Saturday, May 30, 2009

Potty Training Days 1 and 1.5

Warning: This post may contain details of my son's life that you have no interest in! Feel free not to continue if potty training is not your thing!

We are on day two of full blown potty training! So far I have to say I am satisfied with the results. Yesterday I had no plans, so I decided to start our PT week off early. In the morning I put Ethan in big boy pants and we talked about the potty etc. About 10-20 minutes after I had him in underwear he had his first accident and it didn't even phase him. He was just walking around wet. Betsy had suggested focusing on keeping underwear dry just as much, if not more than going to peepee in the potty. As I changed Ethan I talked to him about keeping Wall-E dry and I even hung up a piece of paper to reward him for having dry underwear. Taking my friend Heather's advice I started taking him every 30-45 minutes weather he wanted to go or not. I would ask every 20 minutes or so if he was dry and that would earn him a small star sticker on the chart.

That worked until lunch time (I'd heard that meal time is hard) when he had another accident. The good thing about this accident was he yelled, "PeePee!" as soon as it happened. That gave me hope that he was aware of the fact that he had wet himself. I put him in a g-diaper for naptime and then after nap I put him back in under wear. Everything was going great until I was on the phone with a friend. Ethan said, "m&ms?" "Not unless you peepee in the potty." I replied. "PeePee?" Well, before I could get off the phone he had gone. That one was totally my fault! It taught me a good lesson though, and phone callers be warned: I may hang up on you with no warning if we are on the phone in the next couple of days/weeks.

After that last accident he went back into underwear and stayed dry for the next couple of hours. He then went into a diaper because Philip and I were going on a date night and Ethan was off to church. This morning we began again and at noon he has had no accidents! He hasn't asked to go, but he has kept his under wear dry and I consider that an accomplishment. Here are our award charts:

In addition to stickers he also gets three M&M's for number 1 in the potty and an "Easter Egg" for number 2 in the potty. He has yet to earn an Easter Egg, but he asks about them, so I'm sure it will happen eventually. I'll keep you all posted as we continue down this new journey!

5 comments:

Aunt Betty said...

A good start, I'd say! Tripp was probably about 6 or 7 before he put the 'need to go' ahead of 'I much rather being playing with this truck'! I can remember many a time of running to the nearest bathroom! Sometimes, a tree had to do! : )

Janet L said...

Keep up the good work Ethan & Mommy! It is definitely a process that requires lots of patience.

Amanda said...

Potty Monkey. You can get it at Smart Toys - use a coupon (I'll e-mail you the latest one). It saved MY sanity to keep track of how long it had been. And Drew LOVED going potty with the monkey.

Brandi said...

You go girl! Hang in there! :)

Anonymous said...

Sounds wonderful, Bridgette! Way to go, Ethan! I am not sure where your sticker charts are, but my boys both loved having the pee pee'd in potty one in the bathroom. They would sit on the potty and talk about their stickers. Seemed to make a connection for them. Just a thought?!?
Hedy