Monday, August 30, 2010

Potty Training Bootcamp Day 1

Sometimes as parents we just have to go through things we'd rather not go through. I personally hated the idea of potty training. I felt safe and comfortable using diapers. And with Lily in diapers, it was just plain easier to keep Jonah in them. Add along the fact that he would run from the potty screaming if I ever even talked about it, I just felt like potty training was never going to happen for us.

Lately, Jonah has seemed pretty uncomfortable in his diapers, constantly grabbing and and shifting them around. I got tired of watching that, so I demanded Daddy put him in some underwear. Surprisingly, Jonah obliged without an argument. SCORE! He even agreed to sit on the potty for a few minutes.

10 minutes later, pee.....lots of it, on the computer seat. Sigh. I thought, "Well, okay. This is how it starts"
Since it was right before bed, I just threw a diaper on him, put him in his pj's and said "We'll try again tomorrow." and kissed him goodnight.

Now, I could have easily given up, and said "Well, he's still not ready." But I knew if I let one pee covered chair (MY chair!) defeat me, we would be in for a looooooooooooong and painful adventure. So, the next morning, all bright eyed and bushy tailed, I put undies on him, again, except I put him in those Gerber trainers, that have that soaker part in the middle, to sorta contain some of the pee.

I made him a chart, with 12 boxes. I had M&M's on hand and stickers for the chart. I had a kitchen timer. I had a potty chair in the living room. I was ready.

And he pee'd in his pants.
And then some in the potty.
Then lots more in his pants.
Then a little more in the potty.

I eventually promised him the BIG Buzz Lightyear toy from Target (ARV $50!!!!) if he filled up all the boxes with stickers.

This went on and on all day. But he GOT it! He figured out the system quickly. But man, was it exhausting! I originally was going to put him on the potty every 20 minutes. Let him sit there for a few minutes, or until something "happened". But I was finding he was only lasting about 15 minutes, so I started setting them timer for 15 minutes.  I also found my enthusiasm dwindle throughout the day, so by dinnertime I wasn't very pleasant, and neither was he.

End of day tally:
pee pee in undies = 8
poo poo in undies = 1
pee pee in potty = 11

Pull-up for night time and we will begin again tomorrow. And I better go get that stupid Buzz Lightyear before tomorrow.

1 comment:

Cathy said...

Ha! Buzz has been waiting on our counter for about two weeks and Seth has 56 boxes on his chart. He also loses a sticker if he has an accidnet. I'd suggest Wally World for purchasing Buzz... he only cost $35 there. ;)

Good Luck!