extreme weight loss during pregnancy | Potty training twins part 1 No plan

extreme weight loss during pregnancy

As a mother to three children with another on the way, I know the importance of planning. As a mother of twins, I know the importance of planning. And now, as a mother to children growing more and more independent each day, Im learning the importance of going with the flow, trying things out, and seeing where life takes us-- essentially, throwing out the plan and flying by the seat of our pants.

We have already potty trained one child. I wrote three blog posts about the experience:

• Try to see it my way
• Why not?
• Follow-up on potty training

With him, he really didnt want to potty train. He liked diapers and was fine with how things were going. As his parents, we were the ones ready to be done with diapers. If you read the blog posts on potty training D, you know that he was ready to potty train and capable to do so. The thing that I liked about potty training him was that he was ready and so when we finally did it, we were able to do days, nights, naptime, out and about... It all just feel into place.

As for potty training our 2.5-year old twin toddlers, I came up with a plan. I wanted to wait until they were the same age our oldest was when we potty trained him, a couple months past 3 years old. I did have other reasons for wanting to wait as well, such as their vocabulary and their maturity level. (Read my blog post "Potty training 2.5 year old twin boys?")

My plan has gone out the window! One of our twin toddlers, C, decided that he wanted to potty train. He even said that, "I want potty train now." {Face palm.} I put it off. We played along with his desire to use the potty, feeling like it was helping him understand the concept of eventually potty training. He wanted his diaper changed after each time he tinkled. He would tell us before he would poop, after he pooped, waddle to the diaper changing basket, pull out a clean diaper and wipes, and demand we promptly changed him. Sometimes he would tell us before he would poop or pee and demand to use the potty. I was doing everything I could to prevent him from potty training. What changed my mind?

A couple weeks ago the toddlers vocabulary and communication skills leaped forward. It felt like one week we were totally frustrated that they wouldnt use their words to communicate-- depending on temper tantrums to express themselves-- and a week later they were chatting with us about their day. C started expressing more and more his desire to potty train-- which I listened to-- but what really convinced me to let him try was when I started being able to negotiate and reason with him. One morning we were rushing out of the house. The toddlers were feeling hurried and stressed as I searched for shoes and dressed them quickly. C started screaming and flailing when I attempted to strap him into his car seat. I took him out of the seat and stood him in the driveway next to our van and began to reason with him. He listened! We came to an agreement and I was able to peacefully strap him his car seat. That conversation was the turning point for me. I realized that if I could explain to him why I needed him to buckle up, I could explain to him the fundamentals of potty training.

I made the decision to make a new plan for potty training: No Plan.

This past Thursday, we had an afternoon at home. I put both the toddlers in underwear and explained to them that they cannot go potty in their underwear; they must use the toilet. They agreed. C was beaming; he was so thrilled to finally be in underwear! I remembered how well the timer system worked with their older brother so I set the timer on the microwave. The timer works great for two reasons:

1. it isnt you harassing your child every couple minutes, "Do you have to go potty? Hey, do you have to go potty? Love, do you need to go potty?"
2. it puts them in charge, "Momma! The timer went off! Time to go potty!"

I figured that when the timer went off, we would all trudge into the bathroom and try to go potty. It didnt work well.

For C, our toddler who wants to potty train, he felt too much pressure. He wanted to go potty. When I brought him in the bathroom at intervals, he felt like I was telling him that he had to go then. He would try and try and when he couldnt produce even a drop, he would look so sad and disappointed. He didnt throw a fit or burst into tears; he would just look up at me with big eyes brimming with tears, "Momma! I no have to go!"

For O, our toddler who we only put in underwear because we were letting his twin brother attempt to potty train, it was boring. It became a game: do not use the bathroom when the timer goes off. He would run and hide when he heard the timer, or, worse, try to be the first to the bathroom so he could attack the toothpaste tubes before I got in there (as a rule, none of our boys are allowed to loiter in the bathroom when their business in there is done). Every time he stood in front of the toilet, he said he did not have to go. He did hold it for an impressively long time Thursday afternoon. It all blew up in our face though. By Thursday evening, he had a series of accidents, the first standing in front of the toilet and the next 3 anywhere that he wanted to in our house, all after denying the need to go in the first place, "No have to go, Momma. No need potty, Momma. No baf-room, Momma!" My poor husband had his hands full with O that night. Graciously, he allowed O to keep trying and let him put on underwear again and again, patiently explaining the process after each "accident" (in quotes because that child had no intention of ever using the toilet that day). After 3 accidents in a row though, even my optimistic husband couldnt justify putting O in underwear again and O was put back into a diaper. When O finally crinkled back to the table wearing a diaper, both his brothers looked at him. Finally D, their older brother, said, "Uh-oh. O isnt potty training anymore?" O didnt seem to mind; he acted almost relieved that he was no longer part of the potty training charade.

Thursday night, our first day potty training, my husband and I discussed how things were going and how we wanted to proceed. We came to the decision that we would continue potty training C and we would keep O in diapers. That is how we arrived at potty training one of our 2.5-year old twins and the other toddler is remaining in diapers. Im in no hurry to push O because I dont think hes ready. While his vocabulary has grown, he doesnt communicate or negotiate as much as C does. Im not saying that he wont or that I feel he is somehow delayed or that C is advanced; I just dont think hes ready to potty train. If he was not a twin and his identical twin brother wasnt potty training at the moment, I wouldnt even consider potty training him. And that is how Im going to treat them: like individuals. Just because one twin is doing something doesnt mean that the other must. Just because one twin is ready to potty train now, doesnt mean there is something wrong with the twin not potty training. We have been very careful around here not to use language that is comparing them. "O, do you see what C is doing? Do you want to potty train too?" While my husband and I have discussed that seeing his 2 brothers in underwear could possibly motivate him to potty train sooner than later (never underestimate the power of monkey see/monkey do), we havent vocalized this to the boys. Our 5-year old has asked a couple times, "Why is C potty training and not O?" And our answer is, "Because C wants to potty train right now and O doesnt, which is okay."

So how have been managing this? Yes, it gets chaotic having two toddlers in the bathroom. Just because O isnt potty training and their older brother D has been potty trained for 2.5 years now, doesnt mean when C has to go potty that it is just me and him in there. Nope, all the boys make their way into the bathroom. This stressed me out at first. There was just too much going on in there until I realized that when we go out of the house, this is how it will be. Now I dont stress about them being in the bathroom. They need to leave C alone while he goes potty. No toys are allowed in the bathroom (not that we ever really allow toys in the bathroom, but when 2 boys follow their brother into the bathroom, they have a tendency to want to drag the house in there with us). I do allow O to be curious in there. While we are not pushing to potty train him, I dont want him to feel that the toilet is off-limits for him. I allow him to watch and ask questions. However, we have rules in the bathroom. While I know how clean our toilets are at home, we arent sure how clean public bathrooms are. We dont allow any of the boys to touch the toilet (well, more than necessary-- toddlers and toilets are just a bad combination in general). We believe in teaching them bathroom etiquette at home that can be applied out in public. I have our oldest stand like a gentleman if he wants to come in the bathroom with us while Im potty training C. If O wants to watch as well, I usually have him sit on one of the bathroom stools or stand with D. I do not let D and O rough house while standing in the bathroom with us (yup, siblings have a gift for constantly messing with each other, "Im not touching you... Im not touching you... Im not touching you..."). We have bathroom rules and we are strict in enforcing them. If they dont follow the rules, they have to leave the room.

Potty training, no matter how eager the child, requires spending a lot of time in the bathroom. We learned a long time ago that we need a chair in the boys bathroom. Ive spent a lot of time in that chair the last couple days. Thursday I completely cleaned the bathroom, even the baseboards. Friday was busier with a full day in underwear; it passed in a blur. (Amazing how some days fly by and some days drag on when you are a stay-at-home mom!) Saturday was great because my husband was home to help take C to the bathroom; I felt like I finally got to spend time in other rooms of our house. :)

Overall, Im very pleased with how potty training is going with C. He really desires to be potty trained and is working very hard at it. Hes had minimal accidents, none of them messy. Hes actually taken to potty training so quickly that I put him in underwear all day, from the time he wakes up to the time he puts on pajamas. He took a 3 hour nap on Friday and stayed dry the whole time. Saturday we ran errands-- 2 different stops, out of the house for 2.5 hours-- and he was dry the whole time, even using the public restroom while we were gone. When we arrived at a store, we took him to the restroom and we took him again before we left. (Note: I only braved leaving the house this early in the potty training process with all the boys in tow because my husband was home to help. One of us was able to quickly get him to the restroom when C needed to go potty while the other stayed with his brothers.) Right now Im feeling like we are going to hold off on nights. Im not sure hes ready to be in the bathroom unsupervised, especially if he has a fellow 2-year old following him in there. For now we are taking baby steps, seeing what works, seeing what they can do with the freedom we are handing over to them. When we tackled nights with our oldest, he was waking up dry night after night. C is not waking up dry every morning, so Im not sure when we will do nights. Again, my plan is No Plan-- well just see what happens.

As for a rewards system, we havent had to be as creative with our rewards system with C as we were for his older brother. Cs ambition to potty training is really driving us this time around. We do have a jar of gummy candies sitting on the counter as his treat, but we havent had to do something different for pooping or peeing-- he does both on his own accord in the toilet. The only problem with "treat," as the he calls it, is that O gets quite upset when his brother is picking out gummy candies that he cant have. Occasionally our 5-year old asks if he can have one, but he is more accepting of our answer than his 2.5-year old brother. Because we dont want our toddlers to feel that they are being compared against each other as twins, we are careful how we word our reasoning as to why C gets a treat and O doesnt. When O starts reaching for a treat, I tell him that these are Cs treats. When he demands further explanation, "Why I not get treat, Momma?" I politely tell him that C is potty training right now, which is the truth. O has said to that that he wants to potty train, which he doesnt. As I wrote this, he insisted on trying to go potty after seeing C get a treat, only to get in the bathroom and fidget around, refuse to go near the toilet, and try to grab the toothpaste tube. Now when I tell him that C is potty training right now, I quickly add that he will potty train soon too and will get treats then as well. I briefly entertained the idea of finding some sort of consolation treat for D and O, immediately shooting down the idea. We dont give all 3 boys medicine when only 1 child needs medicine. We arent going to reward all 3 boys because 1 is potty training successfully. We are loving but firm and the technique is working thus far.

Wish us luck! We are breaking on to day 4 of potty training and-- knock on wood-- so far no accidents today! :)

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weight loss exercise during pregnancy | Potty training twins Part 2 The next step

weight loss exercise during pregnancy

So our very first day of potty training our twin boys was February 6th. I wrote this blog post four days later: "Potty training twins: Party 1 {no plan}." This is part 2, day 18 of potty training.

Potty training our eager toddler C has been good-- actually, almost easy; I think because he really wants to potty train. When I potty trained our oldest, I was very stressed leaving the house with him in underwear. I had a system and a fully loaded diaper bag, ready for every possible scenario. The other day I decided to take the boys to lunch. I made it halfway into the restaurant when I remembered that I didnt have a diaper bag with me (I usually leave the diaper bag in the car since our twins are now toddlers). I took the boys back to the car and scoured around the van trying to find a change of clothes and some spare diapers in case of an accident. I feel like it has been one of those times of what you do with your first child compared to what you do with your second child. While the idea of potty training twins caused me serious anxiety, I havent been as stressed now that weve actually started.

As for our other toddler, O... I dont know if he is ready to potty train. This past weekend, a little over 2 weeks of potty training his twin brother, he insisted on wearing underwear. I actually took him to church in underwear yesterday (another example of something I never would have done with our first, "Oh, you want to potty train? Okay, well lets leave the house then."). I am not entirely on board with this because I dont think he actually wants to potty train right now. I feel like it is almost like his brothers are getting a lot of attention for potty training or being potty trained and so he is trying to jump on the bandwagon. However, he actually did pretty good yesterday. Today he has again insisted on underwear. While hes doing well, I think a lot of it is treat motivated. He keeps using the restroom and then demanding a treat, "I went again, Momma! Treat!" And then because hes using the bathroom, his twin brother C is stepping up his bathroom usage, "I went too, Momma! Treat!" Let me tell you, I thought I was in the bathroom a lot during the first week of potty training a couple weeks ago. I feel like this has become a game for them and, honestly, it is driving me slightly crazy, not to mention we are out of treats and it isnt even noon yet. Im hoping that today is just a novelty and that it will wear off soon. I am trying to be supportive of it (while tempering their desire for treats) since the end goal, even if it is just a game, could mean fully potty trained toddlers.

I am not sure of the direction we are heading with O. I feel comfortable taking C places with us in his underwear, like to our neighbors house or to the park. I feel comfortable with him in his car seat and he did great with a baby-sitter. I dont know about O... I dont know if I would want him in underwear out and about right now. He didnt have an accident in the church nursery, but I think that was because he had just used the bathroom. I dont know if he would have told them that he had to go. He seems 100% motivated by whatever he has to do to get treats, not the desire to potty train. Today we are hanging around our neighborhood and so Im letting him dabble in potty training. If he has accidents on our walk or at the park, Ill probably put him back in a diaper until he actually is ready to fully potty train-- for reals.

As for fully potty training C, he is acting like he wants to take the next step: nights. While not having 2 kids in diapers during the day is excellent, I dont really consider a child fully potty trained until they are going days and nights in underwear and are trustworthy in those underwear. These are the questions I ask myself to determine if our boys are trustworthy in underwear:

• Would I let him sit on our couch in underwear?
  O- yes, but only if supervised and we know when he last used the bathroom
• Would I let him ride in his car seat in underwear?
• Would I let him watch a movie in our guest room in underwear, on our guest bed for an hour and a half?
  C- not quite there yet. Ive been keeping him out of the guest room
• Would I let him hang out on my husband and Is bed in underwear?
• Would I let him hang out on my parents Tempur-Pedic mattress in underwear?

I feel like these kind of questions get progressively more difficult and require a greater degree of trust. Obviously only our oldest is a "yes" to all the questions.

The idea of potty training C during nights right now doesnt thrill me. When we potty trained our oldest for nights, he was just waking up every morning with a dry diaper, so, really, there wasnt much potty training required. We told him what to do if he had to use the restroom at night and it pretty much happened from there. We did do the whole protecting the mattress trick. The mattress was protected in a zipped vinyl mattress protector. Then I made the bed with a fitted sheet and a loose sheet. Over that I put a fitted waterproof mattress protector. On top of that, I again made the bed with a fitted sheet and a loose sheet. On top of the loose sheet, I laid a waterproof mattress pad. On top of that I put his comforter. The idea was that if he had an accident at night, the comforter would be protected by the waterproof mattress pad and I could just strip the bed of the first layer of messed sheets and have a second layer already made on the bed (no making a bed in the middle of the night). It worked great. The few times he had an accident, it was usually just a little bit, enough to wake him up and alert him he needed to use the restroom, and it didnt happen more than once in the night.

C is not waking up in the morning with heavily wet diapers, but they are still not dry. However, every night when we put him in a diaper before bed he gets quite upset and insists he wants to wear underwear all night. He is taking his afternoon quiet time in underwear. Some days he just stays in his room and plays for an hour, heading to the restroom if he feels he needs to go potty; some days he actually takes a 2-4 hour nap and is dry the whole time. Im completely on the fence about whether or not he would do well in underwear at night. Even more so, Im concerned about how well his brothers would handle him using the restroom at night. Since they all 3 share a room, would he wake up his brothers? Would I have 2 toddlers playing in the bathroom at 2 am? Would I be struggling to get 3 boys back to bed after changing sheets in the middle of the night? Im just not sure how it will go. I think I would feel more adventurous and cavalier about trying out nights if I wasnt almost 22 weeks pregnant. Sleep has become quite important to me.

My husband and I talked about it and we feel like if C is really wanting to do nights, we should let him. He may surprise us, just like O may surprise us by actually being ready to potty train. Im at a point in this pregnancy where I feel pretty good. I have energy during the day. Im taking it a bit easier than usual, so we are home more. Why not let them potty train if they are ready? They will be turning 3 mid-April and so the alternative is to wait and potty train them when I am huge pregnant in my third trimester or, even less desirable, when we have a newborn, who will most likely be arriving this June.

We have already decided to go into this with our plan thrown out the window and this is just another example of seeing where the potty training road takes us...

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weight loss during end of pregnancy | Expect the unexpected

weight loss during end of pregnancy

Weve been juggling a lot over here at our house this past week. One of our twin toddlers, C, has decided that now is the time he wants to potty train (read "Potty training twins: part 1 {No plan}"). We started this past Thursday. By Saturday, our other toddler, O, had a major asthma flare up. We were worried for awhile that we would need to take him to the childrens hospital, but we managed to make it through the weekend. He had come down with a cold a couple weeks ago that he just wasnt shaking. I had actually taken him to the pediatrician on Thursday because, while the cold wasnt affecting his breathing, it was alarming because it made his chest sound... wet? I dont know, thats what it sounded like to me. Anyways, we left the pediatrician appointment feeling good about heading into the weekend, a follow-up appointment scheduled for the next week if the cold still hadnt left. As it happens with toddlers, things changed for us quickly. He started Saturday morning sounding fine. By Saturday evening he was wheezing and coughing; he stopped eating. We kicked off Albuterol nebulizer treatments and had to continue them every 3.5 hours. Monday we talked to our pediatrician all day. We started him on Orapred immediately. We had tried weaning him off his Pulmicort, which he had handled fine for almost 3 months now. However, this flare up let us know that he was in no way ready to be weaned off Pulmicort; we started him back on twice a day nebulizer treatments of Pulmicort. Until Tuesday afternoon, he needed Albuterol every 3.5 to 4 hours. We were able to space his last Albuterol treatment on Tuesday 6 hours and then we went through Tuesday night without an Albuterol treatment as well. O even slept in until 7 am Wednesday morning.

But what about our other toddlers potty training through all this? Well, C was insistent on potty training. During the weekend, my husband was home to help, so it wasnt too difficult. We stayed home and took care of our boys, helping C master potty training and monitoring Os asthma. By Monday it was apparent that we werent going to be leaving the house anytime soon so I continued with Cs potty training. O is good about holding his nebulizer mask in place. I spent a lot of time standing in the hallway outside the boys bathroom watching C use the restroom and O do his nebulizer treatment on the couch. It all just kind of fell into place.

Homeschooling activities at the kitchen table

Wednesday morning, day 3 of Orapred, I woke up with the vague idea of writing a blog post about our last couple days at home. I wanted to touch on Os asthma, Cs potty training, our oldest son Ds homeschooling-- basically about balancing life as a family. Before I actually write a blog post, I let the idea roll around in my mind for awhile. I figure out the direction Im going to write, the underlying message, and attempt to capture that moment in our lives. That afternoon, when I went to sit down and write the post, opening the laptop, situating myself on the floor next to our 5-year old, he looked over at me and said, "Hey, Momma, do you want to play Sorry?" I thought for a moment and realized that I really did, so we played Sorry a couple times before our power went out. Here is an idea of what I wanted to write before our day was flipped upside down:

Weve spent a lot of time at home the past couple days. This morning when I heard my bedroom door open at 6 am, I sat up in bed and blinked at the time. Had I really slept that long? Did our asthmatic toddler actually sleep through the night? But it was our potty training toddler, tip-toeing across the floor, "Momma! Have to go potty! Want treats!" I helped him struggle out of his zip-up footie jams and use the restroom, rewarded him with his treats, and tucked him back into bed. While I was in the boys room, I checked on our asthmatic toddler, who was tossing and coughing in his bed, but asleep. I debated waking him for a nebulizer treatment, but decided against it. He has been sleeping so horribly and I wanted to let him get some much needed rest. So I went back to bed and stole another hour of sleep before I heard the boys up, O making his way to our room coughing. Our day had officially begun. As we fell into our morning routine, I despaired of what we were going to do today. While potty training has been going well, another day spent in the boys bathroom didnt sound appealing. Our 5-year old has been feeling cooped up in the house with his brothers and was starting to bounce off the walls. I have spent the last couple days tackling that overlooked cleaning list and I was running out of projects. Weve played board games, card games, made up games, and have been making our way through the boys library of books. Another day? What would we do? 

As often happens with our 3 boys, they figured it out. After our morning routine (changing Os diaper, taking C to the bathroom and putting on his big boy underwear, Pulmicort nebulizer treatment, breakfast, Bible story, Albuterol nebulizer treatment, clean up breakfast, get the boys dressed), the boys ran out of the room and threw on pirate costumes. They spent seriously 3 hours having elaborate pirate battles. What I love about homeschooling preschool is how easily our "lessons" can fall into place of real, organic play. We worked on phonics while they played pirates. "Pirates say ar. What letters do you think are in arrrrrrrr?" Obviously he guessed "r," but I showed him the two letters together and we started coming up with words that had ar in them. Star, far, car, bar... He sounded the words out as we chatted. He wrote some down on pirate maps... It just all works together and, honestly, it is fun. I love doing this stuff with them. Of course, beyond homeschooling, they spent a lot of time sword fighting. However, even that had an educational slant as they built their pirate swords out of KNex. They searched for the right pieces to engineer certain designs of pirate swords. They counted how many pieces their swords had, the colors of the KNex they used. Once the pirate game took hold, my doubts of another day at home dissipated and we just had fun. 

The hard part about being home for days upon days is that in between activities, before the boys energy is channeled into an activity, it can be wild. Not manageable wild, just straight up Lord of the Flies wild. They roll on the couch. They hide behind couch cushions and throw all the pillows off the couch. The Legos are scattered in every room of the house-- how, I know not. Outside of expected places, I find them in the washer and dryer, my bed, under all the furniture, in the guest bathroom-- just everywhere. It can be hard to figure out what our next activity should be when the boys are fighting over toys and going, going, going. I really dont know how I expect them to behave when we are home all day. I dont mind them running in circles around the kitchen loop. I suppose this vague notion of picking up your toys before moving on to the next toy comes into mind, but thats not always how it works, is it? They need Legos to build walls for their KNex sword fights and Matchbox cars drive through their war zone with supplies as their Buzz Lightyears and stuffed animals stand guard at their forts and, of course, they are all wearing costumes... just a mess of toys for one game. Really, it is those moments of wild time that make being home all day hard. When they are wild on normal days, we head outside to the park, play in our driveway, or take a walk.

On Wednesday South Carolina was bracing for an ice storm. All Wednesday morning we had freezing rain and ice outside. While I was playing a round of Sorry with our 5-year old, our power went out. I wasnt too concerned at first, just started closing up the house and hanging blankets over some of our windows, when it hit me: our nebulizer! How would we run Os nebulizer without power? He was coming due for his next Albuterol treatment and the power was out for about an hour when I decided we needed to leave the house and find power. I debated allowing our potty training toddler leave in underwear when I realized that he should probably wear a diaper in case we were forced to intrude somewhere very inconvenient. I didnt know where we would find power, but I was sure it would be an intrusion with 3 kids; I didnt want to keep adding requests. "Could we borrow a power outlet for a bit? And a bathroom? And could you watch these two while I take this one to the restroom?" I convinced our potty training toddler to wear a diaper, granted he insisted on wearing his underwear underneath his diaper, but at least we had protection in case of an accident. When I started putting together our bags and blankets for leaving the house, I remembered our van was parked in the garage, not in the driveway. I know there is a release for the power garage door, but I could not get the dang thing to release. I pulled and pulled on the red cord before the panic started setting in. If I couldnt get the van out, was there somewhere I could walk to get power? I poked my head out the front door and it was bitterly cold outside and raining freezing rain. I decided against that; the cold weather would be too much on our asthmatic toddlers lungs. What else could I do but call my dad? He talked me through opening the garage door and in no time at all we were backing out of our driveway, discussing where we might find power. When I pulled up to the stop sign leaving our neighborhood, a security car drove by and a light bulb went off: the fire station! I drove to the fire station and was excited to see their lights on and hear their generator humming away. The fire man was beyond nice. We sat in the office overlooking the fire trucks as I gave our toddler his nebulizer treatment. I was so relieved that all our boys were behaving. When we left, he gave me their office number and told me that I more than welcome to come back if we need to do more treatments.

The rest of the afternoon was spent peacefully enough. We played lots of board games. I started getting concerned as we were heading into the evening still without power. Our toddlers breathing was acting up, I think largely due to our outing in the cold weather. He was going to need another treatment soon. My husband came home shortly after that and we decided a hotel would be our best option. I started calling around to the Residence Inns nearby and they were all booked. We tried Hyatt Place, but they didnt have any pet rooms still available (we have a small dog). I called my mom who lives several states away and was asking her if she could book us somewhere on her computer-- it was impossible searching Residence Inn like hotels from my phone since we arent overly familiar with the area-- when the power came on. Immediately we gave O an Albuterol treatment and his evening Pulmicort treatment. My husband and I decided that we needed to solve the problem of running the nebulizer when the power goes out as soon as possible; for that night, we came up with a plan that if the power went out again, I would take the asthmatic toddler and stay in a hotel with him. We are able to keep our home warm even with the power out, so he would be comfortable at with our other two boys and the dog. Thankfully the power did not go out again on Wednesday.

Thursday morning our power went out again, this time not for long. When it went out, my husband had just finished Os nebulizer treatment and was turning Monsters Inc. on for our boys. I knew we needed a back up plan for Os nebulizer today. While my husband got ready for power school, I called my dad and asked him to look at Best Buys site to store for some sort of power option. (My husband loves doing these types of things as well, but had to leave for work and we didnt have any power for him to do it before he left.) Best Buys site to store option is wonderfully convenient. I gave my dad my credit card number and he did all the ordering. After my husband went to work, I bundled up the boys and we set off for the store. This time I did let our potty training toddler wear underwear. On the way to Best Buy he chirped from his car seat, "Momma! Have to go potty!" Being in South Carolina, there isnt a surplus of stores to stop at on any given road. I pulled off onto the shoulder and tried to convince him to relieve himself in the woods. This was far too silly for him (and possibly too cold outside); he assured me he could wait until we got to the store. Not a moment too late we pulled into the Best Buy parking lot and he announced again, "Momma! Have to go potty now, please!" We unloaded as quickly as possible and high tailed it into Best Buys restroom. We spent probably 10 minutes in there between letting our toddler use the restroom and washing all 3 of the boys hands (how many times do I have to tell them not to touch anything in a public restroom?). Unlike all the wasted time in the restroom, the customer pick up line was a breeze. I went to the customer service desk where it was marked customer pick up and showed them the email Best Buy sent me with the product information. They looked at my credit card and ID and then gave me a receipt to sign and my battery thing-a-ma-bobber that my dad had selected. Super easy, even with 3 kids in tow, one of them a newly potty trained toddler and the other an asthmatic.

Now we are home and Im charging this battery back up thing, the APC Battery Backup. Here is a picture of it:

The instruction manual is very technical, but my dad says that we will be able to run our nebulizer while the power is out and charge our cell phones and such. Apparently it is also a surge protector. I know my husband will like checking it out when he gets home from school today. I feel a huge sense of relief knowing that we have a back up plan. The instruction manual says it takes 24 hours for the battery to fully charge; knock on wood our power doesnt go out before then!

March 2014 cover
Image courtesy of Realsimple.com

Real Simple knew that I would be needing some helpful tips this week. This months Real Simple, March 2014, included "5 Ways to Keep One Bad Thing from Ruining Your Day." In their "Life Lessons: Expertise" section they have 5 tips from experts dealing on a topic. This topic just happened to be highly applicable to life at home with kids. Making firm plans when you have kids requires a crystal ball (read "Of children and plans"). Our days never go as planned. Now we are balancing potty training and an asthma flare up; our days have been far outside of what we normally would expect for a week. My favorite tip in the Real Simple article was "Expect the worst." Under "Expect the worst," written by Ari Fleisher, a former White House Press Secretary, it says, "Expect that on any given day, something unexpected will happen. Then it wont rattle you, and you can stay calm as you deal with it" (pg. 56 of the March 2014 magazine).

Im not sure what else today holds for us. So far our potty training toddler hasnt had any accidents. Our oldest son is a little tired of being cooped up in the house for the past couple days (it is still rainy and cold outside). Our asthmatic toddler, on day 4 of Orapred, still isnt sounding as great as I hoped he would and is on Albuterol every 4-5 hours right now. Im not really sure what a "normal" day is when you have kids. Just like the Real Simple article recommends, I can always expect the unexpected.

And while our days never go as planned, they are far from boring.

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