I realized I changed 23 diapers yesterday! That's a lot. Stewart was taking two days worth of diapers out and the trash bag was so heavy he decided to weigh it. 50 pounds it was! 50 pounds! Well, not anymore!!! I decided it is potty training time at the Rasmussen house.
I am crossing my fingers that I can train both Bridger and Angeli at the same time. I am not too sure Angie is ready but ready or not I am giving her the chance to wow me. Today was my grand kick off. We went to the store and bought stuff to make their own potty charts complete with glitter, pictures, and stickers. And of course even more bribery in the form of candy. So far so good. Bridger has loved helping me make his chart and when I explained to him what he would do he kept saying "Yay, Mommy! This is fun. Fun!" Since then he has gone pee once and half a poop...he didn't quite make it there in time. So in the first hour things have gone pretty well. I will be interested in how Angeli does, she has not been introduced to the whole thing yet because she is napping. It might not go too well with her right now because she is getting her two year molars in. Poor girly.
They go from their baby pictures to their big kid pictures.
Homely I know but they think they are great. :) Angi is yet to pick her big kid picture out. Notice Bridger's first sticker?!?!?!
So I feel unsure because I am still working out all the bugs. It has been awhile since I have faced a new phase of parenthood. So I have some questions:
How long does this whole thing take?
What should my expectations be?
How often do I ask them if they need to go?
When you are training do you basically stay at home for a couple weeks or do you go places and put diapers or pull-ups on when you are out?
When the "fun" wears off how do I get them to comply if they decide to go back to diapers?
Do I just let them go back if they want too and not make it a big deal?
Is there some amazing thing you do when potty training that I should know about?
8 comments:
Okay. Here's my two cents. Since you know, I'm an expert. :) But seriously, Patrick's mostly trained--I don't really know when I'll call it 100% trained.
So, I was procrastinating, until Kennedy was born and a few months old. We had experimented with the potty, with undies, with pull-ups; but no serious training until then.
Then after our vacation last July, we got home and Patrick declared that he was wearing undies and I decided that if he was in them, he was in them for good. So, all daytime was in undies from then on. The exceptions were pull-ups for church and long car trips, both of which have been done away with now. He still wears a pull-up to bed, but he's been dry for a week now, so we're about to try overnights. That is one thing I'd do differently, looking back. We put him in Pull-ups at night, but the overnight pullups are expensive and the cheapies leak, bigtime. I think I'd just use diapers at night for as long as you can hold out.
I would think that for Bridge at least, he should be in undies from now on, no matter what, just since he's old enough. If Angi resists, and it ceases to be fun for her, I'd let her go back but she's probably old enough too.
If it were me, and I was doing 2 for 1, I think I'd just set a timer for every hour or so and have everyone go potty at the same time, for the first few weeks, until they really start listening to their own bodies. At home, I'd keep them in undies and long t-shirts and just turn the heat up a little to save on the piles of laundry, and make it easier for them to be successful. I know some peopl are big on putting the potty in the LR, but that grosses me out. I think the location of your bathroom is fine--you'll just have to keep in open and easy to get to. Also, Patrick never really liked the little potty on the floor. He did much better with a stepstool and the padded ring insert on the big potty and then moved on fairly quickly to just using the real thing. Incidentally, I made sure that he learned to pee sitting down for the first few months and then daddy taught him the standing up method. Another big thing has just been training myself to be brave and take them out in undies--stash clean clothes for EVERYONE in the car for emergencies from here on out. I keep not having them for Patrick, as you well know. And you have to train yourself to make the potty the last thing everyone does before leaving the house.
Oh. As for poop underwear, just....yuck. Most of them can be rinsed in the sink, stain sprayed, and washed SOON. But I will admit, I've thrown a few pairs away, especially the few public poop accidents we've had. Thankfully, most of the accidents are pee, which is nasty but much easier to clean up. Invest in some Resolve for the day to day stuff and plan a major carpet cleaning for when you're all done!
Sorry this turned into a dissertation. Apparently I have a lot to say about this. I'm really interested to hear how it goes--I'm thinking (hoping) that it'll go really fast doing both at the same time! Good luck!
Man I'm not looking forward to that, good luck.
When my mom was training my little brother's she would put cheerios in the toilet for them to aim at...that's all I got! I know nothing really!!! But good luck!
Emily, I just barely went through this with my little girl who is barely 2, and you need to go out and by a book called, "Toilet Training in Less than a Day!" I swear by it, and it will answer ALL possible questions about potty training. Also, the book is only like $6, and SO- worth it. It is really hard at first, but if you stick with it, it really works. :0) GOOD LUCK! Let me know how it goes.
I agree with AmyJane a lot on this...especially with teaching boys to pee sitting down first. It just saves the headache until they can actually aim (and for us that took more than a couple of months!!!)
When I was potty training Hailey-I typed out what we do. I found it here: http://fourfiveandunder.blogspot.com/2007/11/daily-life.html under HAILEY.
Looking back on it now, it is far more sarcastic that I would have been now typing it out (I don't know what my problem was!!) but the general idea of what has worked with all three. I said put the timer for 15 minutes and while that is a lot of buzzing and taking them to the bathroom, it saved me so many accidents and laundry. They have all been trained in a week or less. We'll start Karli in July or August.
The biggest thing we have learned: unfortunately they'll let you know when they are ready. If after a week you have more messes, more laundry than you can imagine and it makes you cranky, it is probably easier to wait a month or two and try again. It is not giving up, it is letting them be ready to make the change. Becca will tell you this and could probably give great advice. She has done a great job with Sophie.
Just know that potty training two at the same time is intense. My neighbor just did it with her three year old twin girls: double messes, double everything, but then two potty trained at the same time after was so worth it...
And finally, when you go out, changes of clothes and a roll of paper towels is a REALLY GOOD THING! Especially the paper towels!!
Good luck!!!!! ;-)
P.S. Those Christmas layouts I was telling you about are here:http://fourfiveandunder.blogspot.com/2007/12/eleventh-day-of-christmas.html
It shows what I do with Christmas card pics, and the CHristmas page from each year.
I so need to train Carter!!! Good luck!
Emily, I did read the potty training in a day book and it was good...I liked getting the concepts from it but then every kid is different and it took some huge adjusting on our part. I like the knowledge I got reading it. I think it's awesome that you are going to try both of them at the same time! I'm anxious to hear how it goes! Brayden and Adelyn were fairly easy to potty train...Sophie on the other hand was hard...that is until she was ready. My advise has changed over the years....but I think when they are excited about it and ready for it, it's soooo much easier. I tried with Sophie because she was capable but it was a fight, she didn't want to and so after about a week we went back to a diaper. I cried. I felt like I had lost...Then we waited for a while and then when we tried again it was soooo much easier!!! Hear's my advise on your questions....Yes I wash out the poopy underwear , and use spray 'n wash. As far as how long it takes it could range from a few days to a few weeks(it depends how ready they are) Expect to do a lot of laundry, clean up a lot of messes and be exausted...;) I would ask them about ever 15 min at first if they were dry...I would make them sit on the toilet about every 30 min(again it depends on the kid) I would take changes of clothes and paper towels just like Kirsten said. I think once you in big kid underwear you should stay in them...Night might be different(again I think it depends on the kid) When you are potty training them it has to come to a point where they are trained and not just you. They need to be able to tell you they need to go..once they get to that point, they will want to keep dry. For us it wasn't worth the fight and the tears...I would say if it doesn't work now you can try again in a few months. It might make all the difference!! Oh one more thing...Give them LOTS OF WATER while you are potty training them. It'll give them a lot of chances to get it down!! Good luck!! Sorry this is sooo long!! Love ya!!
I'm very lazy when it comes to potty training. As awful as it is to change diapers, I figure cleaning up accidents isn't much better. With my first two, I waited until they were 3 1/2 or so and then gave them a little time with pull-ups to get used to the idea and then a few weeks later put them in underwear full time. And, I used little potty candies in the bathroom each time they went. I know it's terrible for their teeth, but I only did it for the first few weeks to give them real motivation. My twins...haven't even started the whole process yet. Sometime in the next few weeks I will...Bless your heart...3 in diapers at once.
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