Saturday, January 23, 2010

Potty Training- Heaven Help Me!

So, if you have read my blog for a while, you should know that I am not the most talented potty trainer. I have no desire to train Bryce yet, mostly because Emily (at 5) is still hit or miss every once in a while.

That being said, last night Bryce started screaming that he wanted to wear underwear. I have NEVER had that happen. So, I am jumping on it. I wanted a place to keep track of his successes and accidents, and I just knew the universe would want to be update on every exciting detail, so here we go!!
Friday night- Watches Go Potty Go, reads potty books, wants to wear underwear!


Saturday
8:45am- Bryce wakes up, almost dry and I take off his diaper. He starts going pee immediately so I place him on his potty seat on the big potty. He gets an M&M- woo hoo! Off to a successful start. We set the timer for 20 minutes and turn on Go Potty Go.

8:57am- I see Bryce standing up and he is saying his pants are wet. Sure, enough, he had peed. I calmly wisk him into the bathroom and tell him it was an accident and we talk about it. (I have no idea what I am doing!)

9am- Bryce eats his breakfast, drinks milk and water.

9:20am- Bryce sits on the potty. We read 5 potty books, sing songs. It is about 15 minutes and he is done. Done at 9:35.

9:40- Yep, 5 minutes later, he has an accident. So, I calmly talk to him and tell him that Thomas wants Bryce to keep him dry.

9:50- Set the timer for 20 minutes.

10:10am-Sit on the potty. Read Curious George. No pee pee. :-)

10:20am-Set timer for 20 minutes. Bryce is watching Thomas.

10:34- Accident on the floor. Almost made it. Still trying to be calm. Changed underwear.
10:40- Set timer for 20 minutes
10:50-ate more breakfast/lunch. :-)
11:00- Had an accident 6 seconds before the timer went off. Yep, 6 seconds.
11:05- Bryce asked for a diaper and I was THIS close to throwing the towel in and letting Jeff take all 3 kids to the gym.
11:06- Realized I didn't need to give up so quickly. I am going to make it the whole day. We can do this!
11:15-Accident #5- hoping we have better luck with poo poo. Still tempting to give up. This is why I don't make it through potty training!
11:25-Accident 6- tempted to stop. Must.be.strong!
11:51-#7-
12:15pm- Success!! Stayed dry before the timer went off. Went a little pee pee!! I told him we would go outside when he went pee pee. Now I am hoping for the poo poo!
12:30-Was playing bball and had an accident. Bummer. Came inside
12:45- Restart timer
12:55- accident while eating lunch. I think it is nap time, diaper time. I will not give up yet. He is trying to go #2.
1:30-Decided we are both ready for naps! Put a diaper on for sleeping and we will try again after nap. I am enjoying the advice I am getting!

Update
On Saturday- Bryce pooped in his diaper and then decided he didn't want anything to do with the potty.

Sunday
Jeff stayed home from stake conference to try his luck with Bryce. It even went worse than Saturday. No sign of Bryce figuring out his signals. So, we have decided it is not quite time. I am relieved. :-)

Being my youngest especially, I am not quite in a rush. Thanks for all the advice. When we decide to go full force, I will definitely be taking it.

6 comments:

Rebecca said...

How old is Bryce? Elijah (20 mos) is showing major signs of potty training and I'm totally shocked! I'm not ready either!

Stephanie said...

First of all hugs to you. Potty learning is probably one of the most trying processes that kids and parents go thru.

I have a totally different approach to it. First of all I wait. I wait until I know that my kid is totally capable of it, and the hold up is just mental, not physical. With all of my girls, they were 2.75 yrs old. Spencer was 3.

Second, once I draw the line in the sand, it is drawn and there is no going back. We get rid of all diapers. Most of my kids have cried and begged me to go to the store to buy more. Nope. They are now ready to be responsible for their pottying.

Third, I take off all their clothes. Put the little potty in the middle of the room and simply go about my day. We stay home. No travelling out of the house for several days, until I figure out how long he/she can hold it. Then we bring little potty with us in the car for at least 2 mo. or so. I don't constantly remind them to use the potty. No rewards, just amazing amounts of praise when they try (false alarms are celebrated almost as much as successes). Most of my kids have had an accident or two. Pee runs down their leg and they are like what the heck? I suggest using the potty to avoid pee getting on them.

All of them had and accident or two, but after that, none. At night I usually used a pull-up for a bit to see if they woke up dry or not. Dry- no dipe at night. Wet- pull up.

After a few days of great success, we start adding back clothes. Shirt first. Day later, panties/undies. Then pants. They were all fully trained within 4-5 days.

This has worked well for me but I will reiterate waiting until they were completely ready was key. I did not go back and forth between potty learning and not. Once we started, that was it.

Good luck!

Jennifer said...

Good luck! I'm so glad to be done with that part of child rearing. I was a lot like Steph - stayed home (I potty trained Tyson during spring break so I didn't even have to worry about getting kids at school) and no more diapers. I'm not a big pull up fan, but used them during naptime for a few days. If I don't see you out in public for awhile I'll know what's going on at your house!

Kelly(M&M) said...

Hey guys! Thanks for joining with me!
Rebecca- He is 2 1/2. Dallin was pee pee trained around this same age, but had issues with #2. Emily-well, we are still struggling with her at night. I know she is just one of those lucky kids who does not have good bladder control.

Steph- I love your advice. I did decide to go no pull ups this time. He will be in a diaper just for sleeping. I tried the naked thing, but he was freaking out. He is my one kid that always has to have clothes on. I did choose this weekend because of stake conference. Tomorrow, one of us will stay home with Bryce. If I end up not being successful this week. I will wait until the summer. I just figured since he was asking I should go for it!
Jennifer- Yep, I am having to cancel some play dates! But can't cancel helping in the class. So, we will see how it goes. I only help one day a week. I think if on Monday he is still not getting it, we will try later.

skbkmjfamily said...

Way to go Kell. You are so much better than me. I am just sitting back waiting patiently for school to be over. Jace will be 3 in march and really don't feel the need to.

Good luck. You can do this. Remember it is not failing if he does not do it. My kids have all shown interest we do a test run, just like what you are doing, they want diapers, I give them back and than within a couple of months they do it. Every child, every parent is different, do what you know is best for you and for him. Also, every child is different.

K kid said...

Oh, that brings back memories of "Don't pee on Thomas!" =] I vow to procrastinate as long as I possibly can with Jackson. Maybe his mission president can do it. ;)