mama monday

This post is a piggy-back on Erin's Mama Monday's. For future reference, I will try and piggyback on hers, if I have anything to say on the subject.

Mama Monday I: Potty-Training the Marlin Way
(don't try this at home)

First, let me preface this blog with I think I am a horrible potty trainer and I'm not sure that I would use any of my techniques on your own kids! I also understand that all kids are different - but really, are they all so stubborn?

Elizabeth - age 4years 11 months
We began potty training Elizabeth when she was 2 1/2. She did not show any signs of readiness before then and I was extremely pregnant with a complicated pregnancy so I didn't have the energy to tackle it anyway. We decided to try potty training at 2 1/2 because I knew she had to be potty trained to go to preschool and that was a motivating factor for me - not so much for her at that time. Anyway, I started with the naked technique. We went out and bought a "little potty" and I let her run around naked from the waist down. This worked in the beginning. It only took her a couple times of having accidents before she figured out what the sensation was and then she would run to the "little potty" and do her business. We did the sticker chart at this point. I let her pick out the sticker she wanted to put on the chart and this seemed to be a great motivator. This lasted for about a week and then she needed "more." We then went to jelly beans as potty treats and moved to a seat on the big potty at this point. She did good with this but after about 2 weeks of success we had a big back slide. She had accidents every day, several times a day. And the poop - don't get me started on that. Why do they have to have poopy accidents when they are wearing underwear? Once she slid back it was a long road from there. All said and done we spent the next six months potty training. As far as night time training went, she was a very heavy wetter and was in pull-ups at night and naps for quite a while. When she was a little over 4 she finally started staying dryer at night so I attempted the panties at night but that turned into many interrupted nights for everyone and a lot of laundry, so it was back to pull-ups for her. When she was 4 years and 5 months someone mentioned cloth diapers to me and how the kids felt it more. I absorbed this information and tried using cloth training pants at night. Sure enough within a couple of weeks she was staying completely dry at night. Once she had stayed dry in her "nighttime panties" for a while, we made the switch to panties and now we are good day and night!

AJ - age 2 years 11 months
Now let me preface this with he is my stubborn one. He has shown me for a while that he is ready for the potty by telling when he is wet or poopy. We have tried several times to potty training with glimmers of hope followed by complete failure (on my part, I think.) I have basically done the same thing that I did with Elizabeth and we will have a couple of really good days but then the bad days aren't followed by accidents. They are followed by screaming and crying and throwing himself on the floor at the mere suggestion of going to use the potty - so it is back in diapers. As I mentioned a little earlier, there has been some research done to show that kids that are cloth diapered tend to potty train earlier and easier. So this is now my newest tactic in the fight against diapers. With the help of Thirsties and Bummis, I have switched the boys to cloth with the exception of when AJ is at school. I am hoping that this will provoke AJ into the desire to not feel wet. We shall see with a little more time.

Jacob - age 1 year 3months
Looking cute in his fluffy bottom these days!!!!

And of course, some flash back pictures because what would a post be without pictures. (For some reason I couldn't find pictures of Elizabeth on the potty but these are potty training related.)