Tales from the potty

I've been meaning to write a post about out potty training adventures for awhile now. I had no plans to get serious with it, but Jack has really surprised me. I'm letting him lead the way (for now) and so far he's doing very well for having just turned 2. Prepare yourself for a semi-long, detailed read of our journey!

I introduced the potty to Jack when he was just 1, sitting him on it while I prepared his bath at night. Sometimes he would go but mostly he just sat there patiently. Anytime I go I tell him what I'm doing and I always ask him if he wants to go too. For awhile he consistently said no. In fact his response was usually, "no, don't like it."

I don't know when, but he started wanting to sit on the potty again. He was waking up very early in the mornings with wet pajamas and nothing seemed to be helping. I started sitting him on the potty at night and limiting his water. What really worked was me telling him I was going potty and asking if he wanted to go to. We could go together, I told him. So I would go first and then say, "Now Jack's turn. Ready, set...go!" And he would immediately start peeing. Awesome! After maybe a week or 2, he would just start going as soon as he sat on the potty without waiting for me. Great! Then one morning I told him I needed to go potty and he said, "No Jack go potty too." So we started going every morning as well as every night. 8 times out of 10 he actually goes. Once in awhile he sits but nothing happens and occasionally he tells me he doesn't want to go. He also goes at daycare when asked and the week before last, he pooped on the potty every single day!!

I feel we've made great progress. The only problem is he doesn't ask to use the potty or tell me when his diaper is dirty. When I know he's going poo-poo in his diaper, I ask him if he wants to go potty and the answer is always no. Then when I know he's finished and I tell him we need to change his diaper, he runs away from me. He either really doesn't care about being dirty, or he still needs time to really get it.

To try and motivate him, I printed out a sticker chart found here. He definitely liked it, but eventually he just wanted the stickers for himself. I'd ask him to pick a sticker from the sheet and he'd run off with them! We did fill up one chart and I printed a second one, but it's lost it's power. The morning we put the final sticker on our first chart, I told him how proud of him I was and that he could have pancakes for breakfast. After breakfast he was playing with his animal magnets, took the rabbit, kissed it, and said, "I'm so proud of you bunny." So sweet!!!

Over the last week, he's stopped caring about us going potty together. He even started sitting on his potty seat on the big potty. A lot less clean up for mommy! Sometimes, even if he's just gone, he'll see me on the potty and say, "Jack sit on little potty!" I'm just glad he wants to go!

This morning he had his coat on and we were ready to walk out the door when he actually told me he needed to go potty. I don't remember the exact words he used, but he mentioned going poo-poo. His diaper was a little wet but otherwise clean, so I stripped off his pants and diaper and sat him down. Nothing happened but he did push and then said, "need napkin now" and he reached for the toilet paper. At least he tried!

I decided to buy him some Pampers easy-ups which I'm going to put him in this weekend. Since he is going so much (up to 3-4 times a day), it'll make it easier. Now I'm just waiting for the day he tells me he needs to go and actually does! I'm amazed with the progress thus far and I'll just keep asking and encouraging him.

It's so crazy that we're at this point now. Where does the time go? I'll try to update more frequently as we continue on this journey. Oh, and as for the nighttime wetting, the solution for us has been Gerber plastic pants. I got a pair from Target near the cloth diapers. I just put them over his diaper and it really works! He does wake up a little damp on occasion, but it's very infrequent now. Hallelujah!

Valentine's Day post coming tonight with some cute pictures I took of Jack this morning!