26 weeks and Potty Training adventures!

This post turned into a bit of a novel!
I'm 26 weeks!
12 more left (at the most!)
As you can tell in my pictures, I am definitely "popping."
These little guys are growing a ton.
Baby A is SO active, and Baby B is a bit more mellow.
It is weird feeling two babies. Luckily they seem to have similar active times, and "down" times.
Here are a couple pictures of me at 26 weeks and 3 days..

A few things at 26 weeks..

• I feel very pregnant! I think how I feel compares to how I felt with Payton at 35ish weeks. Although I probably sound like a big complainer, I am doing pretty good! Mostly just annoying pains.
  
• I am having lots of contractions. They are mild, but pretty frequent. I'm trying to stay really hydrated and take it easy a bit more. Hopefully they don't turn into anymore more then annoying braxton hicks.
• I still am constantly shocked at how much more magnified everything is with twins. The nausea was way worse, the back pain is worse, the heartburn is worse, my sense of smell is way more heightened, my emotions are more out of whack, the leg cramps are worse, the contractions are more frequent, the sciatic pain is worse, everything. I keep telling myself that by having twins, I am saving myself 9 months of pregnancy, so I have to experience it twice as bad to make up for it :)
• I feel kind of useless. I can't lift a whole lot anymore. Devry loads up our wood box before he leaves, but I run out before he returns and I've been having to carry it from the back room. I felt bad, but had to ask Carissa to take over that job because it was making me contract much worse, and have horrible back pain. Lifting Payton has gotten to be hard, and he's having to figure out how to climb into the car seat himself. I hate feeling so useless. I am normally a very independent person, so it is difficult to admit I can't do something anymore. Devry had to get mad at me a few times before I would :)
• I don't have much of an appetite. I think its the fact that I don't have much room for food, and when I do eat I get heartburn. I'm trying very hard to eat healthy and get all the nutrients I need for these kiddos. I have gained less weight then I did with Payton so far. I think with 2 of them, they just take so much more. I'm not complaining! Hopefully it continues and it will be easier to get back to my pre-prego weight! I just want to make sure I am doing everything I can for them to be healthy.
  
• I LOVE feeling them move! It is still such an amazing feeling to me. They still have some room, so their movements haven't gotten to be painful rib shots yet. I am enjoying it, because I know in the coming weeks every movement will probably be the painful ones :)
• I am starting to make major preparations for them. I am making blankets, car seat covers, crib bumpers, and burp clothes. Plus making plans for decorating the nursery. Devry is painting on his next week off for me :) I am trying to get everything organized, and figure out what I still need.
  
• Everything is going good! I'm hoping to have them at 37ish weeks, and I hope time flies until then!

I had about 9 days off of work from the 4th till the 13th. So I decided it would be a good time to attempt potty training with Payton.

We hadn't tried before, and he never really showed a lot of interest, so I was really unsure if we would be successful. I really don't want 3 kids in diapers, so I decided to go ahead and try. Hopefully if he did get it there would be enough time between him being potty trained and the twins being born that he wouldn't regress to bad.

So we started on the 5th. Day 1 was definitely a learning day. We said goodbye to diapers. He seemed to get the concept, but we cleaned up lots of accidents. Throughout the day though he seemed to get it more, and had less accidents. I really was expecting the worst, so I was pleasantly surprised!

Days 2-6 got better and better! Day 4 we even left the house and went to Church and grandma's and Grandpa's, and he didn't have a single accident when we were gone! By Day 5 and 6 he only had 1 accident. Devry came home on Day 5, and Payton was so excited to show him how he was a big boy! He even decided he needed to use the "big" potty, and hasn't even looked twice at his Cars potty since. We didn't even have to put a smaller seat inside the big one...he just figured it out! I'll take it! We were still having to remind him to go though.

Devry and I left town for days 7 and 8. I was definitely nervous about that, and worried it would set him back a ton. Luckily Carissa had been around the entire week we were working on it, and knew every bit of his routine, so she continued with it! Man I am lucky to have that girl around! He did perfect at home with her! He had the most difficulty when he had to go to a friends house or Grandma's house while Carissa worked. Just a change in his environment I'm sure. He still did ok.

Then we came home, and days 9-11 were amazing! I think he had 1 accident in the 3 days, and was telling us whenever he had to go.
We even could stop reminding him. I was THRILLED!

Then on Sunday (day 11), Devry left and went back to Rock Springs. And Payton had a hard time with him leaving. Yesterday (Day 12) was a struggle. He had several accidents, and stopped telling me when he had to go. He kept looking for Devry and refusing to go potty unless Daddy came and helped. I felt so bad. I know exactly how he feels to miss Devry so much. His whole world gets turned upside down when he leaves..so how could I blame him for it effecting his potty training progress?

Today has been much better. He had one accident this morning. We went back to some basics of me reminding him, more excitement and prizes for telling me he has to go, and making a big deal about it all again. He has done much better with it. I am hopeful to get him back to where he was in the next few days...and hopefully he gets in enough of a habit that he stops regressing when Devry leaves. We are hanging out at home this week...and trying to master it all!

I'm so proud of this kid! Like I said I wasn't sure if he was ready. But he has done amazing! I had such horrible expectations of potty training... so I was thrilled when he caught on quickly, and picked it up in a matter of a day!

We did a few different things to rewards and praise.

Every time he went potty he got a small candy, and put a sticker on his sticker chart.

Then after he had 10 stickers, he got to pick a prize. I bought some small dollar store prizes, and he was thrilled to get them. It worked great to get him to pee in the potty.
#2 was a bit more of a challenge. He continued to have accidents, and it didn't really seem to phase him. Finally we discovered it just took a bit more motivation. When he did go #2 in the potty, he got a "BIG" prize. A Thomas the train character for his train table. We picked up a few really cheap at Ross. It only took him getting one of those characters for it to click. He was determined to get more, so he began to tell us. It worked GREAT!

He is staying dry at naptimes, so I just put training pants on him. At Nighttime, he still wakes up a bit wet. Everything I have read talks about how it is usually involuntary at night, so there is not much you can do until he is ready. I have been putting him in pull ups at night. He always wakes up and wants to go potty first thing in the morning, but seems to just be wetting while he is asleep. Once we get back to where we were with Daytime training, I will try a few nights of training pants, plastic sheets, waking him up to pee before I go to bed, and see if it works. I know boys tend to take a bit longer for nighttime training, so I am not overly concerned about it at this point.

One thing I discovered through this process is that the thrill's in life definitely change when you are a parent! When the highlight of your day is your child going potty, and it involves celebrating by singing and dancing, and jumping up and down with them...you know you are a parent. haha