Potty training

In mid-December, Ashton started to show some interest in bodily functions. This child is an absolute ham. He cracks me up. We were at my parents' and we were going out somewhere. My mom said, "I'm just going to go to the bathroom first", which prompted Ashton to jump up from his toys and chase after her while yelling "PEE!! PEEEEE". He hung around outside the closed door to the bathroom the whole time she was in there while making "psssssssssssssssss" noises.
Prior to this, I hadn't thought a lot about potty training because he didn't seem to be ready. Also, he just turned two in November. I was waiting for signs of readiness and I got them.
A couple days after he chased my mom to the bathroom, we went to a birthday party for a friends' daughter. When we go to anyone else's house, Ashton tends to go exploring so I spend a lot of time keeping him out of trouble. He kept running down the hall and stopping dead in his tracks at the bathroom door, pointing at the toilet and exclaiming, "PEE!". Later, he found a stool that he decided to sit on. The stool actually converts in to a potty, which is cleaned out and no longer in use as my friends' daughter is older. When he made the discovery that the stool lifts up to reveal a hole, he was totally exstatic and sat on the hole while making pee noises and saying "PEE! PEE!".
Then a few days later, Jesse was giving him a bath. Ashton expressed the need to poop and so Jesse had to do some quick thinking and pop Ashton on the toilet. He went on the toilet, although was a little freaked out about it...but yay!
A few days before Christmas, Mom and I went for some last minute shopping while Jesse and the kids hung out at my parents'. I purchased a potty for Ashton at the consignment store that had all the bells and whistles. It speaks two languages, has a sensor that turns red when the child pees in it, has a flusher and a fake toilet paper roll (both sing songs and praise the child). At first I thought that the bells and whistles might be a distractant but as Ashton is often cautious about things, I opted for it. After playing with said potty at the checkout counter with mom, the saleslady and the customer behind us, we left and trotted down the street with potty in hand. I put it in my trunk before we continued to another store. As we closed the trunk and walked away, we could hear the muffled sounds of the potty singing praises from inside the trunk.
We put the potty in Camryn's room as we were going to wait until after Christmas to start the training. He accidentally stumbled upon it when we were in there and sat on it and said "Peepoo potty!". He figured out where the power button was. He made it speak French. He sat on it and danced. I was wondering if a talking one was such a good idea.
Yesterday, we moved it to the bathroom and put him on it. We have it turned off though and the back is against a wall so he can't turn it on. He hasn't peed on it yet but whenever he pees in his diaper, he yells "PEE!" and runs to the bathroom door and takes his pants off. We put him on the potty for a minute but we know he's just peed. He's super excited to pee in the potty though...he sits there for a few minutes at a time but nothing happens. He'll get it eventually.

Welcome little Camryn

Camryn Riley was born on October 21st. She was little, weighing in at only 9lbs 1oz. This birth weight only seems small because Ashton was 10lbs 7oz.

In the weeks leading up to her birth, I felt as if I had a whole medical team. I was seeing my doctor once a week, plus the obstetrician on a fairly regular basis due to the fact that I had Ashton by c-section only 23 months before Camryn's due date. I really wanted Camryn to be born naturally. I was advised that she seemed to be large and we could run in to the same problems as last time so I didn't get my hopes up. On the Monday (the 18th), it was my due date and I went to the obstetrician. We booked the c-section for the 26th and I was totally bummed out. Seeing as Ashton was 12 days overdue and was induced, I didn't have much hope. Two days later, I woke up minutes after Jesse left for work. I knew that things were happening. The contractions were brutal but short and further apart. I got Ashton up, changed him and we had some breakfast. I didn't want Jesse to come home yet because I wasn't sure how long this labour business would take this time and felt I could hold down the fort. I mostly laid around and Ashton played. Jesse took an hour break and came home for lunch and helped out a bunch. Ashton had his nap and the pain got worse and worse. Finally, even though the contractions were far apart, they were so insanely painful that I called Jesse home 30 minutes before he was off work as we had a 40 minute drive ahead of us. He came home, tossed the bags in the car and put Ashton in his carseat. We dropped him off at my parents and went to the hospital. I got a shot of morphine and went back to my parents. The morphine dulled the pain a little bit. It was amazing how different this was from last time. I was in back labour with Ashton but not with Camryn. They both hurt so badly but they were different kinds of pain. I lay around because when I moved it hurt. When the morphine wore off, I went back in and was 6 cm dilated and in labour. 4 hours later, Camryn was in my arms at 3:35 am.

In comparing the two, Ashton was a c-section and she was not. Ashton's labour was 14 hours, hers was 4. I pushed for 3.5 hours with Ashton and 30 mins with Camryn. Ashton was back labour, she was not. For his birth I had morphine, laughing gas, an epidural and finally a spinal; with hers, I had morphine and fentanyl. His delivery itself was virtually painless, hers was painful. His recovery was painful, hers was less painful. I have had two completely different births. I think I'm good with that. Pretty sure I don't need a third at this point.

My pregnancies were brutal. Hers was much worse. I went in to my second pregnancy in fairly good shape. I was doing ballet and being active a lot. I danced for part of my pregnancy but I started having back spasms that sent me off work and in to physiotherapy. They hurt a lot and I couldn't do a lot with Ashton so I felt really guilty for that. We got out of the house but I felt bad for not being able to run around with him. Funny because everything was immediately better once she was born.