Potty Training - Take 6(ish)

Kyler is finally potty trained!!! We knew he could do it, he just apparently wasn't quite ready yet. We had tried a little a couple of months back before Myelle was born (mostly Grandma did the work) but he was uncooperative so we gave up after a day or so. We also tried again at Christmas when Brett was off work for several days to help but Kyler was again not interested in cooperating. So I guess technically this might be our sixth attempt.

The turning point occurred last week. I had been putting him in cloth diapers for a couple of reasons. First, Myelle was wearing them so it wasn't much more trouble to just have two in them at once. Second, they allow Kyler to feel the wetness so he doesn't like them as much. There were a couple of mornings where he would wake up and start playing without me even waking up. During that time he would dirty his diaper and not let me know. He had a couple of pretty bad diaper rashes as a result. I kept explaining that this is why he needs to start going on the potty chair so he won't get ouchies on his butt. Last Thursday morning he did this again so after I washed him up I left him bare bottomed to help the rash heal up. And during that time I got him to go potty on the potty chair.

I left him mostly bare bottomed Thursday and Friday and he occasionally would have underwear on. He was doing pretty good about going on the potty chair. I constantly asked him if he had to go and reminded him not to go in his underwear (or on my floor if he was bare bottomed). We spent lots of time on the potty chair reading books and trying to get the potty to come out. And when he did we would go crazy praising him and he would get a tootsie roll (we have a huge gallon bag full from the parade this summer that we've been using as potty bribes). We were putting him in cloth diapers at night and he would usually dirty them in the mornings before we got him changed.

Over the weekend he started doing even better. He was in underwear pretty much all the time even when sleeping. By Sunday, he only had one accident after his nap when we didn't make him go to the potty chair right away. He was also having trouble pooping on the potty chair and would start to go in his underwear when we would catch him and run him to the potty chair. Starting Sunday night, he did awesome even at night. He would wake up asking for water so I would go in and ask him if he needed to go on the potty chair. He did and I would get him a drink while he was sitting there. So for the past two nights he hasn't had an accident even at night. He is actually waking up to go on the potty chair which I think is pretty amazing. 

He has kept his underwear dry since Sunday after his nap at this point (and it is Tuesday morning). He did start to poop in his underwear earlier this morning but then later went on the potty chair so hopefully we have broken that barrier and we are on our way to being fully potty trained. It is great not having to change two kids' diapers. The next thing is to get him to go on a regular toilet which I think is probably going to be a big battle since Kyler is very stubborn about change (and he sits on his potty so it will be a big change for him). And we also need to work on teaching him to pull his pants down and up on his own so he is completely independent. For now, I'm happy with where he's at and we are so proud of him for finally taking this step. He even said yesterday, "I don't want to wear baby diapers anymore." Yay!

Update 1/25/13: Kyler's last accident was on Tuesday after his nap. He was too busy looking for something and must have forgotten to run to the potty chair. It is now Friday morning. He has the potty mastered and even asked to use the big toilet a couple of times (and was successful). He also seems to have gotten the hang of going #2 as he went twice yesterday, both on the potty without me forcing him to sit and try to go. Instead he asked to go and was able to. Last night he actually got up out of bed on his own, went to the bathroom, pulled his pants down and went potty. I only woke up because he was asking for a drink while sitting on the pot. He still needs help pulling his pants back up most time, and getting them down when he has his jeans on. We are really in disbelief about how well he's doing. I think we'll pack up the diapers today and I don't even see a reason to keep the plastic pants out since he's done so well at night.

Potty Training - Take 2, and 3

We had tried potty training for about a day back around Easter when Kyler got his potty chair and some underwear. At that point, it became obvious that he didn't understand how to "turn it on." He would sit forever and not go and then be playing and oblivious to the fact that he was peeing.

At the beginning of June after he turned two, and had been showing signs of discomfort when he had a wet or dirty diaper. So I thought we would give it another shot. First I tried a method I read on potty training in a day where one of the things you do is run back and forth 10 times from the spot they had an accident to the potty chair saying "no potty on the floor, potty on the potty chair." This did catch his attention but he thought it was funny and didn't take it as a lesson. In fact, the second accident he has was when he was bare bottomed and he was smiling as he peed right in my kitchen. So I decided enough was enough and ended up scolding him and making him sit in time out. I know you're not really supposed to do that but I was pretty confident he knew exactly what he was doing.

At that point I decided to go back to the method I had originally tried around Easter. I basically tried to pay complete attention to him and look for signs that he needs to go. Once you do this, it's fairly easy to tell but you don't have much reaction time. I showed him his options for using the potty (his little one or a stool to stand on to hit the big toilet). He wanted his shirt off so he could see his equipment. Before I knew it he was running around in the nude... I figured whatever I am getting frustrated and tired at this point. He would stand by the door, then start saying "potty chair potty chair potty chair" while running to the bathroom and sort of pretending to go. He did this probably five times. I thought he was still thinking of me running back and forth with him. I was in the kitchen getting some stuff out for lunch when I looked over and he was standing up on the stool peeing like a big guy on the toilet. I got super excited and praised him like crazy, gave him his two jelly beans, and ran outside to get Brett for some additional praises. I continued to remind him anytime he would stand still for more than five seconds to go potty and poopy in the potty chair. He sat on the potty chair quite often and it would take a while but he would eventually go occasionally. He never did poop on the potty chair though, only once in the dog water bowl. We got busy once again (bought a house and moved) and weren't at home enough to reinforce this so ended up back in diapers.

In July, I took his diaper off one day to see how he would do. First thing that morning he peed in the potty chair on his own twice and then he pooped in it. We were so excited and he was very proud of himself. He kept asking for a diaper on though because he didn't want to be bare bottomed. I put underwear on him but every time I did that he would have an accident because he would forget that it was underwear rather than a diaper while he was playing. Day after day though, he would be accident free if he was bare bottomed. We sent him to daycare one day with underwear and they said he would not even go near the potty chair. Bummer! I also realized that I think he knows what he's doing when he wets his underwear because he would wait until I stepped outside or something like that before he would have an accident, and it would be right after I asked if he needed to go. It may just be a sign that he's not quite ready to make that big boy step yet. I think we'll give it a little more time and see if he's ready again.

The Deuce

Poor Kyler is never going to live this story down. It's the one we will tell all of his girlfriends to embarrass him. We are working on potty training and Kyler has figured out when he needs to go but he is a pretty independent little guy and likes to do his business on his own. So he has been running around the house in the nude with his mama reminding him to use the potty chair if he needs to go. He was in the bathroom for more than a few minutes so I asked his dad to peek in and see what he was doing. What he was doing was squatting over the dog dish finishing up his #2. Dada quickly put him on the toilet but the job was already done.