my experience with potty training thus far
i'm usually pretty pumped about "new stages" for my kids. solid foods are fun, walking for the first time is oh-so-exciting, and i especially LOVE first words and language explosions. but for me, potty training does not fit into this list!! ethan is sort of potty training, but i don't really know if i can call it potty training. it's like a pre-game warmup or actually more like off-season training. haha. i guess we've been doing this for a few weeks. we started by just sitting on the potty every now and then to get used to it. and one day he peed 3 little drops, and i made the biggest deal i could out of it! now i ask him if he needs to go on the potty, and if he doesn't, i don't push it. if he says yes, off we go to the potty! he often tells me on his own when he needs to go, and he's usually right. he gets stickers for actually going, and when he gets 5 stickers, he gets a treat. but i think he's more motivated by getting to wipe and flush the toilet! oh and i'm sure my "potty dance" throws a little motivation in there. ha! if he goes poo-poo, i usually go straight to the treat and give him a few chocolate chips. (sorry for the bad brown association there! it's what i had on hand!)
like most other things, i have read about potty training on the internet and have asked some of my friends. but i honestly have not approached this task with my usual gusto. maybe i'm finally starting to mellow out a little after baby #2 (as brian laughs). you're right honey, that's probably not it. i think my hesitation to go all-out-big-boy-pants-with-no-diapers is that i really don't want to deal with the mess of accidents. i KNOW, i know... they are inevitable, they are part of the process, i just need to get over it. but i'm not there yet. and he's my first kid. but goodness, if we want a few more children, i'd better get used to accidents, huh?? well, pull-ups are "training" me for accidents. against my most-trusted-mommy-friend's advice, i used pull-ups with ethan during the day for a little while simply for the convenience of putting them on after he's gone potty (vs. laying down to put on a diaper-- lazy, i know). well after two wet beds during naptime and this experience: "what's that?" (ethan pointing to a blob on the kitchen floor) "i don't know ethan, what is it?" "poo-poo mommy!", i am not convinced that pull-ups are the way to go. so i just need to get up the nerve to put ethan in his choo-choo train (thomas) underwear that he picked out and take him potty every thirty minutes. so you can pray about that for me.
here's some potty training ethan-trivia for you:
- in the beginning of this, i was about to change ethan's diaper, and he said, "i need to go poo-poo in the potty mommy. take a picture of me." you know you take too many pictures when...
- he can tell me whether it's a "big poo-poo" or a "little poo-poo". this makes me laugh!!
- he had a wonderful time calling all the grandparents the first time he went poop in the potty. my dad was in a meeting (which he didn't tell me) and when we got off the phone, my dad announced to his meeting about ethan's success.
so for all of you more-experienced moms, please pass on your potty training advice. i am allllllllllll ears!
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15 comments:
I have no advice...but I will share in your fun. We are starting officially next week. BIG GIRL PANTIES and all. I hesitated cause we dont have a washer dryer in our apt. I dread hacing a bucket full of poop and urine! But she is SO ready and it must be done. Ugh.
Check my blog for updates! :) And I will do the same for you.
melanie
Ok, here is my advice on potty training. This stuff worked with Paxton but you know that every kid is different. We used the pull ups cool alerts, this really worked well with Paxton, he was trained within a couple of weeks. We did M&Ms everytime he went. We also started training on the big potty first. It worked better because then I didn't have to tranition him to it later. Paxton kind of trained mostly on his own though because a couple weeks before he turned two he just started staying dry all day (in his pull ups), so then I just started putting him in underwear after a few days of all day dryness. Anyway, that's my two cents. Good luck!
I would suggest you buy some rubber underwear. You put on the "Big boy" cloth undies then the rubber underwear on top. It cuts down on mess and keeps "it" next to his skin so he will be uncomfortable and remeber to go to the potty next time.
LOL How's that for a run on sentence.
Good luck!-Amie Ladd
I have no advice. We bought one of those little potty seats that fits over the toilet, and Wesley practically wrapped his legs around his neck to keep us from sitting him on it. I talked to several friends and they all said boys often do not potty train until they are 3. All moms agreed that girls are easier to potty train, and do it earlier than boys. Gives us something to look forward to, huh?! I don't know Kim, but if I lived near her, I would bring Wesley over and rub Paxton all over him for good potty-training ju-ju! I'm NEVER heard of such an easy experience for a boy that's just turned two! Pretty impressive!
Good luck!
With my luck, it will be the opposite effect on the girl/boy thing. Lorelei probably won't potty train until she's 4!! Hope my comment didn't sound cocky, it really wasn't much of what we did, so I don't mean to sound like I did something great! Just trying to help!
Um, yeah, we're still potty training. Girl just doesn't tell me if she needs to pee (but will for poop, and let me tell you, i'm happy with that!). What has helped for me (and her) is to set the timer on the oven to beep when it is time for her to go and sit. She knows that when the clock goes beep beep beep, it's time for potty. We started it at 30 minutes for a few days, then upped to an hour. Oh, and ditto on skipping the potty seat altogether. Alanna has always done the seat on the big potty and can get up on there by herself. It also makes for a better transition to sit on a really toilet (with my help, and only after it has been propery sprayed with lysol spray and wiped down, haha) when we're out and about. It isn't scary for her to sit on the big potty.
My only other advice is to not get your hopes up that he'll just train in 2 weeks, although some do and that's nice. He may regress some here and there, like, if your house floods and you have to move to a hotel for a week (did I mention that Alanna has peed on the floor TWICE since we've been at this hotel???).
Okay, enough of my novel!
oh, I'm loving the fact that you have a boy (and a baby girl)
I plan on weening all kinds of information from you and your blog. :)
-Daisha
Did you use the word "pumped" and the phrase "potty-training" in the same post??
Ha.
Well, you know my advice will certainly include, "Since Ethan and Lydia are exactly alike..." hahaha.
Okay, seriously my advice is do exactly what you're doing and don't stress! Ethan really is probably like Lydia in this area as well, and will eventually likely need a big nudge from the management of the house such as, "Okay, Ethan. We've been doing this for _ months. It's all done. No more diapers. Today, Ethan, you have graduated to big-boyhood, and it's no more diapers for you." You know that's what I did with Lydia about a week after M was born, and she was like, "Oh? Cool."
:) He's so cute reading his book on the potty. "Take a picture of me on the potty..." Hilarious.
We turned potty training into a game for our boys. Both of our boys like to pee standing up and absolutely refuse to sit on the pot. So we took cheerios, put some into the toilet and told them to aim for the cheerios. As they got better at letting us know when they needed to go potty, we cut back on how many cheerios we used until there weren't any left. Going poop took longer to get down, but it eventually followed.
Sound like you are doing all the right things and doing great!
My advice - no stress out about it; take your time and let him take his time. I've learn if I pushed my kids they got frustrated and didn't want to try at all, just keep doing what you are doing and one day it will just click for him.
We did keep a jar of MM's in the bathroom for treats. One MM for peep-peep and three MM's for poop!
By the way - I do agree with the rubber pants. My kids hated it when they were wet with those on.
I used Pull-ups only when we were going out after we were completely diaper-free and weren't quite ready for "big-boy-pants" out and about.
Good luck!
One more word of advice - PRAY!
Hi there,
I am a cousin of your sister in-law(Kristie).My name is Bethany,and I have three kiddos under the age of three(and we are expecting our fourth in March).I would like to suggest a book to you,that helped us greatly.It's called "Potty training in a day." I realize that this sounds impossible,as I too had doubts.But,to my joy and relief,it works!For the life of me I can not remember the author,and a friend of mine is borrowing the book.I am sure it's on amazon.Good luck potty training!
wow, i'm so glad you're doing this before me...i will be coming to you for advice in the near future! :) sounds like you are off to a good start!
thank you all for your wonderful potty training advice!!! yesterday, i set the kitchen timer every 30 minutes, and ethan peed in the potty like clockwork! i was a wimp, though, and kept his diaper on him.... we'll see when i get up the courage for his big boy underwear.... baby steps, baby steps! he did pretty well keeping his diaper dry the rest of the day, and boy did he get conditioned to that timer quickly!!! a couple of times, i was cooking something in the microwave, and he heard it beep, and he said, "time to potty!" and ran straight back to the bathroom! :) of course i didn't argue. :) so thanks for all your encouragement. we'll keep truckin along!
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