I think we're in the final stretch of potty training. Yesterday and today have been normal, good days. I have felt like myself again. The boys peed when I asked them to, in a timely manner (not sitting there for 3 minutes playing, then deciding they didn't need to pee). A few times they told me they needed to pee. Yesterday the only accident was at 6 pm while at dinner. C and N have been good pooping, and L has gone in his diaper at naptime, which I'm not thrilled with, but it's not in underwear and he is not holding it in and therefore peeing all over the floor. I have been relaxed and haven't snapped at my kids like I was earlier in the week. I think we've hit a new normal.
They are still in diapers at bedtime and will be for some time, I'm sure. As far as naptime, normally 1 or 2 of them are still dry when they wake up. So really I'm to about half the diapers I was using...but that is better. :)
Showing posts with label potty. Show all posts
Showing posts with label potty. Show all posts
Thursday, September 1, 2011
Friday, August 26, 2011
End of the week
Yesterday and today we got out of the house to some parks. I took a potty in the trunk, thinking I would be glad to have it. Really, it was just a fun toy. The boys didn't pee in it, but they all sure did want to be in the trunk, playing with the different potty, running amuk. It took about 10 minutes of me bending over the trunk, pulling down shorts, etc, etc...and then nothing was produced.
N did have an accident while we were out both days, but just him. In fact, L and C did great all day yesterday (no accidents) and L only had one accident today (because Mike and Dorothy had just gotten here and he was excited). N, on the other hand, had more accidents than successes yesterday, so today I really focused on him.
He started out the same today...in fact before naptime I was a bit concerned because he had peed so little (one accident and once in the pot). I was kind of worried that he would just keep holding it! But then I figured him out...
This experience has been the first time that I can think of where I have had to look at my kids as individuals, not as just "the little boys". I guess that's not totally true...but it is for the first time recently, or at least where I have recognized their individual personalities.
C has had to go frequently. He was the first to be able to tell me he had to go, and has almost always been able to go on command. When we first started introducing them to the potty, he just figured it out...point it down and go. He still is really good about it.
L is a bit of a camel...he does not have to or want to go often. He will tell me, and he will go, IF he has to. He has always been our stubborn boy, and it is true with this as well. If he doesn't have to go, he won't just go because I ask him to (while C will).
N, well, he has been difficult. He is still the most surprised when he actually does go. He is very easily distracted (the magazine! the silver tp holder! someone else's potty seat!). He refuses to go if he doesn't want to...in fact I'm still not sure he really "gets" how it works. But over the past few days I have realized that he needs to be by himself to go, and it is best if he has a favorite book (don't read our Cars Seek and Find Book!). So I shut him in and walk out, and after a minute he comes barreling out, "peepee mama!"
This evening I think I figured out how to make it work (for the next few weeks, anyway). As long as C and L have to go, I can send them in and make them go, send them out, send N in, shut the door, and let him go. That worked this afternoon...all 3 were totally accident free. We'll see about tomorrow...
This week has been killer for me. I didn't expect to be quite so mentally, emotionally, and physically wiped out. I am exhausted. I guess it also was Nate and Z's first full weeks of school...that adds a lot too. But man, I am wiped. Haven't been this tired in a long time. I was WITH my kids every waking hour for 3 days in a row. Of course I am always "with" them, but they are not 3 feet from me all day long. And the past few days, while they have gotten a bit farther away from me, they are still RIGHT THERE. I think we are on the upswing...I am fairly confident about L and C's abilities, and hopeful that N will finally really start to get it, so I can have a bit more space back. :)
Oh, and poop...amazing! C pooped in his pants the first 2 days, and once on the potty since. N has never pooped in his pants, just the pot, and L has pooped in the pot and in his naptime diaper. Score. I can handle that!
Unbelievable that we have just about cleared this hurdle. Last major hurdle beyond this one (that makes me sick just thinking about it) is getting rid of the peapods. I don't think that will happen ANY time soon though!
N did have an accident while we were out both days, but just him. In fact, L and C did great all day yesterday (no accidents) and L only had one accident today (because Mike and Dorothy had just gotten here and he was excited). N, on the other hand, had more accidents than successes yesterday, so today I really focused on him.
He started out the same today...in fact before naptime I was a bit concerned because he had peed so little (one accident and once in the pot). I was kind of worried that he would just keep holding it! But then I figured him out...
This experience has been the first time that I can think of where I have had to look at my kids as individuals, not as just "the little boys". I guess that's not totally true...but it is for the first time recently, or at least where I have recognized their individual personalities.
C has had to go frequently. He was the first to be able to tell me he had to go, and has almost always been able to go on command. When we first started introducing them to the potty, he just figured it out...point it down and go. He still is really good about it.
L is a bit of a camel...he does not have to or want to go often. He will tell me, and he will go, IF he has to. He has always been our stubborn boy, and it is true with this as well. If he doesn't have to go, he won't just go because I ask him to (while C will).
N, well, he has been difficult. He is still the most surprised when he actually does go. He is very easily distracted (the magazine! the silver tp holder! someone else's potty seat!). He refuses to go if he doesn't want to...in fact I'm still not sure he really "gets" how it works. But over the past few days I have realized that he needs to be by himself to go, and it is best if he has a favorite book (don't read our Cars Seek and Find Book!). So I shut him in and walk out, and after a minute he comes barreling out, "peepee mama!"
This evening I think I figured out how to make it work (for the next few weeks, anyway). As long as C and L have to go, I can send them in and make them go, send them out, send N in, shut the door, and let him go. That worked this afternoon...all 3 were totally accident free. We'll see about tomorrow...
This week has been killer for me. I didn't expect to be quite so mentally, emotionally, and physically wiped out. I am exhausted. I guess it also was Nate and Z's first full weeks of school...that adds a lot too. But man, I am wiped. Haven't been this tired in a long time. I was WITH my kids every waking hour for 3 days in a row. Of course I am always "with" them, but they are not 3 feet from me all day long. And the past few days, while they have gotten a bit farther away from me, they are still RIGHT THERE. I think we are on the upswing...I am fairly confident about L and C's abilities, and hopeful that N will finally really start to get it, so I can have a bit more space back. :)
Oh, and poop...amazing! C pooped in his pants the first 2 days, and once on the potty since. N has never pooped in his pants, just the pot, and L has pooped in the pot and in his naptime diaper. Score. I can handle that!
Unbelievable that we have just about cleared this hurdle. Last major hurdle beyond this one (that makes me sick just thinking about it) is getting rid of the peapods. I don't think that will happen ANY time soon though!
Wednesday, August 24, 2011
Day 3
Pretty exhausted over here, but the kids have done great. I had 2 puddles today, and I think only 1 set of wet undies. Other than that, the kids told me when they needed to go. I asked about every 5 minutes if they needed to go, and they were able to tell me. And each one went at least 5 times on the potty. The only problem is that they are not great at going on command yet (as in, please try, we need to leave the house and I don't want you to pee in the car). Oh, and the other problem is that there are still a lot of false alarms. I'd say that for every time someone actually peed in the potty there were 2 other "tries". It was awesome when they did that at lunch and dinner time...."peepee potty mama!". I had to get each of them out at least once during each meal...I can't wait until I can tell them to just hold it. But that will be a while.
I have been pretty short with them because I'm tired. I need to get out of here for a bit! I don't like to be that way with them :(
Tomorrow we are back to our normal life, except that there will be more potty stops, I will have to scope out the bathroom every place we go, and will have to tote my backpack with 3+ changes of clothes and plastic bags for wet clothes. And this is better than diapers....?
I have been pretty short with them because I'm tired. I need to get out of here for a bit! I don't like to be that way with them :(
Tomorrow we are back to our normal life, except that there will be more potty stops, I will have to scope out the bathroom every place we go, and will have to tote my backpack with 3+ changes of clothes and plastic bags for wet clothes. And this is better than diapers....?
Tuesday, August 23, 2011
Day 2
This morning was great. C and L really seem to get the idea...they had wet undies a few times but no puddles. I didn't ever set the timer, just asked over and over and over and over "do you need to go potty? Tell mama if you have to pee. Do you need to go potty?" C and L were pretty good about telling me when they did. N, on the other hand, was where C and L were yesterday. He peed on the pot maybe twice yesterday, and I guess held it a lot, or peed all at once a few times. Today he peed all over several times, BUT also got a lot in the pot. Hoping he does better tomorrow. Not really surprised that it is N who is giving me a hard time! L and N also pooped on the potty, which is amazing. C did not, and his undies today were bad enough that they went straight to the trash ;)
We had a rough time after lunch when we all went outside to wait for the bus. In the 20 minutes we were out there we had 4 accidents....sigh...
The boys took only an hour nap, which made this afternoon ROUGH. I had VERY little patience with them. I was ok with them about the potty training, but them screaming and fighting and yelling and screaming some more over toys because they were overtired...THAT I did not have patience for. It made for a long afternoon. They still did pretty well on the potty, I think...but again, I am/was just so tired and crabby at them for screaming that I don't really have a good picture of how good or bad they did.
They also sometimes just want to go in and sit down and read the books in there and not really pee. I swear, I pulled up and down undies I bet at least 100 times today. 3 times an hour per kid for 10 hours? 99? At least? Whew.
Tomorrow I will push liquids hard again...the last day. They need one more day of me asking them over and over again and really focused practice. Thursday, though, we are back to 1 or 1.5 glasses of liquid before lunch, not the 3-4 we've had the past few days. That should make it easier.
I am glad that I have done them all at once...but I am still exhausted. It actually kind of reminds me of when they were babies...and I have NO CLUE how I survived that kind of exhaustion...I can only figure that it was maternal hormones and adrenaline. For now, though, I have wine, brownies, and ice cream :)
We had a rough time after lunch when we all went outside to wait for the bus. In the 20 minutes we were out there we had 4 accidents....sigh...
The boys took only an hour nap, which made this afternoon ROUGH. I had VERY little patience with them. I was ok with them about the potty training, but them screaming and fighting and yelling and screaming some more over toys because they were overtired...THAT I did not have patience for. It made for a long afternoon. They still did pretty well on the potty, I think...but again, I am/was just so tired and crabby at them for screaming that I don't really have a good picture of how good or bad they did.
They also sometimes just want to go in and sit down and read the books in there and not really pee. I swear, I pulled up and down undies I bet at least 100 times today. 3 times an hour per kid for 10 hours? 99? At least? Whew.
Tomorrow I will push liquids hard again...the last day. They need one more day of me asking them over and over again and really focused practice. Thursday, though, we are back to 1 or 1.5 glasses of liquid before lunch, not the 3-4 we've had the past few days. That should make it easier.
I am glad that I have done them all at once...but I am still exhausted. It actually kind of reminds me of when they were babies...and I have NO CLUE how I survived that kind of exhaustion...I can only figure that it was maternal hormones and adrenaline. For now, though, I have wine, brownies, and ice cream :)
Monday, August 22, 2011
Potty training boot camp
Potty training boot camp began here this morning!
I start my morning Community Bible Study again in 2 weeks (so excited!!!), and wanted the boys to be mostly ok by then, so I decided that this was the week.
We got drinks, chocolate chips, and undies. I took all of the pillows off the couches, rolled up the area rug, brought up the basement toys, shut all the bedroom doors, and set up the 3 potties in the bathroom. (Because I don't care who says what, I pretty much refuse to have potty seats in my kitchen/family room/dining room/basement. In fact, as soon as they are all pretty well trained, I am tossing the potty chairs and going with just 1 potty seat for the real toilet...the chairs just kind of gross me out PLUS they take up all the space in my bathroom!)
And then we let the fun begin.
Our first stop was at 8, where C promptly peed. L sat. Z cheered on the stool. I sat on the real toilet. N cried and cried because he didn't get a magazine he wanted. The crying, on top of the glass and a half of grape juice that was drunk quickly and excitedly, caused his entire breakfast to come up. Z screams "it's on my feet!", C starts gagging, and I start cracking up trying to clean it up. Literally laughing at the purple puke that has miraculously hit mostly his potty and the floor in front of it (and Z's feet). And that was the bang that started us ;)
Thankfully it was not nearly as exciting as that all day long. It was rough, though. I had Z all morning (tried to find someone to take him but couldn't get anyone), and he just needed stuff...for example, he decided that this was the morning he wanted to paint. So he got out all of his paints, which had dried up, and he needed me to open them, etc, etc. Poor thing, I did feel bad for him, he was so neglected, but seriously. I finally pulled out a Color Wonder thing Dorothy and I had gotten a few weeks ago and let him play with it.
Whenever I was helping Z, the kids decided to pee. One would start peeing, so I would run them in, and as I was getting him situated, another one (or two) would pee all over. They have not mastered emptying the entire bladder at once, either, so it would all come out in 5 trips over 25 minutes. Times 3. It was pretty much exhausting. And now that I think of it, kind of a blur. I repeated "Boys, stay dry! Tell Mama if you have to pee!" over and over and over. I set a timer for every 15 minutes, and if it went off and we hadn't peed all over yet, we all ran in to go sit and try to pee (it went off about 3 times total in the 5 hour morning).
All said and done, this morning we went through 24 pairs of undies, and had 6 successes in the potty. I was never so happy to put diapers on my kids as I was at naptime!
This afternoon they did much better...12 successes and only 6 messes! I think that they were getting it, along with the fact that Nate was home to help me out and deal with Z, or deal with the others if I was in the bathroom with one. They started telling me "Peepee Mama!" and they actually followed through. It was nice to sit with the boys in the bathroom, too, one on one. And I started to recognize their "signs" as to when they were going to pee, so could run them in even if they didn't ask.
I have dedicated 2 more days to being home and doing nothing but potty training. I am hoping and praying that that is all it takes...and I think we're off to a good start. I have no expectations for them to be dry during naptime or bedtime, so they will keep wearing diapers then until I notice that they're staying dry (although 2 kids have woken up with dry diapers at naptime several days, so we'll see).
And one good thing about potty training this time? When I was potty training Z I was about 8-10 weeks pregnant with the babies. Every time he pooped in his undies, man, I lost whatever was in my stomach. It was horrid. Glad to not be doing that this time!
Here's to another fun tomorrow!
I start my morning Community Bible Study again in 2 weeks (so excited!!!), and wanted the boys to be mostly ok by then, so I decided that this was the week.
We got drinks, chocolate chips, and undies. I took all of the pillows off the couches, rolled up the area rug, brought up the basement toys, shut all the bedroom doors, and set up the 3 potties in the bathroom. (Because I don't care who says what, I pretty much refuse to have potty seats in my kitchen/family room/dining room/basement. In fact, as soon as they are all pretty well trained, I am tossing the potty chairs and going with just 1 potty seat for the real toilet...the chairs just kind of gross me out PLUS they take up all the space in my bathroom!)
And then we let the fun begin.
Our first stop was at 8, where C promptly peed. L sat. Z cheered on the stool. I sat on the real toilet. N cried and cried because he didn't get a magazine he wanted. The crying, on top of the glass and a half of grape juice that was drunk quickly and excitedly, caused his entire breakfast to come up. Z screams "it's on my feet!", C starts gagging, and I start cracking up trying to clean it up. Literally laughing at the purple puke that has miraculously hit mostly his potty and the floor in front of it (and Z's feet). And that was the bang that started us ;)
Thankfully it was not nearly as exciting as that all day long. It was rough, though. I had Z all morning (tried to find someone to take him but couldn't get anyone), and he just needed stuff...for example, he decided that this was the morning he wanted to paint. So he got out all of his paints, which had dried up, and he needed me to open them, etc, etc. Poor thing, I did feel bad for him, he was so neglected, but seriously. I finally pulled out a Color Wonder thing Dorothy and I had gotten a few weeks ago and let him play with it.
Whenever I was helping Z, the kids decided to pee. One would start peeing, so I would run them in, and as I was getting him situated, another one (or two) would pee all over. They have not mastered emptying the entire bladder at once, either, so it would all come out in 5 trips over 25 minutes. Times 3. It was pretty much exhausting. And now that I think of it, kind of a blur. I repeated "Boys, stay dry! Tell Mama if you have to pee!" over and over and over. I set a timer for every 15 minutes, and if it went off and we hadn't peed all over yet, we all ran in to go sit and try to pee (it went off about 3 times total in the 5 hour morning).
All said and done, this morning we went through 24 pairs of undies, and had 6 successes in the potty. I was never so happy to put diapers on my kids as I was at naptime!
This afternoon they did much better...12 successes and only 6 messes! I think that they were getting it, along with the fact that Nate was home to help me out and deal with Z, or deal with the others if I was in the bathroom with one. They started telling me "Peepee Mama!" and they actually followed through. It was nice to sit with the boys in the bathroom, too, one on one. And I started to recognize their "signs" as to when they were going to pee, so could run them in even if they didn't ask.
I have dedicated 2 more days to being home and doing nothing but potty training. I am hoping and praying that that is all it takes...and I think we're off to a good start. I have no expectations for them to be dry during naptime or bedtime, so they will keep wearing diapers then until I notice that they're staying dry (although 2 kids have woken up with dry diapers at naptime several days, so we'll see).
And one good thing about potty training this time? When I was potty training Z I was about 8-10 weeks pregnant with the babies. Every time he pooped in his undies, man, I lost whatever was in my stomach. It was horrid. Glad to not be doing that this time!
Here's to another fun tomorrow!
Saturday, July 30, 2011
Potties
Yes, it is here.
Potty training.
I have not really started hard core yet, but am warming the kids up to the idea. We bought some undies for them, and they have been sitting on the potty at diaper change times (in the morning, before nap, and before baths). We have had some successes, so that is good.
In a few weeks, though, we will go all out, and drop diapers entirely and spend a few days in potty training boot camp. It sounds kind of miserable...our bathroom is the size of my thumb (literally about 15 square feet of open area) and having 3 boys, me, Z, 3 potty seats, and a bench for the sink makes it crazy crowded and HOT. Anyway, that's in a few weeks, since we still have an out of town trip, school starts, etc, etc.
A few cute pictures...this first one cracks me up every time I look at it! The funniest part is that the underwear Z is wearing is his first underwear (size 4T, the same size the little boys are wearing!). I think it got pulled out while I was sorting and it got thrown in his drawer. I also think his look over his shoulder is a riot.
Z loved to read catalogs while he sat on the pot, so I pulled some out for the little boys. They love to look at all the toys. The catalogs are already starting to get pulled to shreds, since they are all fighting over them...we'll see how long they last. But this picture is so cute!
Potty training.
I have not really started hard core yet, but am warming the kids up to the idea. We bought some undies for them, and they have been sitting on the potty at diaper change times (in the morning, before nap, and before baths). We have had some successes, so that is good.
In a few weeks, though, we will go all out, and drop diapers entirely and spend a few days in potty training boot camp. It sounds kind of miserable...our bathroom is the size of my thumb (literally about 15 square feet of open area) and having 3 boys, me, Z, 3 potty seats, and a bench for the sink makes it crazy crowded and HOT. Anyway, that's in a few weeks, since we still have an out of town trip, school starts, etc, etc.
A few cute pictures...this first one cracks me up every time I look at it! The funniest part is that the underwear Z is wearing is his first underwear (size 4T, the same size the little boys are wearing!). I think it got pulled out while I was sorting and it got thrown in his drawer. I also think his look over his shoulder is a riot.
Z loved to read catalogs while he sat on the pot, so I pulled some out for the little boys. They love to look at all the toys. The catalogs are already starting to get pulled to shreds, since they are all fighting over them...we'll see how long they last. But this picture is so cute!
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