training herself?

Charlotte's latest favorite stall tactic at nap and bedtimes is to announce, after she's in bed and covered in blankets, that her diaper is poopy and should be changed. She says it this way, as though it were my idea that she needs a fresh diaper- "Change diaper, please, Mommy? Poopy. Yes, OK!"

Well, one evening, I called her on it. The diaper was not only poop-less, it was completely dry, so I asked her if she wanted to try pooping on the potty. We've had a potty chair in the bathroom since she was 15 months old, or thereabouts, and she likes to sit on it when I use the bathroom (I'm not shy about it, and it seems like a good way to teach her that potty use is completely normal). She said she wanted to poop on the potty, so we went in and, for the first time ever, she sat on the potty with a bear bum (except for once or twice when I hastily pulled her out of the bathtub because she looked like she was trying to do something). She stood up every 30 seconds to see if anything had materialized. She grunted and pushed. Finally, she decided there would be no poopies that night and started to walk back to her room. I didn't notice at first, and I don't think she realized it either, but she did manage to pee in the potty. Woohoo!

So, now she knows that asking to have her diaper changed can buy her 2 or 3 minutes out of bed, but asking to use the potty gets her a LOT more time. That's good enough motivation for me... if that's what she wants to use as the impetus to potty train, I'm all for it. I wasn't planning to start anything until summer, but if she wants to start now, I'm on board. Time to get some potty books from the library!

On the baby front... three weeks left until the "due date." My doc has not mentioned induction, and I have not brought it up because I don't want to open the subject. Maybe she'd "let" me pass my due date this time since things went so well with Charlotte, but I'd prefer not to find out. I feel huge. Music classes with Charlotte wear me out, with all the standing up and sitting down and standing up again. My belly rests on my thighs when I sit, whether on the floor or on a chair. I've asked my mother to join Charlotte for waterbabies classes now that my bathing suit top isn't long enough to cover the underside of my belly, let alone tuck into the bottoms to keep it from floating up. I can sleep for about 2 hours at a stretch before something wakes me up- until a few nights ago, it was numb fingers from carpel tunnel; last night it was achey hips. Wrist braces are heaven-sent, but there's no cure (except delivery) for the hips. And if I manage to shift off the painful hip in my sleep, I wind up on my back and wake up because it's hard to breathe in that position. I remember now why I was so convinced we should buy a recliner if I managed to get pregnant again. We didn't buy one, and with just 3 weeks left of this, I'm not about to spend the money now.

I have had 4 NSTs now, and Maggie has been wonderfully reactive and cooperative at each one. BH contractions have been occuring more and more frequently, and I've enjoyed watching the scale of them on the monitor- comparing the relative intensity I feel with the numbers I see. Nothing painful, but they do command my attention when they strike. I don't know if I'm optimistic or naive, or naively optimistic, but I am hoping and planning for a delivery as smooth as Charlotte's this time around. I haven't attended any birth classes or spent much time practicing my self-hypnosis and breathing, but I did re-read the Hypnobirthing book. And I've been telling anyone who'll listen that my preferred labor position is ALONE and private.

The nesting impulse has struck, but in my case that means that I filled the freezer with healthy-ish convenient foods for after Maggie arrives. I'm doing laundry tonight so I can pack my bag and have it ready, just in case. Everyone has been reminding me that subsequent deliveries are usually much quicker than the first one. Only about 3 hours elapsed between my first real contraction and Charlotte's emergence (5 1/2 hours from when my water broke), so the consensus is that I'll have no time to dawdle once Maggie announces her intention to come out. Of course, that has no bearing on the early/late/on-time part of the equation, but once it starts I may not have time to shower, eat, and pack like I did last time.

So, huge, achey, and tired but feeling quite well otherwise. Charlotte is excited to meet her baby sister and made a teddy bear for her this week, complete with recorded message, "Happy Birthday, Maggie! I love you." She made one for herself too, and insisted on picking the identical bear for both herself and the baby. The nursery is not ready, and we still need to get the guest bed out of Charlotte's room so my mother has someplace to sleep. Therefore, I am confident that Maggie will not be more than a week early...maybe 10 days, giving us time to finish all the preparations. I'll do my best to post before heading off to the hospital, so if you don't see anything for a week or two, assume I'm still pregnant.