Monday, September 26, 2011

Victory is Mine

Um, sort of.
Potty training continues and overall is going well. Nathan even managed to ask and used the toilet when we were out on Saturday (using the portable toilet seat thingy - we (I) need some practice to make sure things are where they need to be to avoid pee going everywhere).
He's 100% on the poop front. On the pee front, at home he's batting around 75%. While out, it depends on if we're in the playground or inside.
He can't pee on command yet unless he has a full bladder. By this I mean before naps or bed. He'll sit on the toilet and I can see him 'pushing' but nothing comes out. It will come with time. He's asking to use the potty when he first wakes up and manages to pee in it, although his pullup is also wet.
Tonite, when they were both just at the edge of sleep, he sat up and said 'oh no, have pee!'. So, while keeping the light off, I got his pants down and sitting on a 'porta potty'. To his credit, he peed right away. There was much rejoicing, with him and Corwyn leading the cheer. I emptied it and he wanted to sit again. Said he had to poop. Uhuh. So then Corwyn needed to sit on his potty (fully clothed of course). I kept the light off, the interaction nil. Corywn kept running from his potty to his bed and back. I would periodically ask Nathan if he was ready to go to bed. Nope.
After about a half hour of nothing, I picked him up to put him in bed, to be met with screaming "poop, I have to poop". I don't want to make the potty experience bad, I don't want him to avoid the potty, but by this point I knew damn well that he was just sleep avoiding. So I put him back on the potty (I was gentle although I really didn't want to be and I will admit that my voice went up a few volume levels). Then I walked out of the room for a few minutes to get control back. Better.
So it was back to waiting. Eventually, Corwyn gave up and went to bed to sleep. Once he was deep enough, I asked Nathan again about going to bed. Nope. So I left the room and told him to tell me when he was ready for bed. Boy did he scream at me. I would regularly ask if he was ready to go to be 'no!'. After about 15 minutes of sulking, he came out with his pants in hand. I asked if he was ready for sleep -  'yeah'. So we put on a pullup and his pants and I carried him to bed. It was less than 10 seconds from tucking him in before he fell asleep.
Victory to me!!!!! Well, not really but it feels like a bit of a breakthrough. We'll have to see what tomorrow brings.
One thing is for sure. I think I know that the term @#$# or get off the pot was coined by the mommy of a toddler during potty training.

Friday, September 23, 2011

Potty Training - Nathan's Take on the Subject

I joined the potty train, choo choo! But I don’t know why they call it a train?


Just before I got really sick, I used the big potty to poop. Mommy got all excited, then I got sick and forgot about the potty again. Last week mommy got this thing that wraps around the big potty that lets me get up there by myself. The step worked sort of, but Corwyn sometimes pushed me off. This is much better, now I can get on and off all by myself.


Mommy lets me run around nekkid when she gets home from work. I love it. A couple of days ago, I stood on this new step thingy and pee came out into the big potty. It made such a neat sounds that I laughed. Mommy was very happy. But Corwyn flushed the big potty before I could; it’s not fair when that happens. When I’m playing, sometimes I can feel it and will shout out ‘poops coming’ and run to the bathroom. Mommy follows but now I can get on and off myself. I put the seat on the big potty and sit and then wait for the big splash. It makes me giggle. Mommy wipes me and I get to flush and say bye bye poop.


I love flushing the toilet. One night, I let a little poop go splash, then got up and flushed. Then I did another little one and flushed again. And again, and again. Mommy wasn’t as happy about that so now I try to do big poops instead. But I still love to flush and will sneak a second one in if I can.


Sometimes I think I want to pee or poop but it doesn’t happen. I don’t mind sitting on the big boy potty if mommy stays with me and reads and sings. I don’t like it when Corwyn steals the books though. And sometimes mommy has to leave to make dinner or see what the big crash from Corwyn was. I don't like sitting alone.


One time, when I really wanted to pee standing up, I was pushing so hard that poop came out! Wow. It landed on the floor. I said uh-oh, but mommy didn’t seem to mind. She cleaned it up and I got to flush the toilet anyway. I don’t think I’m supposed to poop on the floor though. It’s yucky.


I don’t like it anymore when my diaper is wet. I didn’t used to mind, but now I don’t like it. I must pee when I’m sleeping because my diaper was very wet this morning. I told mommy and she took it off. This morning, mommy put on big boy underwear me. I like them. They feel neat. When I felt the pee coming I told mommy and she helped me take them off and I peed in the potty again. This is the first time I’ve done it in the morning. Yeah!


Mommy keeps little pottys in the livingroom so I can watch TV sometimes. I don’t like them as much as the big potty but I like TV. It’s hard to decide. One of them is too small anyway so Corwyn can have it.


Corwyn likes to play with his potty. He puts his monkey in it. I did that, but not anymore. I don’t want monkey to go where poop goes. Yuck! The other day Corwyn pooped on the floor. Not like when I did it, he just stood there and pooped. Then he laughed. Ewwwwww.


I hope I get to wear big boy underwear again. I don’t know about when I’m sleeping though. It’s too much work to get out of bed. Maybe one day.




Mommy here. Nathan has indeed jumped on the potty wagon. It’s at his initiation so it’s going really well. They get to go naked once I’m home (unless we’re going to the park) and while he always liked to sit on the potty or toilet (big potty) he didn’t get it. Then a couple of weeks ago, something clicked. Unfortunately, in the middle of the night, both boys came down with what I was still in the middle of, a very nasty week long stomach flu, complete with vomiting, fever, diarrhea and nausea. Yuck, yuck and double yuck. There will be a post on that later. So it took a while to get back to normal even once they were feeling better the next week.

But Nathan came back to wanting to potty train in a huge way. One thing that really helped was getting Little Looster. Wow, what a difference. Yes, we had step stools, but they just aren’t as stable for getting on and off the potty and less so for peeing standing up (which he really prefers). Great invention. There are several American retailers but if you are in Canada, you can find it exclusively at The Safety Superstore. It’s great in that it allows both boys to pee at the same time (once Corwyn is ready) and it doesn’t have to be moved when us big people need to use the toilet. We have a couple of potty styles. With one of them, Nathan doesn’t fit. Oh his butt fits on but he’s so very well endowed that his boy bits don’t fit under the little pee cap thing. I think this is one of the reason’s he prefers the toilet. If you search for it you can find many other reviews and maybe a giveaway or two.
Which brings me to the next point. There is only one bathroom in our place. One. And Nathan is happy to sit on the toilet for hours at a time. There were times when I thought I might have to use one of the pottys myself (and it may come to that yet). And the long times on the potty, demanding I be there means some things don’t get done. Cooking has become a challenge. And poor Corwyn, he wants me with him too. Sigh.

Nathan has used the potty for poop all week and started using it more often for pee yesterday. I suspect he will be out of diapers during the day by the end of the weekend. I’m sure there will be accidents (many) and I need to convince my caregiver that its fine to just change his pants, and avoid diapers and pull-ups for him all together. I also don’t know how he’ll be when he has to use the potty and we’re not at home.

Corwyn shows no signs of being ready yet. He gets to run naked too, but I have to clean up (lots) and while he’ll sometimes stand beside Nathan at the toilet, he doesn’t pee or even try. He will be ready when he’s ready. It might get hard once he is ready if he likes to sit as long as Nathan does. It's hard enough with only two of us wanting to use the toilet, when there are three it will be really hard.