her first pair of training pants!! They only lasted 20 minutes. But when she was wet, she let me know immediately that something was up. I can't wait for the rest of her training pants to come in. We had to special order training pants because the smallest sizes available right now in local stores are still way too big. So we went on-line and found several sites selling training pants. We ordered a small variety of training pants that we hope to add to once we've determined we have the correct size. We ordered some with sides that snap close, some with sewn sides (so basically a pull-up), and some with velcro side closures. All the ones we purchased thus far are supposedly waterproof, but we'll eventually get some that aren't because it's easier to tell if they are wet.
Further interesting news and updates. My dearest husband had a colonoscopy this past Friday. I'll end the suspense now and tell you that everything turned out ok. The colonoscopist...snickers...um...doctor said that he didn't see anything that wasn't normal. Now, this whole process was an interesting event because it started Thursday with a colon cleansing. Ray had the great pleasure to drink a foul tasting drink twice on Thursday. I'll skip details. Then he had to drink a wonderful fizzy beverage called magnesium citrate at 4 am Friday morning before the procedure. Ray at one point told me that he was "not full of crap" and therefore I should believe everything he said.
That morning after Ray was called back for the procedure, I went and got breakfast which I was under the mistaken belief that he would be able to eat. I got breakfast burritos and two donuts which I thought would be a special treat to cheer Ray up after his ordeal. Sadly, all he would be getting for the first 24 hours was soup. I did, however, make him a wonderfully nutritious corn chowder that ended up more like chicken-corn-potato-and anything else I could find soup.
That pretty much sums up the recent events. Stay tuned for more blog posts!
