Adventures in Potty Training! - Aft and Eve Day 1

We weren't sure how his nap was going to go, whether he'd end up sleeping at all even. Thankfully he ended up sleeping for 2.5 hrs!  These days it's usually around 1.5-2 hrs so this was a really good nap. =D

Unfortunately, Derek wasn't too happy after his nap.  He had a wet spot on the edge of the bed, wet through his shorts.  He really wanted a diaper and fought sitting on the potty but we eventually worked it out.  Whiny about playing, whiny about snacking, then settled down while I went to wash his poopy underwear.

While Benny bathed him, he actually said "Potty!" and was okay with being lifted out of the bath to sit on the regular toilet seat.  Oh, I should mention, we're not using any potty chair although we used to, we're using a potty seat which is put on top of the regular toilet seat.  We took advice from the Baby Whisperer who says that since rarely do we come across a mini toilet, why train on one?  They'll need to get used to using the regular ones.

So far his weakness is in pulling his underwear down on his own and falling asleep.  For the latter, I think he's too aware of making sure he goes to the potty so it keeps him up.  It took him awhile to go down for his nap and for night time, even though we started the bed time routine at 9:15pm (we're behind today!), he only just fell asleep at midnight. =(  We think he may have to poop but we're not leaving him to do so by himself and he's not comfortable yet on the seat.

We'll have to wait till tomorrow to see what happens!  We still have to do the night time wake up; hopefully he'll go to sleep easily enough after that. =S

2.5 months and we're potty trained! *\0/* *\0/* *\0/* *\0/* *\0/*

Okay, that was supposed to be a host of cheer leaders at the end... did anyone get that?  You did? *\0/* =D

If you read my previous posts, you will remember that eons ago we started potty training.  Okay, not that long ago but it feels like it, only because we've had fairly good success with everything.  Derek has had his accidents, of course, but for the most part he's got it down.  Mind you, he's a toddler, so he knows the routine but still needs to be prompted and prodded.  Please hold down your wee-wee, please don't touch Mommy with your pee pee hands, flush the toilet first, don't play with the water...  We also have to help him on and off the big toilet and pull up his pants - he can't quite grasp how to get it over his little bum yet!  Overall though, we've got a potty trained 3-yr-old in our household.  *insert image of prancing parents joyfully tossing diapers in the air here*

Our new experiences are as follows:

1. Rushing to potty after waking.  This sometimes goes as smooth as butter.  Other times, he wakes up as if he's being attacked by the potty, blanket-kicking and all.

2. Remembering when to push fluids and when to stop them (no more 1.5 hrs before nap, 2 hours before bedtime).

3. Saying every 15 minutes "Let us know if you have to go potty!" and "Remember to keep underwear dry!" and "Let's try to catch the poo-poo today!"

4. Watching our soap supply deplete much quicker than before.

5. Potty calls 1.5 hrs after bedtime. =S

6. Remembering to take him to the washroom before leaving the home, 40 mins after leaving, and before going back home.  Can't kick it back and let the diaper do all the work!

7. Pack extra socks in the diaper activity and food bag.  Underwear lets pee travel all... the way... down.

8. Avoiding pee hands.  Derek likes to touch our face after holding down his wee-wee.  Uncool!

9. Cheering poop results like it's homecoming.

10. Exchanging diaper sales for extra laundry washes (but we don't mind!).

I'm sure there are more but that's enough to give a glimpse.  The main issues we ran into were poops in the potty (especially since we kicked off this whole training right after an episode of constipation) and night time nature calls.  I'll get into those over the next couple weeks.  Feel free to poke and prod me with questions about our experience; it was a bit of a blur so I can't remember things well enough to give a detailed report but questions trigger the memory. =)  We were also so busy I forgot to note things down in Derek's journal, which would have detailed things for us.

How about you?  What have you tried for potty training?  If you haven't started, what parts are you most wary of?  When are you thinking of trying?

It's been a long (long time) - shouldna left you (left you, left you....frikki frikki)

That "frikki frikki" was my attempt at transcripting beat boxing, haha.  But as Aaliyah says, If at first you don't succeed, dust yourself off and try again...."

I won't try the beat boxing thing again but I will attempt - yet again - to resurrect this blog.  I've had loads of ideas for posts but it's been hard to get to them.  Since potty training, we've been dealing with our toddler getting up and out of bed for up to 2 hours after we put him to bed.  Average is 1.5 hrs.  1.5 hours, my dear parents.  This means our 8:30 pm bed time, which is already later than preferred, is actually a teaser and we don't get to breathe a sigh of relief till almost 10pm!  Moreover, this is after "falling back" for Daylight Savings Time, so we're actually gaining an hour over his previous 11pm clocking out. =X

And then there's the baby's growth spurts, wonder months, teething and what-have-you.  Then there are the things that need to get done - dishes, de-cluttering, unpacking online order arrivals (huge props to parents who bring their kids in-store to buy clothes!!) - and simply being near brain dead once the kids are both finally asleep.  I don't have much juice flowing to put pen to paper (words to blog?) nearing midnight!

Part of it is also performance anxiety.  I want my blog to be read!  But who wants to read the ramblings of a zombie-like mom who's pretending to be alive and humourous?  Especially when that zombie state of mind rears the ugly neurotic head.  Was that funny?  It was funny before, maybe it isn't now... I changed this paragraph, the funniness level had dropped... Do I reveal this?  Will I sound like a horrible mother?  Housekeeper?  Wife?  Will readers move on because I haven't tried enough to catch their attention??

Thankfully, I've decided not to let my hangups get the best of me, especially after reading an article about the worst types of Facebook posts.  I actually found nothing really wrong about the types of posts listed.  Yeah, they're annoying but who says you have to read them all?  Or give them much mind?  Or that those people are even out to make you feel insecure by "bragging" about their incredible weekend?  Status updates are just that: updates, not mini-entertainment bits for your reading pleasure.  If you're that annoyed by someone's posts, I take it you're more annoyed by the person and an assessment of friendship needs to be had.

On that note, I'll just post what comes to my mind in my life as a mom.  I may not have fancy pictures or a sleek interface with cute fonts, I may not always post fantastic tips or have the best review.  I do hope, though, that my corner of the Internet world sheds a bit of light on some parent's otherwise rainy day and perchance contribute to the parenting community at some point, simply by being me.  If I annoy you, just surf on by to the next blog.  It'll sting a bit but I'll be alright.  Gosh, you'd think I'd have learned that enough times through high school already!

Okay, enough with the rambling.  I'll wrap up here and work on my next post, which is a general review of our potty training results since September.  =D  Till then, fellow parent, hug your kids tight and treat yourself to a glass of wine.  If you're having chardonnay, please bring some over!

Potty training update is coming!

Sorry for keeping you in suspense but as you can imagine, we've been doing a lot of running to the washroom and it's been tough getting anything significant done.  The kitchen was in the third ring of chaos until Derek was able to go to Grandma's for a couple nights.  We thought that would happen sooner but then realized that Grandma needed training in how to maintain the training, so we used her day off to come over to our place and observe how it works.  Consistency is important with training!

In the meantime, I thought I'd share some tips on how we're tackling baby stinky cloths and toilet-training toddler laundry.  Infant poop just ends up every where and stains almost anything it seems.  Kristen spit up a lot so I was cleaning milk vomit from her and my clothes.  Derek's recent learning is creating lots of stinky clothes but the reusable absorbency sheets we got shouldn't use fabric softener (which generally reduces absorbency of any material).  Aaaand he sometimes doesn't get the poopy in the potty, which makes me wish for Kristen's infant poops! =S Those are my issues; these are my solutions!

1. Buncha Farmer's stain remover.  After an initial rinse-off of the poop/milk, rub the stick over the affected area until foam builds up.  Rinse out the remover.  Repeat until the stain is not very noticeable (I usually only have to do this 2x in total).  Rub and foam one more time as a leave-in for the actual wash.

2. Baking Soda.  I soak smelly baby cloths in the sink with a liberal dusting of baking soda and enough cold water for me to swish the cloths around in.  I use baking soda in the "bleach" compartment of every wash cycle EXCEPT when I'm using vinegar for items that don't recommend fabric softener.  Let's not explode the budget-unfriendly washer!

3. Vinegar rinse* before washing for anything particularly smelly.

How about you? What tricks do you have for removing stains and smells?  What have you "lived with" because you couldn't find a workable solution?


*I've read recently that vinegar may harm the plastic tubing and such in a washer.  I don't have any definitive info, just someone posting on a forum thread what their service person told them. Vinegar compounds differ from bleach and it's that composition which is incompatible with the plastic.  Others, of course, have been using vinegar rinses in their washers for years and haven't noticed any issues.  Just thought I'd note this so you'd be aware of the health of your washer!

Adventures in Potty Training! - Morning Day 1

We got through it!  4 wet pairs and 1 pooed pair later, we're at nap time.  2 accidents happened after lunch when he was absorbed with colouring, no more than 5 minutes after a previous pee.  Quite a bit of pee at that!

5 underwear down (1 is in the sink), 20 more to go!

He caught one pee after being tucked into bed, then tried to huddle into a corner to poop. That was a bit trickier since we usually give him time to poop on his own, although we do try to get him onto the potty when he's more agreeable.  We let him have this one in the underwear to show how dirty things get (as per Lora's instruction in her e-book) and yep, we had to clean up his legs since the poop hung low and rubbed against his thighs as we walked to the washroom, and then the toilet seat when he sat down on the potty as we took off his pants.  Fun times!  Random sharing: It was the Batman underwear that got the poop.

So far, things are looking positive.  I dare not think about the actual reality of being diaper-free, only because it makes me a bit too giddy to be effective!  Stoic I must be to get us through the next 2 days.  Benny's been really great with the positivity, reminding Derek of what we're aiming for ("Keep the underwear dry!") and not losing his patience.  Thankfully, Derek hasn't been terribly whiny - and Benny's had coffee.  =D

He gets a gold star each time he does the action.  We'll be giving him a reward after his nap for completing at least one line, which is pretty easy since he will always be sitting on the potty!

Adventures in Potty Training! - Prep

Sooooooo we've arrived at Potty Training Weekend!  How fitting that it's during Labour Day weekend because it will definitely be laborious for us parents.  We've decided to try out the 3-day Potty Training by Lora Jensen.  Sounds intense but I figure go big or go home.  We (well, I) decided to download her e-book as an investment to at least help us wrap our minds around this training, even if we don't use her particular method.  I'm fairly convinced it will work, although we have a few factors working against us:

1. Derek had a major constipation problem that resolved only 2 days (Thurs) before our training day.
  We're concerned that his system may be thrown off by this recent bout and it may be another obstacle to deal with.

2. He stayed up really late the night before The Big One came out (Wed night).
  He didn't go to bed will 12:30am because he kept bouncing out to go potty.  He was trying sometimes and with his system so backed up, we couldn't ignore his "Potty!" calls.  Since then he's hopped out of bed for the littlest things, which he's never done before, making nap times and bed times rougher than usual.

3. As a result, he's also sleep-deprived.  =S

4. He had white carbs for dinner last night.
  He gets constipated with white carbs so we've switched everything to whole wheat.  We had pizza with neighbours and I didn't realize that the pie we requested for him wasn't whole wheat!  Benny usually handles his meal but was delayed at work so I was juggling Kristen and Derek and totally missed the non-whole wheat crust.  Boo me!  So Restoralax this morning to pre-emptively keep him regular.

5. We haven't wet-proofed his play area.
  Given the irregular nights we've been having because of his constipation, our plans to take out the foam mats and replace them with a rug got derailed.  Why no mats?  Because cleaning them is a pain and a half, and there are connecting pieces between the squares, and debris underneath.... so we'll have to do that this morning.  Speaking of which, we just finished the switch!  Pictures up soon. =)

Foam mats cleared out!

Rugs in!

Derek misunderstanding and bringing out his bucket of trains to go with his tracks that we put on the sofa during the transition. =P

These are the things we have done in preparation:

1. Buy and wash underwear - 25 pairs!
2. Buy and wash extra pajamas.
3. Fit mattress with absorbent Brolly sheets (http://www.brollysheets.com/; review of these to come after potty training!).
4. Print Thomas potty training reward chart.
5. Figure out which rewards to give when (almost all trains!).

Blue Brolly sheet on, red and green sheets waiting on the sidelines.

Aaaaand time's up.  Kristen needs to nap.  Benny's about to change Derek out of his last diaper.  Wish us luck!