Potty!!!
*Warning, LONG Potty Post Ahead*
That’s right. I’ve finally got off my lazy ass and decided to start potty training Shenzie. After very little thought I chose to do them separately. Not only is Heaten not ready, I am already dreading doing one - why oh why would I want to do two!?!? I’m really hoping when Heaten sees Shenzie doing it and all the hoopla surrounding it he’ll want to do it too.
On a whim one morning last week I decided to start potty training Shenzie. We already had undies purchased as well as Pull Ups (I didn’t do much research regarding potty training and have read tons of pros and cons to Pull Ups, but I wanted to have all of my options available).
So the back story of potty at Casa de Barr. I bought potty’s when the babies were like 20 months and introduced them to sitting on them. From that point on the potties became sort of a toy. The babies would wear the seats on their heads and run around laughing (don’t worry, they hadn’t yet did the deed in them so they were clean).
August 2008
My parenting style is things will happen when the babies are ready for them to happen. I thought maybe Shenzie was ready so I thought I would just try and see how it went. If she didn’t want to try then she didn’t have to, but if she did then she would get one Raisinette (I figure hey, raisins aren’t all that bad for you so at least some part of the treat is semi not unhealthy). =) Going on the potty gets you two candies. I have M&M’s, Marshmallows, Andes Mints, and other goodies ready as bribery. Also on hand is a goodie bag (bowl full of dollar goodies used for potty training and our new sticker reward system (which I write about later).
Potty Races November 2008
Potty Races! from lesley barr on Vimeo.
Along with Potty Time Elmo that the babies have watched OVER and OVER and OVER I feel I have all of my bases covered.
Day One (Thursday June 11): I explain the candy system (which is all she really cares about) to Shenzie and asked for one candy if she wanted to try? She tried, but nothing happened so she got one candy. I set the timer for 20 minutes later and asked if she would like to try again and she did. And she went pp!!! I jumped up and down and cheered like a loon. I made a big production over dumping the pp in the big toilet and letting her flush it. Then we washed our hands and got her candy. She was so proud of herself it was so cute. For the next 30 minutes until the timer went off I was telling her how great she did and reminding her if she had to go pp to tell me. She ends up going one more time in the potty that morning
November 2008
Day Two (Friday June 12): She went pp in the potty 3x this morning with prompting from me. She even went #2 (on accident - I don’t think she knew it was going to come out) on the potty! The afternoon she didn’t want to try and went in her diaper.
Day Three and Four (The weekend, forget about it): I didn’t ask her to go potty once. We were out and about and busy all weekend so I figured I start again on Monday. I think she went by herself for Daddy once when I was out, but it’s all a hazy blur and I don’t remember.
Day Five (Monday, June 15): Woke up and rushed out the door to a playdate - not one mention of potty made. Got home and fed the kids lunch after which Shenzie takes off her own diaper and sits on the potty and goes pp. Holy moly - that was awesome! I instant messaged Jeff with tons of these!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I periodically asked her after her nap if she wanted to try but she told me no. As I’m filling the tub with water tonight she tells me she went pp in the water. Ugh. She practices on the potty while I drain and refill the tub (poor kids having to sit in each other’s pee, cuz I know Heaten pees in there). Right at we’re getting ready for bed Shenzie starts taking off her pj’s and diaper and saying pp so we run over to the potty. She sits but nothing happens. A few minutes later she drinks her entire sippy of milk which she NEVER does so I know she is trying to make herself go pp.
I don’t think anything of her drinking the whole thing thinking she is in bed and will just go in her diaper. Hahahah. Lets just say she went to bed at 8 and at current time of 9:08 she has called me up there three times to pp. This is great news right?!? Yes and no. Yes that she is recognizing and holding her pp until I get there and she sits on the potty. No, because when I go in there she already has her diaper and pj’s off and is sitting there yelling pp. Which is probably very soon going to result in a wet bed. The whole process was going out to the loft where the potty was, go pp, come downstairs together, get her candy, go back upstairs, eat it, clean her hands, have a drink, and go put her back to bed. Whew, that is quite a process! After doing that 2 times I wizened up and brought the potty to her bedroom and brought the candy and wipe into her room with me.
Edit 9:32: Make that four times. After the 3rd time I told her next time leave her diaper and pj’s on if she has to pee again and this time she doesn’t get any candy because it is night time and time to sleep not eat candy. I really didn’t think she’d call me in a fourth time, Sucker Mama! So I go in and she is standing in her crib with her diaper and pj’s saying pp. I put her on the potty AGAIN and once again she goes pp all the while telling me she doesn’t get any candy. Awesome! I thought she would cry about it or be confused, but she totally got that it was night time and she didn’t get any more candy.
Day 6 (Tuesday June 16); Well, it appears my daughter has potty trained herself. She cried out from her crib this morning PEEPEE. When I went in to get her she had taken her diaper off, but was dry and sat on the potty and went pp. Throughout the day she went all on her own without one prompt from me. At one point I was on the computer and she comes running in excited and happy carrying her little potty insert with the pp still in it. After her nap she yelled for me and went on the potty again! Yep, I’d say she was ready!! #2 is another story though since she went in her panties today.
So in mind my so far this is going really well and maybe isn’t as bad as I thought it would be. Is this crazy thinking? Does it get harder/worse?? I would love to get your expert advice and experiences. My questions so far are:
1 - Do I limit liquid intake after a certain time at night? I am worried that she will get thirsty/dehydrated this summer when it is 115 and FLAMING HOT if she doesn’t get liquids say after 7pm or whatever time is the cutoff.
2 - Do I continue to give her candy each time she potties after bedtime even though it is drama to do the whole candy/cleanup/drink routine so many times?
3 - How and when do you night train? Should I even be concerned about this yet? If it matters, they are still in cribs with plans to be there until they are 15 so they cannot get out of bed on their own to pee.
4 - How and when do I wean away from the candy every single time?
5 - Where do we go from here? Do I need to go the “boot camp route” and stay home a couple of days to just get it done or continue slowly and her lead the way?
Thanks!
June 17th, 2009 at 8:00 am
Wow, you have done a great job!!! Go Shenzie. And make sure Heaton sees he reward and how excited you get =) Mom’s with young ones will give you the best advice because it has been so long since I have done this horrible job
However, I will give you my thoughts of when I went through it. I did do the candy bribe and did m&m’s but only one. This will end when they are totally potty trained on its own kind of. When they can run in and do it by themselves, they forget the candy. Want to get back to whatever they were doing prior to bathroom. I would get Shenzie in big girl panties if your staying home that day. Let her get the feel of them and only use the pull-ups for bed and going out. I personally detested pull-ups. Being in cribs could pose a problem for teaching them to get up during the night. (I understand keeping them in cribs until their 15 though ;0) I tried to limit my kids drinks 1 hour prior to bed and that’s it. Night-time isn’t as bad when they are potty trained during the day. Once my boys were trained during the day, they would go all night. (most of the time - you get your accident here and there).
Again, your doing great. Keep us posted.
June 17th, 2009 at 12:26 pm
Here are my thoughts on your questions:
1. It takes 20-30 minutes for liquids to get from mouth to stomach in kids that age. So we cutoff drinking at 30 min before bedtime. I do tell Nate, hey do you want anything to drink bc it’s almost time for bed? And sometimes he will down a whole drink!
2. Everything I’ve read said you do not need to continue to reward them once they understand they need to pee in potties. Nate didn’t get any rewards after he was pee trained.
3. I would not worry about night training. We switched to nighttime pullups and made a big deal about nighttime pullups being SPECIAL. When he woke up consistently dry a couple of weeks in a row, we made the switch to thick cotton overnight undies so if he pees a little bit, it won’t soak the bed. Also I bought extra bedsheets at Ikea in preparation for bed wetting.
4. You could try sticker charts instead of candy and see what happens. Or you can switch to M&Ms since they are little candies. Nate totally forgot about candy after a week bc he runs by mhimself to the potty, like Susan said.
5. My vote would be to let her lead the way. My ped gave us some great articles on PT and it said that kids pee train first, then poop train, then night train. They need some time to get used to bowel habits. You could try a booty camp and see if it works, but she is doing so well on her own that maybe she will come around as she understands.
As for pullups, we use them. We use them for things like long car rides or park trips when I am on my own and it would be a PITA to completely change someone, a car seat cover, etc. But they are backup in case of accident. Nate never uses them!
Sounds like you are doing great! It helps me to remember potty training is a process where they ned to learn so they will make mistakes. And it won’t all happen in one day!
June 17th, 2009 at 3:53 pm
We’re not worrying about night training at all, since my kids are going to sleep in their cribs until they’re oh, in junior high. The first time I put a pullup on Little Girl she said, “diaper!” so I figured what’s the point? We just use regular old diapers. Little Girl is wearing underpants about 75% of the time, the other times being when it’s too hard to manage accidents out of the house.
Sounds like you guys are well on the way! Don’t be disappointed if your kiddos take two steps forward and one backward. Little Girl certainly has. I’ll be glad when we’re through this stage!
June 18th, 2009 at 1:24 pm
Hey Lesley, it sounds very similiar to how things went with Tiernan. Although for us poo-poo is STILL and issue and I think might be until Liam is trained. I think I may have to do a more boot-camp approach to the poop.
We do not put Tiernan in anything but undies unless she is sleeping and then it’s diapers (I don’t waste my money on pull-ups just for sleep??). I have a potty in the car as well as TWO changes of clothing (this is key, I can’t tell you how many times she’s had an accident, I changed her, only to have her projectile pee on her second set of pants while sitting on the potty!) Also crocks are great, if she pees on them not need to bring more shoes (rinse/wipe off).
T also forgot about the M & M’s within a few weeks. I started telling her she was a bnig girl and didn’t need the reward.
Lastly, I think she is doing great. Be prrpared for possible set backs. I find some days T is very self-initiating with it, somedays she gets lazy and “forgets” or we have to literally walk her to the bathroom….
June 18th, 2009 at 8:23 pm
Things that I have read suggest that they’ll night train when ready. The body
likely isn’t physically ready yet. Don’t worry so much about water at night, etc.
Just wear pull ups until she’s ready. That’s my thought on that.
S stopped caring about stickers after a while.
We did not do the boot camp thing — we just took S’s lead and things went well.
Of course, if you want it totally done sooner you may have to do more, but
gradual worked for us.
I wouldn’t keep the rewards up after bedtime. The candy clean up drink thing
sounds crazy. S really uses requests for potty after bedtime as a trick to get
out of her crib. I try to make it as unrewarding as possible - plop her on the
potty, leave the room, and tell her to call me when she’s done. And she’s in
the dark. If she really needs it she’ll go, but it’s a lot less fun.
Oh and I highly recommend the potty seat on top of the actual toilet (I think
we have the exact same potties). SO MUCH easier for clean up. It made our
world so much better when we switched. S likes it because she knows it’s the
big kid way to do it.
September 1st, 2009 at 6:17 am
[…] worry, dread, and crazy were totally unnecessary. I got off VERY lucky with Shenzie who pretty much trained herself in one day. She rarely has accidents and is fully day trained and wakes up most naps and mornings dry. She is […]