Practical solution

So after weeks of my 3 year old wetting the bed about once a week, I got annoyed by the smell of his room in the morning and having to rush to do laundry while trying to get ready for work. If he had a foam mattress it would be even more difficult to clean, but we needed a new solution none-the-less. We had already tried putting him in Pull-ups at bedtime, but he adamantly refused because they look too much like diapers and he was a "big boy" now. Point taken.

I had looked for the plastic diaper covers before and could not find them anywhere, but I decided to look again because those would work for our bedtime situation. I finally found them at Wal-Mart, way on the very bottom rack in the cloth diaper section. They do make the plastic covers up to size 3T, so it would be nice to put them in the toddler underwear section too, but that's just my opinion.

We had to hide the package from my son, since it had a picture of the Gerber baby on the front. There was no way I could sabotage this idea by having him think these things were for babies. When we got home, I discreetly unpackaged them and removed all traces of babies from the wrapper. Then I pulled out a pair and saw that the baby picture was also on the tag, so I cut it off before introducing them to my son as his "Protector Underwear."

Success!! He accepted them with no problem, puts them over his underwear for sleeping and takes them off in the morning when he wakes up. He went three days with no accident, so I still wasn't sure how they would hold up - but this morning, he woke up early after wetting his pants. The plastic covers worked perfectly. His underwear was soaked, but everything else was totally dry. I'm sure after feeling how wet they got, his bed wetting will lessen, but until then we have the "Protector Underwear" on our side!

My best friend

The other morning at breakfast, my husband proudly states that the night before, when he was finished reading a bedtime story to our three year old boy, he said, "Dad, you're my best friend." Aaaawwwwww, how cute.

Then, my daughter rains on his parade by stating, "Dad, he told the dog she was his best friend the other day." Upon seeing the disappointment on daddy's face, she said, "I mean, you're special too. He's been telling us all that we are his best friends."

In drastic contrast to the "terrible two" attitude we dealt with for over a year, all of a sudden our son has become very affectionate. He will just run up and give out hugs and say "I love you" all the time. I remember this stage with my daughter as well. Just around the time you enjoy spending time with your toddler is when it's time for them to start going to school.

Independence is key

Well, it seems we are mostly back on track with my three year old son's potty habits. As you may recall, he was totally trained (much to my surprise) in one day on the first Friday in December. Once he understood what was expected of him, he would go about his "business" all by himself and only tell us after he had finished. He never told us before he went to the bathroom. He was very proud, as we all were and very independent about the whole thing.

Then I became too controlling (as I always do, dang it!) and he started using it as a control/stubborn issue. I would ask him to go potty and he would always say no, then he would wet himself from holding it for too long. Then I stopped asking and he was better about going by himself, but would still hold it for too long and sometimes have some wetness in the underwear.

So I've tried to ease up even more and it seems to be helping. I also put the toddler potty back in the kid's bathroom because I think the size of it comforts him, even though he will use the big potty too. I think he just likes having it there "in case" he needs it. Anyway, I'm very happy to report that we are only going through one or two pairs of underwear per day, rather than the four our five we were changing daily a couple of weeks ago.

Slacking in the potty department

My three year old son has been potty trained now for exactly two months. He started off great, always staying dry and rushing to the bathroom when he had to go. Now he has started slacking off and will pee a bit in his underwear before getting to the bathroom. It's not enough to come through his pants, but it's still enough that he should feel uncomfortable.

If I don't notice, he will keep the wet underwear on and it doesn't seem to bother him. The funny thing is, he only does this at home and he rarely wets the bed during the night. When we are in a store or the park, he tells us in plenty of time to get to the bathroom. Yesterday, when I talked to him about why he does it, he says, "Don't worry Mom, the pee keeps me warm." I couldn't help flipping out about that one. So my husband jumped in and talked to him about going to buy baby diapers since he couldn't stay dry and my son got really upset and said it wouldn't happen again.

This morning, he peed on the couch and didn't tell anyone. Now what???

Potty progress report

Well, it's been about a month since my son (3 years and 3 months old) decided to be potty trained. I'm happy to report he is still going strong and we've only had a couple of mishaps along the way. First of all, to my amazement, he has only wet the bed twice in a whole month. Every other morning, he wakes up dry and sometimes even waits to go potty until after he eats breakfast! As you can imagine, this makes me quite nervous, but he won't go if you tell him to, so I have to keep my mouth shut.

There have also been a few times when he waits too long and has a little wetness in his underwear before making it to the potty. I don't make a big deal about it and he just picks out a new pair of undies and changes them himself. He's all about doing things by himself right now, so I'm going with the flow. This will be very important for starting pre-school in August since they expect the kids to do most things themselves.

Overall, I'm still very proud of my "big boy" and I'm so glad he is out of diapers before our Florida trip in two weeks! Mickey Mouse will be so impressed, I'm sure.

Let's hear it for my boy!

So after all my stressing out about potty training, reading a couple of books, watching a kid's video to get my son psyched up... He basically potty trained himself in one day. Yes, one day. No kidding.

Here's the story:
Last week we started letting him wear Pull-Up diapers and telling him he could go to the potty with them, etc. He wore them for two days and tried sitting on the potty a couple of times with partial success, but the diapers were still getting wet. Then on Friday, he saw me folding laundry and told me he wanted to wear "big boy underwear." Skeptically, I said "OK" and we changed him into underwear.

Today is Wednesday night and so far, he has not had one accident. We put him in Pull-Ups at night just in case, but he wakes up in the morning with them still dry. He even wants to use the big potty already and only uses the baby potty for poopies. While we are on the subject, who's up for a detoxifying colon cleanse? After reading a bit on the web, my sluggishness lately could be caused by excessive toxins in the system. Maybe a detoxifier is just what I need. I've never tried that before, so who knows?

I am seriously shocked about my boy, though. I still can't believe it, although I am very proud and happy. It's so fascinating to see something just "click" with a child and how excited they get when they accomplish it. I guess I don't have to worry about him being ready for Pre-school in the fall. It will also be so nice not to deal with diapers on our upcoming trip in January. Woo hoo! Let's hear it for the boy!

For parents in the midst of potty training...

This one's for you!



My husband saw the video on another daddy's blog and just had to share it with me since we are just starting to get serious about potty training my son. He's actually doing very well. Once we put the training pants with "Cars" characters on them, he knew we meant business (literally!). He has sat on the potty several times, and been productive on the potty once so far. I just finished reading Potty Training for Dummies, which helped a lot to put things in perspective.

The one point that really stood out for me was their reminder that potty training is just like any other milestone in your child's life and should be treated as such. For instance, when babies learn to walk, we cheer at their first steps, but don't get angry or frustrated when they fall. It's because we know they will get it eventually. It's the same with potty training. Be your child's coach and cheerleader, but don't be a preacher or a nag and keep the mood light. Treat accidents in a "matter-of-fact" way and don't make a huge deal about it.

Toddler milestone

My son has reached a subtle milestone in toddlerhood. He is starting to grasp the concept of time. Not in the clock sense, but in the general sense. Lately he has been using words like "before, after, last night, tomorrow, yesterday", and some days of the week. I think he is a little confused about the weekdays, because he says things like, "I want to go to Wednesday."

But he is learning and I definitely consider this a milestone in my book. Bedtime is still a nightmare, but we just take it day by day knowing that everything is "just a phase" at this age. We will be out of the "terrible twos" in about three months, so hopefully things will improve in the bedtime department.