As promised in my last post, we did some hard core potty training this week. Wow. They should warn you about potty training before you get pregnant. It was horrible!
Monday was our last day of diapers. I got as much as I could get done around the house and Monday morning I had a meeting at the hospital where the kids spent months in the NICU. I was asked to be on the family advisory council. I guess when you spend months at the hospital and spend a couple million on your kids you get asked to be on these things! Drew took the kids and went to the first night of vacation bible school. They had fun dancing to the music but I hear they didn’t like it when Drew tried to leave them in the nursery. I think they still had fun on their last evening in diapers.
I know everyone potty trains differently, but I decided to try the 3 Day Potty Training method by Lora Jensen. It’s 3 days of doing nothing but watching your kid(s) and trying to catch them starting to pee or poop and running them to the potty. It’s 3 days of saying, “Tell Mommy or Daddy if you need to go to the potty.”
It has been a tough week for us. The hardest part was giving up any form of a life. On the first morning of potty training a friend called and while talking to her we missed Will pooping. From then on I knew I honestly had to devote all my time and energy to this project. Normally I’m doing something while the kids are playing. This week it was just us sitting and staring at the kids, waiting for them to pee. I’m sure they actually loved it because they got so much more focused attention this week.
Tuesday morning was d-day. As soon as they woke up I sat them on the potty and then put them in big kid underpants. Will had worn them before, back in May when I played around with potty training. Lindy had never worn them. The kids peed and pooped all day long in their pants. Each time we would run them to the potty and try to get them to finish in the potty. It was a really long, hard day. Lindy did NOT like feeling wet when she peed. She would cry so hard whenever she did wet herself. Drew spent all day Tuesday helping me but had to leave in the early evening for vacation bible school. It was like they knew I was alone and they started having accidents at the same time. I was harried and completely frazzled by the time they went to bed. (In pull-ups. I’m not brave enough to even attempt potty training at nap or night time).
One reason I was so worried all day Tuesday is because we are living in a rental house right now and I did not want to ruin the carpet with this potty training adventure. Wednesday morning I was up way early and at Walmart by 6:15am to get drop clothes to protect the carpet. We covered the play room and living room floors and I’m so glad we did. I could breathe a little easier knowing if they did go it was on plastic, not the carpet.
Wednesday proceeded on, exactly like Tuesday had. Accidents all day long and us saying, “Tell us if you have to go potty.” We had a few successes, catching them and having them finish on the potty. We chose to give the kids stickers on a sticker chart if they did put any pee in the potty. Neither seemed to be getting it at all.
Thursday we woke up and kept on with the “Tell Mommy when you need to go to the potty.” I was really doubting whether this was going to work when lo and behold, Will said, “Need to go potty.”!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1 A breakthrough!!!! I kissed him all over, clapped, yelled, and went crazy. I think he knew I was excited. A little while later he told me again. GrandBob dropped by for a little visit and I think he went 3 times while he was here. It seemed like it was clicking! He saw how excited we were and he enjoyed getting stickers for his chart. After he filled his first one up he got a new Play-Doh toy and a piece of candy. He liked those treats a lot! He really started getting motivated for stickers and more treats after that! He woke up from his nap and continued to do well.
I had planned all week to go back to vacation bible school on Thursday night. I put them in pull-ups just in case but Will did great! He told us 3 times he needed to go and didn’t have any accidents.
Friday continued on the same way with him telling me all day when he had to pee. He filled up another sticker chart and was proud of himself as well. We went back to vacation bible school Friday night and he did great again. Except that he quickly figured out that if he told us he needed to go to the potty that we’d take him and he didn’t have to sit and be quiet. He told us about 10 times he had to go potty. We took him every time and every time he peed, even if it was just the tiniest amount. I’m shocked how quickly he figured that one out.
He has done great all day today as well. We headed to Raleigh to meet my friend Jamie’s brand new baby and then we went to another friend’s daughter’s 1st birthday party. He has been in a pull-up all day just because I was nervous but he has done awesome!
I will say that he is not pooping in the potty. I don’t think he is not pooping in the potty on purpose, I think he honestly just hasn’t gotten that part yet. We’ll keep working hard to get that part accomplished but I’m a little nervous. I keep hearing horror stories from so many people how their kids refused to poop in the potty. We shall see!
Lindy? Lindy you ask? Well she is NOT potty trained. It just didn’t work for her. She cried so hard when she peed on herself on Tuesday and most of Wednesday but Wednesday afternoon she started to not mind so much. After that she’d pee and be completely fine. Sometimes she’d come tell me and other times I’d feel her and she’d be wet. I kept going with it but decided by late Friday morning that it just wasn’t working. This was right after the time when she was standing next to me and the next second she was laying flat on her back on the kitchen floor. I looked down to find the biggest puddle of pee to date and she had stepped in it and her feet went out from under her and she landed on her back. I put her in a pull-up for the rest of the day and she totally didn’t care and continued peeing in them all afternoon. I just don’t think she is ready. I’m going to keep telling her to tell us when she needs to go but I’m going to back off her and try again later. I’ll still put her on the potty though, I’m not totally backing off. One fun thing about potty training Lindy was dealing with her braces. She really needs to wear them most of the day, but when she had them on and had accidents, she would get the straps on the braces wet with urine. It wasn’t fun! I ended up rinsing the straps out each night and letting them dry overnight. Not too many people have to deal with that little problem!
So as my friend Callie said, I’m 1/4 of the way done. Which I personally think sounds like we have a lot left to do. But I’ll take one kid who can tell me when he can pee in the potty over nothing.
We were supposed to have hearing therapy on Thursday but our teacher cancelled because she was sick. I don’t know the last time we had an appointment free week. They don’t happen often.
Real life can now resume. I can go back to doing things around my house and checking my email and answering the phones! We have a week full of appointments and a big 3rd birthday party!!
Heading to the first night of vacation bible school on Monday night.
Can you believe Lindy and Will turn 3 this week???????????????????????????
3 comments:
Bravo to you for sticking with it. I think I would have gave up the 1st day! Did either one show any interest in it before you decided to try? I am still leaning towards waiting until Molly and Luke show interest. I figure I still have 6 months since they just turned 2 and 1/2 before people start questioning me why I haven't started. Thanks for sharing your potty training story. Have a great week!
Hey Andrea, Will has been going pee on the potty forever, just before bath time and whenever I felt like putting him on it. He would always go, even if just a little bit. Lindy just started going pee a few weeks ago. Neither showed any real desire although they had started coming to tell me immediately after they pooped. I could tell they wanted to be changed. Neither ever asked to go to the potty. Our method worked for Will but we'll obviously have to wait till Lindy is more ready.
Bryce still does not have the pooping on the potty completely done yet. He pooped quite a few times on the potty and Angela gave him new toys as a reward but we find some days he is holding his poop. She still has to put him in a diaper at nap and nighttime because that is when he poops when he holds it. Good Luck. The pooping part is not easy but hang in there. It will happen.
Paulette
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