Potty training sucks. There is no way around it. It just plain stinks--- literally and figuratively. I've only been at it for about a week and a half and therefore am in no position to start dishing out tips. However, I will share our experience and some advice that was given to me!
It has been interesting and I can proudly say at this point that Max is doing GREAT!
We bought a potty chair in August when Max turned 2. He loved the thing and would sometimes go on it (mostly when I was also using the potty, he would sit on his next to me and go too). I never once asked him to use it or asked him if he needed to go, I mostly just wanted him to become familiar with it. He knew what it was for so that was good enough for me!
Since I spent most of the fall newly pregnant and nauseous, I had zero desire to potty train. I was tired and sick and I didn't have the patience to deal with it. Plus, I also didn't feel that Max was totally ready. Yes, he had used the potty several times randomly but I didn't feel that he was ready to go full time and I wanted to make sure that he was to make the dreaded process as easy on us as possible.
We spent Thanksgiving week at my parents house and Max started using the toilet on his own. Numerous times that week I would say "where did Max go?" And we would find him in the bathroom sitting on the toilet alone. Maybe it was because he had been watching his 3 year old cousin Mabrie go on it all week, I'm not sure. But for whatever reason, he was using the potty! One night he drug his uncle Luke by the hand into the bathroom and went #2, one night we were at a restaurant and he told Mike that he needed to go and he went in a public restroom! I was in shock!! My sister in law who has potty trained my 3 nieces said "I've never seen a kid do that! He is definitely ready!"
And so, he had left me no choice. I was forced to start putting him in undies and commit.
I started out by putting him in his big boy undies and explained that if he needed to go pee or poop, he needed to go on the potty and not in his big boy pants. He said "okay mommy". I put his potty chair out in the open for easy access and began asking him every 20-30 minutes if he needed to go. Sometimes he said yes, sometimes he said no, sometimes he took off his pants and went on his own without being asked. I rewarded him with M&Ms for a few days until one day he peed on the potty and I said "Yay! Let's get an M&M!" And he replied "No tank you. I don't want a MM." Which was adorable and made me realize that he wasn't just doing it for the candy. He was basically over getting an M&M every time.
Most days he has had ZERO accidents!!!! There was 1 really rough day last week that I wanted to give up. After several days of no accidents, he had 4 in 1 day-- one of which was poo-- and I wanted to shoot myself. BUT I didn't want to ruin all of our progress and so we kept on and he has done AWESOME ever since that 1 awful day. We have even ventured out of the house a couple of times and have had zero accidents on our outings! Yay!!
Advice given to me that I found helpful:
1. Don't ask, tell. After the one brutal day I tried to stop asking "Max do you need to go potty?" And started saying "Max, take off your pants and go potty real quick and then you can continue ___" And he would. As the days go on, I have to remind him to go less and less. He mostly does it on his own but if I notice it has been a while since he has, I will remind him to use the potty.
2. Praise, praise, praise. I told Max that it "makes mommy SO happy when he goes on the potty" and so now when I go to the bathroom he tells me that he is happy for me as well LOL "Me happy mommy!" He says.
3. After the day I wanted to run away, a friend suggested to me that I give it another week and see if there was progress. If he was having more accidents in his pants than going on the potty at that point, I should re-evaluate whether or not he is ready. I thought that was a great plan and so I decided to go with that. I am happy to report that he has made major progress and so, Max is wearing underwear full time during the day!
With consistency and A LOT of patience, we have made it! So proud of my big boy!!!
Whoa. It's a year later. Let me just say that 2013 has HANDS DOWN been the craziest year of my life thus far. In early 2013 I didn't have much to report on my blog and then things went CRAZY and I've been busy ever since. Frankly, I forgot about blogging!! :-(
567yuvvvvvvvvvvvv3 -----> and that was Max saying hi!
Anyway, I'M BACK! I'm going to do a quick re-cap of this year and all its craziness. I'm sure that the majority of those who read this blog know all of this but just in case, here we go!
January: Nothing. Mike had surgery and I was sad that we didn't know the future of our family at that point. We didn't know if he would be able to attend his training and we didn't know if we would be moving..... we also weren't even certain of his job security at the time. It was a difficult month.
February: Nothing. It was cold in Wyoming.
March: Mike leaves for training in Texas-- WOO HOO!!!! We were SO excited! Max and I went to stay with family in Illinois while he was in training for the next 10 weeks.
April: Max & I were enjoying spring in Illinois. I went on a weekend trip to Nashville with my girlfriends and had a blast! I also did my first 5k. We were told that we would not be moving... we would be going back to Wyoming after Mike's training. I bawled my eyes out. Max began talking a little more... I was usually the only one who understood but he was trying!
May: Mike graduated from his training (and he was awarded the Distinguished Graduate award! Yes, I'm bragging) and headed back to Wyoming for a week before joining us in Illinois for 2 weeks of leave and then we would all fly back to WY together. Mike submitted his Base of Preference list. We weren't hopeful but it was worth a shot! The day before Mike came to Illinois, we found out that we were granted our #1 base of preference!!!! We were moving back to Illinois in August and Mike would begin his new job that he had trained for in Texas. ECSTATIC does not even begin to describe our feeling at that time, and still to this day I am in shock that we are here!!! For our military friends who do not know, this is literally home! My hometown is 45 minutes from here. We went to college 20 minutes from here and Mike actually lived in this town while we were dating. We are within 1-1.5 hours from both of our parents. Max gets to see his grandparents anytime!! AND a bonus for me is, I live between 10 and 45 minutes from all of my best friends. It's FANTASTIC! So, needless to say, we were VERY happy to get this news. Mike flew to Illinois and we got to be a family again after 2.5 months! Yay!!! We also needed to figure out our living situation for August while we were here. We looked at a house to rent and after some discussion we realized that we would be paying the same amount every month for rent that we would for a mortgage..... Soooooo we...... BOUGHT A HOUSE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! In the middle of this, Mike turned 28. May was CRAZY.
June: Mike & I attended a close friend's wedding and then flew back to WY to spend our last couple of months there. We bought some new furniture for our new house :-) and I turned 26!
July: We packed and sold stuff that we didn't want to take with us. Thanks to technology and an awesome realtor, we were able to do all of the paperwork for our house from a distance. Max and I said goodbye to Wyoming and flew to Illinois for the LAST time so that I could close on our house and Mike would join us 10 days later once he was released from work. We closed on our house and waited for Mike to get here with our stuff so we could move in!
August: Mike came with the moving truck on the 1st and we moved in! 1 week later, Max turned 2!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We had a small get together at our new house and then took him to run around at Monkey Joe's (an indoor heaven for kids to run around and play on those inflatable bouncy house things and slides) he loved it. A week after Max turned one, we got rid of his best friend... his pacifier (his bah, as he called it). I dreaded the day BUT it was unbelievably easy! He dropped his last one into the toilet and so I told him that we flushed it. He said "okay" and that was that! Never cried for it again. I'm also still in shock about that! I went to Chicago with my girlfriends for a weekend. Mike started his new job.... which he LOVES. Yay!!
September: The 3 of us spent Labor Day weekend at the lake with friends. Max had SOO much fun swimming! I had to make him get out of the pool. Max had his first injury that required a hospital visit. He was running in my bedroom and fell and hit his cheek on the bed. It split open and I thought he needed stitches. They were able to glue it instead but my poor baby's perfect face now has a scar :-( We were enjoying our new house and Mike's new job with a great schedule (which we had not been used to). We were getting settled into our new home and life and we were loving it when....... I found out that I was expecting. Yep, I'm pregnant! Surprise!! I was only 3 weeks when I found out. It was SO early but I just KNEW that something was up. I was right.
October: I was in one of my best friend's weddings. I mostly spent this month sick and moody. I was never sick with Max and this time, I definitely was. I didn't throw up daily, but I did almost daily. I was EXHAUSTED. I forgot how tired you are during the first trimester and I was quickly reminded. I kept thinking that I didn't remember it being this hard at the beginning with Max and that's because he was my first. This time around, I was tired and sick and wanted to do nothing but lay on the couch and I couldn't because I had a 2 year old to take care of. Whew. It was a lonnnnggg month. Max was supposed to be Buzz Lightyear for Halloween but he threw a fit and refused to wear his costume so we handed out candy instead of trick or treating.
November: Mike was in his best friend's wedding. We celebrated our 3 year wedding anniversary. I had my first doctor's appointment at 11 weeks and we got to see our newest baby for the first time via ultrasound. Holy cow, this is REAL! It hadn't seemed real up until that point. I was growing so much faster than I did with Max so I thought that there could have been multiples but nope, just 1! Which means, I'm just way bigger this time. GREAT. We celebrated Thanksgiving with family and hosted our first family get together at our new home! It was so great to have everyone to OUR house and there was plenty of space and toys for the kids in the playroom. The nausea has subsided for the most part, fortunately!! Max is a full blown little man. He talks 24/7. I mean the kid doesn't stop. I have to tell him at naptime and bedtime that it's time to stop talking because it never ends!! I love to hear him and have conversations with him though. He has the cutest voice ever!!!!!!!! He has also decided to start going potty on his own... he even went in a public restroom after telling Mike that he needed to go and therefore has forced me into potty training.
December: We decorated our home for Christmas! I am so excited to spend Christmas in our new home this year. The presents under the tree are tempting Max but he keeps reminding himself "I have to wait". He literally says that to himself everyday LOL we started potty training a week ago. After one REALLY rough day, he has been doing AWESOME. That will be another post for later this week.
Whew! Now, I'm exhausted after writing all of that. Now you all can see how crazy our life has been this year and cut me a little slack for zero blog posts for an ENTIRE YEAR :-( Now that we are settled into our life again, I will try to keep up! We have an exciting couple of weeks coming!! We have an ultrasound on the 23rd to find out baby #2's gender and then it's Christmas!!! I am so excited to see Max's face on Christmas morning when he sees what Santa brought him :-D Stay tuned!!!!!!
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