Well, three more days down and three more days closer to being fully (daytime) potty trained for Will. This kid is going to be the death of me. Kenzie drank (still drinks) a ton of water. So, she goes potty often. Really often. Will doesn't drink quite as much AND he tends to be able to hold it longer than she did. So, he doesn't go much at all some days. Other days, he drinks a ton and goes so often! That is killing me when it comes to getting him to go. With Kenzie, I would make her go every 20 minutes at first. She would go fairly often when I would take her. I haven't quite gotten it down though to know how often to take him. He also protests if I want to take him and he does not have to go. As in, seriously has a fit with me. Sometimes he will go, but I sometimes have to carry him there. If he goes on his own, I've learned he is more likely to go, but there are still some times he says, "No! I'm fine!" when I ask and yet... he certainly is not fine. Those are the times he has accidents. It can be a bit frustrating but we are working on it. He is learning and I am seeing some progress but it definitely seems slower going than it did with Kenzie. At least I sort of expected that so I'm not crazy surprised. I have made the elective decision to try to not let this stress me out this time. I remember being in tears with Kenzie a few times just because I would think we were getting somewhere and then we would have a setback. I have already determined that Will is likely to be a bit more difficult so I'm working with him at his pace and if that means that it takes us longer than a week (like Kenzie) to train him fully, that's fine but we are at least working at a strong pace and he is getting it down. Slowly but surely. So far... so good on the stress level. I'm pretty proud of myself because I tend to be a pretty Type A, high-strung person so staying cool, calm, and collected is different for me. I have enough to worry about outside of this though. So for the last two days... here's how it all went down...
Day 2 - This was our first day trying to deal with potty training with Kenzie being in school. I also HAD to do a Target run so I knew it was going to be difficult. Will woke up and in true Will fashion, wouldn't potty. He didn't potty until he had an accident when I was getting Kenzie dressed for school. Oh well, it is what it is. We stopped what we were doing numerous times that morning between dropping Kenzie off and getting to Target to try to potty but he just never went again. He gave me 4 false alarms while in Target that sent us "zoom"-ing to the bathroom. I sort of think he wanted me to rush to the bathroom so that he could "zoom" in the cart. He has this game figured out apparently. He never did go. He actually didn't go again until about 12:10 when I was hoping upon hoping for him to go before we had to leave to get Kenzie. In case you didn't do the math... that's over 4 hours between going. See? Killing me. Then, while waiting to go in to get Kenzie... he pooped. Ugh. That's never fun to clean up. Especially when you aren't home. I did though and we moved on. After getting Kenzie out of school, I put him in a diaper for the drive home. Here's the thinking... he sometimes falls asleep on the way home and I transition him to bed without issue about 99% of the time, so I needed him to be in a diaper just in case. As it turned out, he didn't sleep in the car. He took a while to fall asleep once in bed too thanks to a 5 minute car nap on the way to get Kenzie. Once he did though, he slept for about 2.5 hours and woke up dry. When he got up, we sat in the bathroom with him on the potty for about 15 minutes and he never went. About 30 minutes later, I was just about to take him to potty and realized that he had just had an accident. Okie doke. It was a bit frustrating because although we were only on pee accident #2 of the day, he had only had one success so far that day. Doing that, I can't tell if we are getting anywhere. I wasn't sure why he only went potty a total of 3 times during the day when he went about 9 or 10 the day before. Maybe it was the amount of water he did or didn't drink or something. Or maybe he is just purposely holding it longer than he did before. Since he is now wet when he goes instead of having the diaper and he isn't a fan of that, maybe he is just holding it longer.
Accident Total: 3 (1 was poop)
Success Total: 3
I'm not super excited about this ratio, but it is what it is and I can't rush him at this point so we will see what the next day brings.
To top off all the fun of potty training, we started this on a weekend that everyone in our family got sick. Well, Steven, Will, and myself were sick over the weekend. Will wasn't bad though when we started the potty training process, but it didn't help that he wasn't 100%. Then, one Day 2 of full force potty training, Kenzie came home from school with a low grade fever and was whiny and tired all afternoon. That didn't help anything. It also meant that she was going to be home from school when we were on Day 3. That was good and bad. Good because it meant we could stay home all day and bad because it meant I had to keep 2 of them happy all day. It's not a huge deal when we aren't potty training, but it threw a wrench into my plans. However, Kenzie had dubbed herself my "Potty Training Helper" and loves to give Will his treat so that is good. She keeps us company in the bathroom sometimes and likes to tell him how to potty so that he does it better (or something like that.) Also, I want to mention that I am so surprised that she understood that he gets treats but she doesn't. I explained that we did it the same way for her when she was learning and she was good with that. She just wants to be the one to give him his treat and she is good. Anytime Will goes in his potty, I call her and she comes running to give him his treat. Speaking of treats, we changed it up slightly during Day 2 with Will. We were doing a smartie any time he went potty, but although he liked them... it wasn't super rewarding for him. So, we switched to mini cookies (same as we did with Kenzie) and he LOVED it. I think it helped some with him wanting to try to potty. However, all that being said, he had a couple pretty close back to back successes and we decided if he had more than a couple in a row, we would give him the smartie instead of the cookie just because he doesn't need that many cookies. Will works well with a food reward and I know it isn't forever, so we are okay with giving him a small cookie when he does well. We will phase it out as he gets more comfortable with the process and has less accidents.
Day 3 - So that whole thing about him not going as much as Kenzie... I was wrong. Apparently he just wasn't drinking as much or something. Today was... not as good as I had hoped. I am fully prepared for some days to be better than others and I wasn't super happy with how it all went down, but he had a few successes and a few moments that reiterated that he is ready and it is just a process. Our morning was interesting. He didn't go right away after he woke up. He told me about 15 minutes later that he had to potty so we went and he did. Perfect. Then, a little bit later he came to me and said he went potty and was wet. When I went to the bathroom though, he had obviously had an accident in there. He can't get his undies on and off well yet alone and I think he tried to go by himself, but didn't make it on his own. While it was an accident, I'm sort of calling it a win. He is definitely understanding the process. He just isn't always making it. We are working on it. He then had another small accident shortly before we left the house. I was asking him if he had to go and he did. I should have been 2 minutes earlier. We then went to run some errands and to the library for story time. Despite trying to go over and over again, he never did. Kenzie asked if we could go eat in Wendy's and although I knew I was working on borrowed time, we did. Lo and behold... accident while we were in there. Not a huge deal. His rubber pants held it in mostly and I sanitized the seat he was sitting on when it happened. Once we got home, he wouldn't potty again but had his daily poop accident. Again, I asked him if he had to potty and he went as I asked. I need to figure out how to be 2 minutes faster. I was pretty ready for nap because I knew that meant diaper time for a while.The afternoon ran slightly differently than the morning and it was... interesting. I decided that I would set a timer for 30 minutes. If he didn't go prior to the timer going off, we would go when it went off. If he did go, then I would reset the timer from that point. After 30 minutes, he would try for a few minutes. If he didn't go, I would reset the timer and we would go again. This is more in line with the true "3 day method" so I wanted to see how it would work. This is more of how we did Kenzie but it isn't as feasible with Will just because of how our lives run now. We had 2 instances when he told me "potty" and then we made it to the potty before he went. He had an accident while we were playing outside. The plus to that is that other than changing him, there was nothing to clean up. Haha! Then once we came back in, we had some difficulties. We had one success when I took him as the timer went off. Then, for some crazy reason, during the next 30 minute time span, he had four (YES! FOUR!) accidents in quick succession. I have no idea what was going on there. Everything he was holding on to was just ready to come out. Of those 4, he told me about 2 just as they were happening or immediately before and the other 2 right after. He definitely seems to be getting that he has to tell me before, he just isn't to the point that he is telling me quite early enough to make it in time.
Accident Total: 7 (1 was poop)
Success Total: 5
In the interest of full honesty, this is where we are after Day 3. I'm not super stoked about it but when I consider that he only went 6 times on Day 2... it doesn't really surprise me. This is sort of in line with how Kenzie was on Day 2. He is definitely moving a bit slower but still getting better. We are seeing some big strides forward with his want to tell us when he needs to potty and then following through. Although we have had more accidents in the last day, it is what it is.
Side note: I don't make him wear the rubber pants at home anymore. I decided it was okay to have to clean up behind him because he isn't a fan of them and I didn't want to upset him with the idea of potty training so it was more important for me to just deal and clean it up than to make him not want to use the potty because it means rubber pants. Instead, he only wears them when he goes out.
Day 4 - Kenzie was back in school today so that made for a more interesting day. Will woke up about 7:15. He sat on the potty but wouldn't go. He did ask to go immediately upon waking up... guess he just didn't have to. I put him on the potty so many times between him waking up, dropping off Kenzie, and going to Publix but he never went. Finally, when we got home, I asked him if he wanted to potty before I put the groceries away and he said yes. He sat down and went immediately. Steven and I have discussed it and we are starting to wonder if he associates being home with his potty as the time to go and maybe is holding it? We don't know but as long as he is going and not having too many accidents, it's a win. Almost immediately after that, we had a poop accident. This is part of what is different in him and Kenzie too. She was regular. She would poop during her nap EVERY DAY. She did this for months so we never actually had to worry about poop potty training her. Will is less scheduled though apparently and he hasn't figured out how to tell me before he goes. He just knows that he doesn't like it after he goes. He didn't like it in his diapers either so this isn't surprising. He had another success after that and our morning was looking pretty good. He never did go again before we left to get Kenzie and despite telling me he had to potty on the way there thus making me pull over into a parking lot to try, he didn't go any time we tried in the car. I put the diaper on him for the ride home and he fell asleep so that worked according to plan. I transitioned him to bed but could tell the diaper was dry so maybe that whole "holding it" thing is somewhat true for him. Also, this meant that since he was asleep and down for a nap, he went the entire morning dry! He did have that one poop but as far as being wet goes... he didn't have any accidents!!! At that point, I decided that even if our afternoon was poor like the day before, I was okay with that. A dry morning was a win in my book. Will ended up taking a marathon 3 hour nap that I woke him up from. He didn't go after his nap but his diaper was wet and warm so I think he went right as he woke up. He announced "potty" to me when I picked him up out of his crib but I think he was actually telling me that he went instead of asking if he could go. He didn't go again for a while and then we had accident #2 (first pee though) on the day. We were outside playing and I was chatting with the neighbors and missed taking him when I meant to. So, that one might be partially on me. No guarantees that it wouldn't have happened anyway though even if I had taken him. I bathed the kids after that (we have to do baths as soon as we come in from playing outside every day because they get sooooo sweaty in this heat). Shortly after getting him out of the bath he started crying. I realized that he was burning up. He went potty but wasn't happy about anything. As it turned out, the virus Kenzie had on Tuesday was not what Will had last week (though we still think it is what Steven had) and Will seemed to have gotten it. His fever spiked to 103. Not unusual for Will... but annoying all the same. Kid runs fevers like it's going out of style. He ended up laying on top of me for the next hour before it seemed to come down some. He then went potty before dinner and laid on me while we all ate. I couldn't get him to eat much but he went potty again before (an early) bedtime. You know the poor kid was feeling bad if he asked to be covered with Monkey.... and then stayed there. He has been in bed 30 minutes almost and he is still covered. Poor guy. Despite being sick though, he did phenomenal today! I was so proud of him. I'm hoping tomorrow will be pretty good. A setback wouldn't be surprising, but at least we are certainly seeing the light at the end of the tunnel.
Accident Total - 2 (1 was poop)
Success Total - 5
I definitely think part of the seemingly slow going nature of Will's potty training compared to Kenzie is not only that he is more laid back so he isn't as high strung about the entire thing but also that I don't have the ability to give him 100% all day, every day due to that whole 2 kid thing.
Tomorrow is a new day. I think we are all ready for it. =)
Day 2 - This was our first day trying to deal with potty training with Kenzie being in school. I also HAD to do a Target run so I knew it was going to be difficult. Will woke up and in true Will fashion, wouldn't potty. He didn't potty until he had an accident when I was getting Kenzie dressed for school. Oh well, it is what it is. We stopped what we were doing numerous times that morning between dropping Kenzie off and getting to Target to try to potty but he just never went again. He gave me 4 false alarms while in Target that sent us "zoom"-ing to the bathroom. I sort of think he wanted me to rush to the bathroom so that he could "zoom" in the cart. He has this game figured out apparently. He never did go. He actually didn't go again until about 12:10 when I was hoping upon hoping for him to go before we had to leave to get Kenzie. In case you didn't do the math... that's over 4 hours between going. See? Killing me. Then, while waiting to go in to get Kenzie... he pooped. Ugh. That's never fun to clean up. Especially when you aren't home. I did though and we moved on. After getting Kenzie out of school, I put him in a diaper for the drive home. Here's the thinking... he sometimes falls asleep on the way home and I transition him to bed without issue about 99% of the time, so I needed him to be in a diaper just in case. As it turned out, he didn't sleep in the car. He took a while to fall asleep once in bed too thanks to a 5 minute car nap on the way to get Kenzie. Once he did though, he slept for about 2.5 hours and woke up dry. When he got up, we sat in the bathroom with him on the potty for about 15 minutes and he never went. About 30 minutes later, I was just about to take him to potty and realized that he had just had an accident. Okie doke. It was a bit frustrating because although we were only on pee accident #2 of the day, he had only had one success so far that day. Doing that, I can't tell if we are getting anywhere. I wasn't sure why he only went potty a total of 3 times during the day when he went about 9 or 10 the day before. Maybe it was the amount of water he did or didn't drink or something. Or maybe he is just purposely holding it longer than he did before. Since he is now wet when he goes instead of having the diaper and he isn't a fan of that, maybe he is just holding it longer.
Accident Total: 3 (1 was poop)
Success Total: 3
I'm not super excited about this ratio, but it is what it is and I can't rush him at this point so we will see what the next day brings.
To top off all the fun of potty training, we started this on a weekend that everyone in our family got sick. Well, Steven, Will, and myself were sick over the weekend. Will wasn't bad though when we started the potty training process, but it didn't help that he wasn't 100%. Then, one Day 2 of full force potty training, Kenzie came home from school with a low grade fever and was whiny and tired all afternoon. That didn't help anything. It also meant that she was going to be home from school when we were on Day 3. That was good and bad. Good because it meant we could stay home all day and bad because it meant I had to keep 2 of them happy all day. It's not a huge deal when we aren't potty training, but it threw a wrench into my plans. However, Kenzie had dubbed herself my "Potty Training Helper" and loves to give Will his treat so that is good. She keeps us company in the bathroom sometimes and likes to tell him how to potty so that he does it better (or something like that.) Also, I want to mention that I am so surprised that she understood that he gets treats but she doesn't. I explained that we did it the same way for her when she was learning and she was good with that. She just wants to be the one to give him his treat and she is good. Anytime Will goes in his potty, I call her and she comes running to give him his treat. Speaking of treats, we changed it up slightly during Day 2 with Will. We were doing a smartie any time he went potty, but although he liked them... it wasn't super rewarding for him. So, we switched to mini cookies (same as we did with Kenzie) and he LOVED it. I think it helped some with him wanting to try to potty. However, all that being said, he had a couple pretty close back to back successes and we decided if he had more than a couple in a row, we would give him the smartie instead of the cookie just because he doesn't need that many cookies. Will works well with a food reward and I know it isn't forever, so we are okay with giving him a small cookie when he does well. We will phase it out as he gets more comfortable with the process and has less accidents.
Day 3 - So that whole thing about him not going as much as Kenzie... I was wrong. Apparently he just wasn't drinking as much or something. Today was... not as good as I had hoped. I am fully prepared for some days to be better than others and I wasn't super happy with how it all went down, but he had a few successes and a few moments that reiterated that he is ready and it is just a process. Our morning was interesting. He didn't go right away after he woke up. He told me about 15 minutes later that he had to potty so we went and he did. Perfect. Then, a little bit later he came to me and said he went potty and was wet. When I went to the bathroom though, he had obviously had an accident in there. He can't get his undies on and off well yet alone and I think he tried to go by himself, but didn't make it on his own. While it was an accident, I'm sort of calling it a win. He is definitely understanding the process. He just isn't always making it. We are working on it. He then had another small accident shortly before we left the house. I was asking him if he had to go and he did. I should have been 2 minutes earlier. We then went to run some errands and to the library for story time. Despite trying to go over and over again, he never did. Kenzie asked if we could go eat in Wendy's and although I knew I was working on borrowed time, we did. Lo and behold... accident while we were in there. Not a huge deal. His rubber pants held it in mostly and I sanitized the seat he was sitting on when it happened. Once we got home, he wouldn't potty again but had his daily poop accident. Again, I asked him if he had to potty and he went as I asked. I need to figure out how to be 2 minutes faster. I was pretty ready for nap because I knew that meant diaper time for a while.The afternoon ran slightly differently than the morning and it was... interesting. I decided that I would set a timer for 30 minutes. If he didn't go prior to the timer going off, we would go when it went off. If he did go, then I would reset the timer from that point. After 30 minutes, he would try for a few minutes. If he didn't go, I would reset the timer and we would go again. This is more in line with the true "3 day method" so I wanted to see how it would work. This is more of how we did Kenzie but it isn't as feasible with Will just because of how our lives run now. We had 2 instances when he told me "potty" and then we made it to the potty before he went. He had an accident while we were playing outside. The plus to that is that other than changing him, there was nothing to clean up. Haha! Then once we came back in, we had some difficulties. We had one success when I took him as the timer went off. Then, for some crazy reason, during the next 30 minute time span, he had four (YES! FOUR!) accidents in quick succession. I have no idea what was going on there. Everything he was holding on to was just ready to come out. Of those 4, he told me about 2 just as they were happening or immediately before and the other 2 right after. He definitely seems to be getting that he has to tell me before, he just isn't to the point that he is telling me quite early enough to make it in time.
Accident Total: 7 (1 was poop)
Success Total: 5
In the interest of full honesty, this is where we are after Day 3. I'm not super stoked about it but when I consider that he only went 6 times on Day 2... it doesn't really surprise me. This is sort of in line with how Kenzie was on Day 2. He is definitely moving a bit slower but still getting better. We are seeing some big strides forward with his want to tell us when he needs to potty and then following through. Although we have had more accidents in the last day, it is what it is.
Side note: I don't make him wear the rubber pants at home anymore. I decided it was okay to have to clean up behind him because he isn't a fan of them and I didn't want to upset him with the idea of potty training so it was more important for me to just deal and clean it up than to make him not want to use the potty because it means rubber pants. Instead, he only wears them when he goes out.
Day 4 - Kenzie was back in school today so that made for a more interesting day. Will woke up about 7:15. He sat on the potty but wouldn't go. He did ask to go immediately upon waking up... guess he just didn't have to. I put him on the potty so many times between him waking up, dropping off Kenzie, and going to Publix but he never went. Finally, when we got home, I asked him if he wanted to potty before I put the groceries away and he said yes. He sat down and went immediately. Steven and I have discussed it and we are starting to wonder if he associates being home with his potty as the time to go and maybe is holding it? We don't know but as long as he is going and not having too many accidents, it's a win. Almost immediately after that, we had a poop accident. This is part of what is different in him and Kenzie too. She was regular. She would poop during her nap EVERY DAY. She did this for months so we never actually had to worry about poop potty training her. Will is less scheduled though apparently and he hasn't figured out how to tell me before he goes. He just knows that he doesn't like it after he goes. He didn't like it in his diapers either so this isn't surprising. He had another success after that and our morning was looking pretty good. He never did go again before we left to get Kenzie and despite telling me he had to potty on the way there thus making me pull over into a parking lot to try, he didn't go any time we tried in the car. I put the diaper on him for the ride home and he fell asleep so that worked according to plan. I transitioned him to bed but could tell the diaper was dry so maybe that whole "holding it" thing is somewhat true for him. Also, this meant that since he was asleep and down for a nap, he went the entire morning dry! He did have that one poop but as far as being wet goes... he didn't have any accidents!!! At that point, I decided that even if our afternoon was poor like the day before, I was okay with that. A dry morning was a win in my book. Will ended up taking a marathon 3 hour nap that I woke him up from. He didn't go after his nap but his diaper was wet and warm so I think he went right as he woke up. He announced "potty" to me when I picked him up out of his crib but I think he was actually telling me that he went instead of asking if he could go. He didn't go again for a while and then we had accident #2 (first pee though) on the day. We were outside playing and I was chatting with the neighbors and missed taking him when I meant to. So, that one might be partially on me. No guarantees that it wouldn't have happened anyway though even if I had taken him. I bathed the kids after that (we have to do baths as soon as we come in from playing outside every day because they get sooooo sweaty in this heat). Shortly after getting him out of the bath he started crying. I realized that he was burning up. He went potty but wasn't happy about anything. As it turned out, the virus Kenzie had on Tuesday was not what Will had last week (though we still think it is what Steven had) and Will seemed to have gotten it. His fever spiked to 103. Not unusual for Will... but annoying all the same. Kid runs fevers like it's going out of style. He ended up laying on top of me for the next hour before it seemed to come down some. He then went potty before dinner and laid on me while we all ate. I couldn't get him to eat much but he went potty again before (an early) bedtime. You know the poor kid was feeling bad if he asked to be covered with Monkey.... and then stayed there. He has been in bed 30 minutes almost and he is still covered. Poor guy. Despite being sick though, he did phenomenal today! I was so proud of him. I'm hoping tomorrow will be pretty good. A setback wouldn't be surprising, but at least we are certainly seeing the light at the end of the tunnel.
Accident Total - 2 (1 was poop)
Success Total - 5
I definitely think part of the seemingly slow going nature of Will's potty training compared to Kenzie is not only that he is more laid back so he isn't as high strung about the entire thing but also that I don't have the ability to give him 100% all day, every day due to that whole 2 kid thing.
Tomorrow is a new day. I think we are all ready for it. =)
Comments
Post a Comment