Perhaps it is the current phase of the moon or the level of humidity recently but this seems to be going around lately. Yes indeed Jack on Wednesday morning actually pee peed in his potty.
It was before we headed to "school." His little potty becomes a step stool when you put the top down. He was in the bathroom "brushing" his teeth (trying to persuade me to give him more toddler tooth gel on his brush so he could eat it...). He was performing this act without any pants on. Then he declared he was done and said "pee pee." He got down from the stool and we opened the potty. He sat down on it and the pee came! I made a big deal out of it, because really it is a big deal. He was so pleased with himself. And when we went to school I told his teacher about his big accomplishment. Jack was all smiles whenever we talked about it.
At his school the teachers ask the kids individually if they need to sit on the potty. Those who sit on the potty get a star drawn on their hands and those who actually GO get a smiley face drawn on their hands. Jack usually gets a star but still has not gotten a smiley face.
(also, he is still not napping. He is the only one in his group who is not napping.)
On Thursday before school Jack offered an encore performance in the morning. In the evening before his bath he sat down on the potty and tried but there was nothing there. This morning he sat down and tried again but there was nothing there.
Nonetheless, this is real progress. Yesterday when I tried to put his pullup on him he said he didn't want a diaper. I asked him if he wanted underpants. I don't know if he'd heard that word before, but he said "yes, underpants." So now I must go get some underpants. Probably 100 or 200 pairs I think. Plus many extra pairs of pants and socks.
Separately, I was pleased this week at Weight Watchers to be down 1.6 lbs from the previous week and 0.2 lbs from where I was when I joined. This is the first time I've gone in the right direction and this week I've continued the behavior that delivered the good result, so fingers crossed for Monday's meeting.
The amusing part for me was that while at the meeting, James started fussing and clearly was hungry. I moved to the back row and started feeding him discreetly under a receiving blanket. And of course while I was feeding him the meeting leader called on me to ask me how my week went. I could tell that she noticed earlier that I was breastfeeding James. And I was proud of myself that I fed him during the meeting and did not get nervous at all when I became the center of attention.
So far I have breastfed him at family parties, the mothers' room at the big baby superstore, the mothers' room at the local maternity chain store, and at Friendy's restaurant. Oh, and also at Wegmans in the public seating area. And I've also fed him in the car at a weekend picnic and at a car dealership.
When I was exclusively pumping for Jack, I never had outings like these because I had to lug the baby, the baby's bottles and ice packs, the baby's other gear and the pump and related stuff everywhere I went. Every feed involved a bottle and then setting up the pump somewhere clean, pumping, and then breaking it all down and cleaning it up as best i could. It was easier just to stay at home much of the time.
And often Jack would be crying while I was pumping, and he was too wiggly to pick up while I had the milking machine attached to my chest. It was agonizing. I remember I had a little song I used to sing to him. It went like this: "No crying when mommy is pumping. No crying when mommy is pumping. No crying when mommy is pumping. Or there'll be no dinner tonight."
Part of me looked forward to going back to work just so that I could have someone else take care of him while I was expressing his food.
And once relieved of baby care I was able to pump in lots of different places including in my car while commuting, in a bathroom stall at the San Jose Fairmont Hotel (during a seminar), in airport lounges, and in my seat in airplanes. Now that those crazy liquid rules are in place by TSA I wonder if I would have to wait until getting past security before I pumped.
I also pumped at my desk at the office I sometimes went to, but I had them install a lock on my door and some blinds on the window.
But nursing is so much more portable. I'm a little worried about what it will be like when I have to go back to work. What a difference from last time when I welcomed the chance to do more pumping.