Potty Training

So we've been working on potty training with Carter for quite some time now. We got him a training potty when he was around 15-18 months, and started trying to use it at two years old. We didn't meet with much success, but didn't want to push too hard as we had always heard "they'll do it when they're ready". We've been ready, and started to push a little harder when he was 2 1/2 -- we wanted him out of diapers either before or soon after Lauren was born! He was doing great -- he'd get out of bed and change his diaper (which he slept in) to a pull-up, and usually go to the bathroom too. He had even moved to the big potty and we put the little one away!

He had a major setback after Lauren was born (which I anticipated), but it got so much worse six months later! At this time he refused to even get himself dressed! Those that know him well know that he likes to do everything himself. AND he was getting himself dressed before even coming out of his room in the mornings! So after talking with other parents of young ones (especially boys!) and searching message board after message board, I finally found some sage advice. This advice was posted by a couple moms, both of which got it from their respective pediatricians. Leave them be for a month or so -- put them back in diapers and don't mention the potty. It was turning into a power struggle, so drop it so you can regain the power. We did this -- at first Carter hated being back in a "baby diaper" and I honestly thought that might do the trick. Nope. So a little over a month goes by and we'd occasionally ask him if he needed to go or wanted to go, but the answer was always no. We didn't push, we just dropped it.

It's now time for the next step -- one mother posted that it was to put them on the potty every hour or so and make them sit there for at least five minutes, but still don't say anything about using the potty. I didn't really like this step, so I came up with my own method (which has probably been used by others). It's something like we've done before, but with an added element. It's a three-day weekend, so I decided that I want Carter mostly potty-trained by the end of it. Might be wishful thinking, but I at least hope to get the general idea drilled into his head to make it easier to continue when the days are a little busier. This morning I put him in big-boy underwear and explained what was going to happen. We set his timer for every 45 minutes (which we used in the past to "give" him the power to go to the bathroom on his own when it beeped) and he needed to go sit on the toilet whenever it beeped for five minutes or until he went. There were times when he fussed and tried to refuse to go into the bathroom, but he did great. We even went to Kohls and to grab some dinner tonight and he told Matt that he needed to go while we were in the store -- and stayed dry the entire time out! We had one accident earlier in the day -- a dirty one too -- but he still had problems going #2 in the potty when he was doing well before. And he recognized that he did it and told me right after it happened, so that shows progress. Ever since he was a baby, he has never minded being in a dirty or wet diaper!

We'll continue this tomorrow, even though he told me that he didn't want to do it again. Hopefully soon he'll start recognizing when he has to go and the timer will go away. My thoughts are that he gets so wrapped up in doing whatever he's doing that he just never wanted to take a time-out to go potty. Let's hope that changes, and I can quit buying diapers for Carter!! I'll keep you updated.