Potty Training Comes Back to Haunt Us

We have been hopeful that Seth could be done with diapers completely before we started to buy diapers for baby number 2. The time is coming close and our nights are not so dry lately!

Over the last long weekend there was a lot of change in routine, so I only pray that things will return to normal soon. Changing sheets in the night is no fun! (In fact, changing sheets at all when you are nine months pregnant is down right painful.) Seth of course is crying and frozen from being wet and we are trying to pull out bedding and get wet cloths off. It can seem like midnight chaos at best.

So here's the question: What measures have you found that help with night wetting? Do you use a special sheet protector? What makes night time changes less hassle for the whole family? And last but not least, at what age did your children get control over bed wetting? I would love to know.

PS - Seth is in a Twin size bed, not a toddler bed.

Life of the Potty: Some Good but Some Bad

Seth has continued to grow in his potty usage. At ECFE on Wednesday while we were all playing in the gym he stopped and looked at me and yelled, "I feel my pee coming!" I scooped him up and ran for the door while hearing a few other parents yelling, "go" in the background. (I love the camaraderie in this!) We made it in time and what a huge success. Even Seth was so proud of himself. That was a good day!

Yesterday we were having another great day but after lunch on day care days all chaos breaks out as I am trying to clean up lunch and get kids down for nap. In that said chaos Seth's poop came, "fast" as he told me later, in his underwear. Now this has happened to all of us in the business of potty training, but this one was particularly gross and in bad timing. While hearing the screams of another child (what can one person do at a time like this?) I practically had to hose Seth down to get all the poop off and to make matters even more exciting...the chunk I could get in the potty clogged the toilet! I had no time to deal with it then and of course forgot about it until later when I had to use the restroom and had to run around wielding the plunger to do so. Not a good day.

This morning at two am I am roused from my sleep by the sound of Seth yelling, "Mom, my pee is coming!" At first I think I must be dreaming (or is that having a nightmare?) but then my semi-conscious state realizes that this is the real deal. I run to his room about knocking myself out hitting the door jam so hard. I get Seth untangled from the bed and then again hit the door in the process of getting to the bathroom. (Waking up from a dead sleep at 2 am does not go well for me!) He then wants the heater on, our little one that we keep in the bathroom because our bathroom is actually unheated. I do so and about curl up and die out of exhaustion. It takes the pee a full ten minutes to come. If that isn't bad enough Seth is totally awake during this time. He rubs my leg while I lay on the floor next to him and tells me, "Mom you need to shave." Hello, it's 2 in the morning - are you kidding me?! Then he proceeds to tell me what he wants to do today. I just nod in shock and frustration of the whole situation. Fortunately he went right back to bed with no fuss but there I lay at 2:30 am thinking, "I never figured these days when I dreamed of being a mom!"

Will this be a good day? I guess we will see when the tiny man wakes up...

Total Immersion Update

Our two weeks of Total Immersion Potty Training has come to an end and I have to say it was worth it. We wear underwear unless we are in bed and have done pull-ups when we go to school or church, to be safe. He has actually had days without any accidents at all!

In fact, Seth is doing so well with the potty that we have pulled out the official "big prize", a "Mack that can pull Lightning McQueen to California for the big race" as Seth calls it. After this prize is earned we are done with prizes! He will wear his underwear unless in bed and use the potty whenever he needs. Though mom or dad still needs to help with pulling up and down pants as he wants shoes off and totally naked lower half to use the potty. I will still encourage the use of the potty, but I will no longer take him every hour or two to make him "try". He needs to be able to tell me when the pee is coming or who is really potty trained anyway?!

There have been some great stories along the way and many toys earned (12 Cars in all - quite the investment), but I think that we are finally there. At least we are not turning back and that is just about as important as moving forward. Do we say he is Potty Trained now?!

Total Immersion

You have heard of French or Spanish Immersion schools. Well, we have just opened the doors to Potty Training Immersion School! All are NOT welcome. Seth is our only current student and I expect to keep it that way for a long time. As a mother and teacher I can only handle so much!

I explained to him yesterday that we are throwing out the diapers unless we are sleeping (bed messes are not worth it and dry nights take awhile so why push?!). He was adamant that didn't sound like a good idea but I pushed and he is now going with the flow. Well for the most part. It is sometimes flowing down his leg and not into the potty.

We hope that Potty Training Immersion School will force Seth over the edge of earning stickers to finding self fulfillment in using the potty. Will this be a success?! I am sure you will hear more but first semester evaluations will be due in two weeks according to dad. Then I will let you know if you yourself should open a Potty Training Immersion School.

Our basic curriculum consists of wearing underwear and sitting on the potty every hour to hour and a half to "try" to use it properly. When he feels the need he is to tell mom and we will run to the potty. We are also learning how to pull down and up our pants and underwear without the assistance of others. Key to this process is also positive reinforcement through stickers and continued earning toys until the semester ends. At that time we hope to put a large toy up for grabs and end the whole potty training school with a graduation party!

As this is a school open to new ideas and the thoughts of others, your input would be greatly appreciated. Until then enjoy some laughs as you watch the video...

An All Encompassing Post

Here are the yummy - no not from scratch - cupcakes we made and decorated for Tate's birthday. Seth actually did most the work, I just ran the oven and put on the frosting. What a great little helper he is!

Seth hopes we celebrate more birthdays - he wants more cupcakes!

Who doesn't love cupcakes?! Tate was even able to shove this one in on his own!

This is one of those days where too much has happened and it all just needs to go in one "All Encompassing Post".

Part 1: It's Tuesday which means its a Day Care day and ultimately a busy day too. It's also January 20th which means it is Tate's 2nd Birthday! Seth and I made cupcakes yesterday so we could celebrate with Tate today. They were so yummy! We had them as a dessert after lunch. Tate ate his whole cupcake and then held out his bowl, "More!" I think that makes him an official two year old.

Happy 2nd Birthday Tate!

Part 2: Seth told me this morning that it today was going to be a good earning day. In our house that means we are going to earn stickers by peeing and pooping on the potty. I told him that sounded great and to let me know when he needed help to get to the bathroom. Not ten minutes later he pooped on the potty and let me put him in underwear. (He does not usually like underwear at all so this was exciting for me.) About an hour later I encouraged him to go and sit on the potty and just give it a try - he peed like a pro! Now we were at three stickers, putting him at two away from his next prize, Fillmore (die cast Cars toy). He had one accident just before lunch time so we changed and then after lunch he tells me he needs to run to the potty, "My poop is coming!" I was coming from upstairs having just put the Birthday Boy in bed so he was already wet, but the poop did come in the potty. Best part of all - he sat on the big potty and got to flush it! That means mom didn't have to scrape it out of the potty chair - Woot! I just put him down for nap so we will see what happens this afternoon but I would call it a successful morning of potty training! Fillmore is a riot to add to our collection too : )

My new favorite lunch - wow, it even looks good!

Part 3: I am sick of cold meat sandwiches for lunch! I have been eating a ton of them lately. They are cheap and easy and yada, yada, yada, but I am done - no more for awhile. That said I was at the grocery store yesterday looking for options. I came across a recipe for wraps that we wanted to give a try again but I actually found the Sundried Tomato Basil Wraps for them. It saved my lunch problem, at least for today. I filled my wrap with lettuce, tomato, cucumber, provolone cheese, sliced turkey and doused it in fat free Ranch dressing. It was wonderful. With a side of fresh fruit: strawberries, blueberries and kiwi it almost felt heavenly. If only lunch could taste this good everyday!

Getting Down to Business, Sort Of

Thursday I got Seth into underwear after he woke up. As much as I hate it, the underwear does help them feel that wet/dry difference and an important component in the toilet training process. So he peed in the potty around 7 am and then by ten am he had wet his pants five times. He always came to tell me immediately when he was wet so we would go to the bathroom, peel off his soaking wet pants, have him sit on the potty, and then put on clean clothes since nothing else was coming. How can you pee so many times in so little time?!

Shortly after ten he told me his poop was coming and he wanted some privacy on the potty. I heard him reading and then he hollars, "It came!" No problem with the pooping department at all, which I hear is usually the harder part. Then we had four more wet messes before 11 am!

At 12:30 we put on diapers and got ready for nap. After waking from nap he refused to put on underpants again. Bribery didn't even work. He told me, "He was done for the day." As if this is some kind of torture or something! Well, it is for me too. I had two full loads of laundry plus the fear that wherever my child sat in my house is now covered in urine! My potty training phobias are in high gear.

Today when he woke up and asked him if we could put on underwear. He said "No" and I think it was almost a relief. Maybe I just don't have the mental game for this. Yet, I feel if somehow I can get my son successfully potty trained I will be able to survive the rest of motherhood. It's not looking good folks...

Potty Training Revisited

So here is something for laughs: The Peter Potty Toddler Urinal can be purchased for $40.

The chronicles of our potty training days were last seen in July on this blog. During that time we have made numerous attempts to get Seth motivated to use the toilet. We have not been above bribery. We started passing out two M&M's for every time he peed and then gave four for a poop. (Why so many? I would never eat one M&M at a time so didn't expect it would be a worthy bribe. Would you?) Now we have moved on to the sticker chart. For every ten stickers Seth earns (one for pee, two for poop) he earns a car from the movie Cars - those little die cast deals that actually cost $3.50 a pop! He has earned four cars and now a set of five Matchbox cars as of the other night. I think I am going to need another job if we keep this up.

On Monday night I had to start a new chart and just made up a quick one myself with some Cars stickers since that seems to be our theme. I pulled out of hiding The King - his next earning toy and placed it in the bathroom drawer with the sticker chart. It was where we kept the last one. Tuesday morning Seth goes in to use the potty and since he has yet to learn how to take his pants off on his own I was called in to participate. He told me some poop was coming which he always wants privacy for. Yes, I actually have to leave the bathroom and the door must be closed. This is very disconcerting as I always expect to come back in to poop smeared all over my child and the walls - potty training phobia revealed! Anyway he got a bit more creative this time, instead of pooping he put all the stickers on his chart thus appearing as if he had in fact earned his new toy. Boy genius, stupid mom!

After explaining that this would not work we cleaned up and got on with our day though stupid mom should have realized that putting the stickers where said child could not reach them would have been a smart idea. After boy genius did it a second time I got wise to his scheming and now the stickers are MINE!

We are still wearing diapers and just trying little reminders and encouraging him to stay dry. We did one day with underwear and after washing eight pears of underwear and just as many pairs of pants I said no way - we would wear underwear until we showed a bit more motivation. Is that wrong? I don't care - my sanity is at stake here too!

Speaking of sanity...Why is it that your child only needs to use the potty when you are in the middle of something else. As in buck naked in the shower with shampoo in your hair or trying to stir the soup to keep dinner from burning or when you are rocking the baby to sleep or...you get the picture. It is like he waits until I have my hands full and then pulls out the attention getter: "I feel my pee/poop coming - let's run!"

So here's the thing. I am in this again now and wonder how I get myself out. How long do we reward? Will he be motivated to do this without rewards? How do you explain that you pee/poop for the sheer reward of not having an embarrassing accident? Now that would be a site. (Adam Sandler just popped into my head - movie memory.) I seriously don't know that he is ready to commit, just as I question my own readiness. So what is potty trained? How do we determine - Yes, he's done it!?

Once again I need your help and advice. What on earth do I do now?

An Ode To Underwear

Underwear, underwear
why are thou underwear?
I wash thee, I scrub thee
to rid the poop an pee.

In potty training,
Seth is gaining,
but I am blundering,
most often suffering.

I dream at night
of the going potty plight.
I still have some fight
but just not tonight?

Okay, enough of "on the fly" poetry. Pretty funny though and about sums it up. Seth is getting better and better while I seem to be running out of patience. He has put his poop in the potty for two days in a row now and that is like a miracle. Unless you have been there, you have no idea how horrid it is to scrape and scrub poop out of underwear! I have rubber gloves at the ready and a bucket of suds with underwear piling up day after day. Yikes! I think moms ought to get rewards for potty training their kids! Maybe like a day at the spa or at least a pedicure?! (Hope my husband reads this one!)

We leave for our Fourth of July travels this week and I am not sure what to expect in the potty training department. Will things completely fall apart or will he shine and show me he really does understand what I mean when I say, "Can you hold it?" Instead of just grabbing his crotch and hanging on for dear life? I guess the Urine Soaked Adventure continues and we just wait and see.

A Urine Soaked Adventure

Seth is on Day Four of Potty Training. We are having way more successes than accidents, but the stress level is a way high. I think we both have felt like shut-ins the past few days just running around the house in our underwear. Ammendment - Seth is wearing only underwear, mom does have clothes on, well pajamas are considered clothes, right?

Today we had to get out and run some errands just for sanity alone. Seth went on the potty before we left and then put on a pair of Pull-Ups just to be on the safe side. We drove through the drive up at the bank and deposited checks, stopped at the Veterinarians and purchased cat food. (This used to be a quick stop where I could park at the window and run in but once Seth learned that there were two cats in the building he now has to come in to pet them. Ahh...gone are the days of quick errands!)

After finally kissing the cats goodbye we headed to Babies R Us for some all important potty training equipment. We needed a fold up seat for the diaper bag (thanks to your advice) and something to protect the car seat from accidents as we have an eight hour drive to Nebraska coming up next week. Seth was smitten with the fold up Elmo seat. I had to remind him this was not a toy, he would need to sit on it to use the potty. We also picked up a "piddle pad" for the car seat. (Anyone have one? Is it worth the $7?!) I asked Seth if he needed to use the bathroom before we left as it had now been one hour since our last "production". He said no.

After that is was a short run through Target for a a few more training pants and to do a some last minute coupon shopping before the end of the month. Apparently everyone is potty training - they had no training pants in his size. Yikes! We checked out and I told Seth that we would go to the library for some new books next, but he had to try the potty first.

He was really excited to try his Elmo seat and thanks to the clean family bathroom at Super Target we were able to get situated with no trouble and surprise, surprise he did it. He went potty in public! And on a huge toilet seat, well, with the help of Elmo! I was in shock, a dry pull-up and going in a public restroom too. He must have thought I lost is when I kept saying "great job" and kissing him.

After that ginormous success (yes, I love that word) we went to the library. I was on cloud nine and sure we were headed for more success the rest of the day. Oh right, that advice about being patient...should've listened better.

Since lunch we have had four accidents and three of them were in the crib. (For the sake of the time line it is now after 2pm, lunch was at 11:30am and now I have no more clean sheets!) Where does it all come from for crying out loud?! He went to the bathroom right before we crawled into bed and then ten minutes later he is screaming my name and totally soaked! He was really upset about it too. He kept saying "no potty in the bed" over and over. I kept saying I was so proud of him for telling me and that we will just keep trying, but poor kid, he is taking it rough. Then it happened again, and again! (To keep from napping or is this just my take as a mother after it happened one too many times?) I just hope he can sleep awhile because we are both pooped! (Sorry, couldn't find a better word.) To top it off company arrives later this afternoon.

Those of you who pray - push me to the top of your prayer list. My motherhood skills are being tried and tested and I feel I am not proving worthy of this task!

Tips for Tots Tuesday: Potty Training

We are officially in day two of potty training. It took Dad getting him in big boy pants, but I can take that is stride. (Really, I spent all last week trying to get to that point and all it took Dad was one morning. Wow!) In fact the more involved Jason gets the better it goes. Men have this patience with determination factor that women just don't always have. He tells Seth the way it's going to be in a loving but all business fashion and more often then not, done deal!

Today we have had a lot of laundry to do as Seth is still trying to figure out when he needs to go as apposed to mom asking him all the time. I think today we will try to just sit on the potty every hour and see what happens. If it means less messes great. The most important thing to me is that HE ends up potty trained, not me. For example, if the only reason he sits on the potty to go is because I ask him then I am really the one who is trained. Where as if Seth feels the need to go and runs in the bathroom by himself, HE is the one who is truly trained. The whole purpose here is to build confidence and set the stage for a lifetime of making it to the bathroom in time. Oh and don't forget good hygiene, hand washing is a must!

That's my take thus far but there are some things I need to know. Can you help me?

1. How do you handle a public restroom? (We are teaching Seth to sit and those BIG toilets might be kind of scary...)

2. How many pairs of underwear does one kid logically need?! (We are using the Gerber training pants for now as they have a little extra protection built right in and are really soft cotton too.)

3. What other products/things have you found handy? A particular book to read to your child, treats, stickers, prizes (or other downright bribery), a way to protect your car seat, high fiber or salty foods to induce production, etc.?

4. How do you pack your "diaper bag" now that you don't use diapers?

5. What do you do for nap and bed time? I am told that night training takes place later and plan to use diapers for night but what about during nap time?

So that sums up my thoughts from today and where we are so far in this crazy, scary thing called Potty Training. I need your answers and your help wherever you can assist! Please leave a comment so I can learn more... Thanks!

Next Week: Fun in the Sun. Let's chat about how you keep your kids safe out in the sun. Sunscreen, sun hats, swim wear, you name it. We all need it!

Potty Training? No...Potty Practicing

(Okay, so there are times when you can't use your own kid in a post photo so this will have to do. We have the same chair in white.)

Well I had hoped that Seth would start to get excited about using the potty sooner or later, but really I had hoped for this summer when we could do some naked Potty Camp training in the back yard. It appears that he may want to get out of diapers sooner than that.

This past week we checked out a book for kids about Potty Training. Seth was fascinated by it and wants to read it over and over. On Sunday Jason and I were out without him for a short while and decided to pick up a little potty chair just for kicks. (We have sat him on the big toilet but it was a bit much for him to handle.) He saw it in the car when we picked him up and said, "potty." A new word for him.

When we all got home it was time to get into the bathtub anyway so we asked him if he wanted to sit on his new potty. He loved the idea and jumped on. The book said "get something to do, it can take awhile" so we grabbed a book and he was eating a banana too. Lo and behold a few minutes of waiting and he had done it. There was "pee" in the chair! This was a bit exciting to say the least and we gave him oodles of praise, I mean encouragement for the process. (That whole debate on praise verses encouragement will have to wait for another post.)

I freaked out. (Also, not something you want to do as a parent!) I am SO not prepared for this stage yet! I haven't read all the books from the library, I have not sought out wisdom from other mother's of successfully potty trained boys, I have not...the list goes on. If you know me and my Type A personality you also know that I am fearful of potty training. I hate messes, especially ones involving germs! All I picture is this naked little boy running all over my house spraying the walls and furniture with urine and dropping a load on my cream carpet. Laugh yourself silly, but this is my fear.

Monday morning Seth woke up and told me he was wet. I asked him if he wanted to sit on the chair. He of course said yes. So we headed to the bathroom for what, I was not sure. He wanted to sit and we again "got something to do." I, being the impatient parent, realized that sitting there watching him do nothing was getting boring fast. I decided that this would be a perfect time to shower. He would be right next to me and if he needed me I could reach out and help, but odds were he would just sit there and read...right?

Well once I got in the shower things got a bit crazy. I had told him to let me know when he was done. I should have specified when he had "peed". I guess he decided it would be best to take care of things himself, all things. He got up of his chair, got his own toilet paper to wipe (my husband tells me this is not necessary, guess I wouldn't know how guys do these things huh...), and also "cleaned" out the "pee" in his chair. Yikes! I had missed it all. He peeked in the back of the shower curtain after all this had somehow taken place to let me know he was "done." There was the phobia kicking in, for real. There could be "pee" anywhere. I got out my bleach wipes and went nuts, but I did remember to give Seth praise before I went crazy cleaning.

During the day I offered a chance to sit on the potty chair and he tried once, or was it twice, but nothing happened and today he was not interested yet at all. So am I potty training? No, I think we are just potty practicing. But I am more ready now. I have some training pants and Pull Ups just in case he decides to take this thing all the way. I also have every potty training book at the library on request in hopes I do have a bit more time to prepare my brain.