In Our Home | Potty Training & Elsie in the Hospital

First let's clear something up... the two items mentioned in the title of this post 1) Potty Training and 2) Elsie in the Hospital happened THIS weekend. Yes... I'll repeat that. THIS weekend. At the exact same time.

Fun, right?

I suppose it wouldn't be fun regardless of if they happened in back to back weeks (or even in the same month for that matter) but it was extra special that they happened the same weekend.

Impeccable timing.

Let's start with the first....

Potty Training.

We decided to start our potty training adventures this past Saturday. I did some research into various potty training techniques and decided on the 3 Day Potty Training guidelines (with a few "Steph/Nora tweaks" here and there).

It was all or nothing and we were "IN!"

Here are a few of the reasons why we decided to start last weekend (for those who are interested)...

- Alan had a 3 day weekend. Gotta love some daddy help.

- We didn't have anything else on the schedule. Perfect.

- Nora seemed interested in using the potty.

- Potty Training isn't an optional activity. Although if it were up to me I'd NEVER potty train. It's not much fun (just being honest here).

And some notes about the above photos...

1) I was given the opportunity to review the Boon Potty Bench (note: be sure to check Scottsdale Moms Blog in early February as we'll be giving away a Boon Potty). I'll tell you more of my thoughts about it on SMB but for now let's just say that we've loved it.

2) Yes - Nora is reading a Barney book on the potty. No explanation needed.

3) & 4) One of the cutest parts of the 3 Day Potty Training philosophy is that the "student" wears around panties/underwear (the wording of this item is a much debated topic in this home - which side are you on?) around the home without any pants. For 3 whole days.

So cute.

********

Elsie in the Hospital.

On the first day of our potty training adventures we noticed that Elsie just wasn't acting like herself. Sure enough that evening she had a temp of 102+, had diarrhea and vomited.

We took the best care of her that we could on Sunday and decided to take her into the Dr. on Monday morning as she wasn't doing any better. At the Dr. we were advised to watch her closely and if she became more lethargic or if she didn't have a wet diaper in the next 5 hours she suggested that we take Elsie to the ER.

Unfortunately both of those things happened so we were headed into the ER (mommy and Elsie that is.... Daddy needed to stay back with our newly potty trained Nora) with the assumption that we'd be in the ER for a couple hours and then head home later that evening.

No such luck.

We were admitted that evening because Elsie was dehydrated and the Dr. wanted to hook her up to an IV, pump some fluids in her and observe her for at least 24 hours.

It turns out Elsie ended up spending 2 days on the Pediatric floor at Scottsdale Shea Healthcare. Just. So. Sad.

Throughout the entire process we were humbled by God's faithfulness and our loved one's generosity. There is just so much we are thankful for...

Thank you to all of you who visited and kept me company while in the hospital with Elsie. It was difficult to not be able to be with Alan and Nora b/c of child visitor restrictions at the hospital due to it being RSV season (and the above mentioned potty training situation).

Thank you to all of you who brought Alan and I food the past couple days.

Thank you to all who prayed (and there were a lot of you) and showed support through FB comments, text messages and phone calls.

And lastly - thank you Lord for your healing powers.

Elsie is now home and doing much, much better! Praise God.