Potty Training on the early side

Owen was gradually potty trained from 2-3 years old. He took early to pooping on the potty and so we just basically let him go all day with underpants. But oh boy did he pee in his pants--for 6 months. He finally initiated his own peeing on the potty around 30 months -- aka "I have to go pee" but I'd say it wasn't fully realized until 36 months. Meaning, we still had to ask and remind him a lot or spot the signs (shaking a leg) and he wasn't going by himself without our presence. Personally this was better for me than changing two sets of poopy diapers so I made the push for it. I hear if you wait longer you have faster results. I was just DONE with 2 year old diapers and baby diapers.

What we had going was

Mommy: "Do you have to pee, Owen?"

(repeat 1,000 times a day)

Owen: "No"

-- then he'd pee in his pants moments later. We wouldn't have a big reaction and just change the pants and remind him that he needed to pee in the potty and when he felt that funny feeling, run to the potty. Hubs was behind me on this one too. We never put him back in diapers or ever used pull-ups, even at night. At first I bought 2-3 cloth big kid pants but he seriously NEVER peed in them, so we left him in underwear pants at night and for naps.

We went everywhere in those undies pants we just peed before we left and when we got home and took preventative measures. Basically at home we had a good routine going. Pee after waking up, pee after breakfast, pee before going out for a walk, pee when we got back... you get the idea.

He only had around 2-3 pooping accidents in his pants over the 1 year timeframe and they were sorta "excusable," if you know what I mean. He also only ever peed in his bed at night in extreme conditions, either he was super exhausted or we forgot to have him go right before bed. I have heard of people having success overnight by waking their child around 11PM or whenever they go to bed and having them sleepwalk to the toilet , pee and put them smack back in bed. We never did that. Keep in mind that Owen doesn't drink a ton of water or liquids so I'm sure this helped the process...

One of our biggest challenges with this whole process was the fine motor skills it requires to unbutton and re-button pants. Most kids are great at this from an early age (I know Harper can do it and she's only 21 months) but Owen had absolutely zero interest in dressing or undressing (still would rather have us do it) himself so pulling up and down his pants was a HUGE HUGE deal for us. We were constantly doing it. This is a boy who didn't like to put on his shoes himself, dress himself, zip up his jacket, unbutton things. He's not interested in those skills. He did like to feed himself (wouldn't let me spoon feed him past 10 months).

On his third birthday we enrolled him at a Montessori school -- they had a mid-year opening so we took it and within a week he was self-actuating bathroom skills. He went to the bathroom all by himself and even washed his hands himself. He was still having trouble pulling up his pants in the back but he got the job done well enough. His favorite thing about pre-school was that the potties were his size. I still do the wiping we are currently working on that messy skill...

It's crazy to think that soon I will be diaper-free FOREVER! WHOO HaHaHaHaHaHaHaH (cue Dr. Evil-like laugh). I will make the push with Harper early too because Mommy is ready and dedicated. I think those are really the two most important ingredients anyway.

In terms of what we bought. We were given a One Step Ahead potty, which -- eh, didn't love it. The top of the seat flaps down all the time while they are trying to put it up. I might try the Baby Bjorn potties instead...they look comfy. Yes, you still have to then process the waste... a tad better than diapers, but still dealing with too much poop for me. If your child is game, do directly to the "on top" potty seat. We bought two sit on top seats from Diapers.com (one for upstairs and one for downstairs) and also the Kushie's big kid washable pants, a fold-able travel seat and a Baby Bjorn stool. We have a wooden stool upstairs but it slides around (added some tacky stuff to bottom) and I use the BB plastic one downstairs. If you are on vacation some kids won't go in just any potty... it's not as comfy and then they'll boycott pooping and poof, you've got constipated toddler. AVOID that like the plague, BTW.

If I had another child, I might go for the elimination communication method-- this requires EXTREME parental vigilance, which I was not ready for but in the long run, could be nice results.

Potty Training Sucess!

Owen is a big boy! He is potty trained. I am so happy! About every six weeks I'd try for the morning to take off his diaper and either let him run around naked or just put on underpants. He would pee in them all. 16 pairs one morning. So I knew he wasn't ready. It was frustrating because the child has pooped in the potty since 20 months. Finally this last two weeks he seemed to stay dry longer. One day he said, "I have to pee" and ran to the potty... that time he didn't make it but he recognized the feeling and within a week or so he was holding it!

I don't know when you drop the diaper at nap time and bedtime... I'll have to ask some other mom's because he seems ready for that too since his nap and bedtime diapers are dry after he wakes up.

Here are some things he's said recently.
Mommy: "Owen, how did you like camping last night?"
Owen: "I peed on a tree"
"No, Thank you" -- he says this to the funniest stuff. I need to write one down.
"Aweee, it's okay girl" (he says this to Kaibee when Thunder rolls outside-- she get scared)
"Mommy are you sending messages?" When I'm at the computer he says this.
from the bathroom, "Harper, Chill"
after sleeping in our bed... Matt went to check on him and he was at the top of the stairs (he had let himself out of our room -- probably the first time he's woken up from sleep and been able to get out of bed himself) "Daddy, I cannot go anywhere"
Owen, what is your favorite thing about school? (we visited a preschool and meet the teachers at Matt's elementary campus) "The mini potties," what else, "I can wash my hands in the sink myself."
Vovo Pirate told Owen that if he could keep his pants dry and pee in the potty, she would give him a truck, he said, "I need to pee in the potty now." She said she would give the truck to the mailman and now every time the doorbell rings Owen says, "it's the truck!"

Potty Training | how to tackle with a toddler under 2 years

HA HA. Like I know the answer to the title of this post. But seriously, I should give you the update on cloth diapers past the age of 18 months. Um, it gets a little old dealing with "adult" size, shape and yes you guessed it smelling poop on a daily basis. I kept wondering, "When does this potty training stuff begin?" because,

I'm READY!!!

So, being the cheap, I mean *green* mother that I am (Seriously the cat is out of the bag, I STILL don't have my compost bin over here. Can someone just drop that thing off? I used to be such a good com-poster. AH hem, being the *green* mother that I am, I asked about used potties (is that gross?) on my MOM'S Club North email listserve. I love this group ladies, if you are a Flagstaff Mom, it's a great way to network amoug other moms and swap stuff... errr, like used potties and find used cribs and all that on the cheap. I get so many bags of clothes from other mom's just dropped at my door and when we had Harper they arranged for 10 meals for me in the first two weeks. It was luxury. It's $25 a year, so it's a DEAL!


ANYWAY... I got one, for free. AND...

I put it in the bathroom. Matt and I (and Tia Kate) talked endlessly about pooping, peeing and potties with Owen for months. We bought Once Upon a Potty (used of course) and read it (note: I changed some words in that book because I am just NOT calling it "pee pee and poo poo." I just call it what it is: poop and pee. No need for double cutesy words around here. Also, it's a penis folks, and that's what we call it. So we read Once Upon a Potty (just saw online that there is a DVD) and a Mom's club friend also gave me "Elmo's Potty" book and the more potty books and potty talk the better. We also let Owen come with us to the potty and talked about pooping. I mean this might sound weird, but there is no privacy when you have kids, people, it's all in the open, so just embrace it. He was very curious and I think that helped. We would talk about how big boys don't cry (HAHAHAAH) and big boys poop on the potty and little babies (ie: my new baby Harper) pees and poops in their diapers.

Let the brainwashing begin...

Starting at 20 months we had a lot of success with him peeing on the potty at the end of the day right before we changed his final diaper. He had been peeing on the potty just once a day for a truck sticker for about 6-8 weeks. We kept asking if he wanted to try pooping on the potty but he would always say "no" and get a little irritated. I figured we shouldn't rush him especially at this age. I kept reminding him if he did end up pooping, he would get a lollipop.

One day (around 21.5 months) Owen didn't stop chattering and didn't fall asleep for his nap. (this kid naps like a champ and he doesn't like his fragile schedule to be interrupted). So, it was easy to know something was wrong (also clue#2 was that he farted a lot of times when I was reading him stories before naptime). After 1 hour and 20 minutes of chatter but no sleep, I went into his room and said,

"Do you have to poop?"
Owen: "YEAH"
Mommy: "Oh, do you want to try pooping on the potty?"
Owen: reluctantly, "Yeah"

I know a golden opportunity when it presents itself. I wanted to take a video of him but you'll read why I couldn't. Lucky for me Harper was fast asleep giving this pooping adventure my full attention.

So I put him on the potty and he says
"Mommy come back"
which I took to mean, GO AWAY!!
So I did. He wanted his privacy and hey, even though the irony there is thick, I respected that. So my home office is on the landing right outside the bathroom and I just clicked around on Facebook nervously hoping he didn't poop on the floor or something. I kept checking back and he was just sitting there reading his books. On the third peek I saw him leaning over the wicker magazine basket in the corner making a grunting sound.

"OH SHIT" was really what I wanted to say, but instead I gather my most calming *mommy* voice and said,

"Owen, if you have to poop, go ahead and do it in the potty, would you like me to move your potty to this corner of the bathroom?"

Owen, "YEAH"

Mommy, "okay"

I'm thinking, "that was a close one." I check back in a few minutes and sure enough it was stinky in there and I could see he had finished his business. At this point he was having so much fun on the potty reading his books that he wanted to continue doing that... SO.... I let him enjoy this moment (15 minutes of it) as I figured rushing it could give him a bad experience.
After he was done I made a BIG deal about it, exclaiming how proud I was and using my *outdoor voice* indoors. Telling him how badly I wanted to tell Daddy. I read him two stories, gave him a lollipop and put him down for a real late nap. He was content to sleep.

In the two weeks since then, he's done amazing. We are still taking it slow keeping the diapers on but he's pooped 10 for 11 tries in the potty. Last week we went to Las Vegas to visit my grandmother and brought the potty and he did all his pooping in it on that trip and last night we went to my sister's (Tia Kate) for dinner and he even pooped over there (oh yes, we brought his potty). I am looking for a portable potty. Anyone with ideas?

Honestly I keep meaning to read this book "Toilet Training in Less than a Day" but haven't had time. I think tomorrow we might go for the "no pants" training option and try to have him learn about when he has to pee to use the potty too. He is *sorta* holding it between diaper changes and then peeing in the potty as we now put him on the potty to pee about 4-5 times a day. He does like to put Mickey on the potty too. We have some Thomas the Train big boy pants and some pull-up style diapers but everyone tells me because we do cloth diapers it won't take long to train him fully.

A potty trained boy can go to preschool in the fall. That is our goal. Montessori preschool a few half days a week.

Harper is 3 months now and poor girl doesn't even have a dedicated blog post yet... it's coming but she is such a good baby, I hardly have a thing to talk about. Enjoy the photos of the kids.
Here's a video that only a grandmother can love.... but stick it out you might laugh out loud. I did.