Potty Training: The Saga Continues

So things were not.... going so well.

The 3 day, naked bottom thing initially worked very well and he definitely got the concept but trying to transition to underwear wearing was just.... failing. If I put something on his bottom he went it in it. This wasn't helped by the fact I put him in a pull up any time we left the house (which he treated like a diaper) and he also refused to use the big potty at all (even with a seat adapter).

So basically he was perfectly potty trained as long as we were at home and he was naked from the waist down (not including naps and bedtime). *sigh*

And this was the status for months b/c I'd try underwear and he'd go through 5 pairs in a day and while he doesn't object to wearing a wet diaper, Caleb STRENUOUSLY objects to wearing wet underwear (not that I can blame him) and he associated the underwear w/ being uncomfortable so he'd scream and cry if I tried to put it on him.

Then in August I went to visit my family in Texas for 2 weeks and between the 2 day road trip and then I forgot the potty chair at home and he refused to use the big potty at my Mom's house and at my sisters house I was afraid to let him run around naked on her nice carpet in case he had an accident and so he spent the two weeks in diapers.

Then we got back home and Caleb just plain didn't want to use the potty. He'd yell if we tried to make him go and while I can work with that what I couldn't work with was the fact he started holding it ALL DAY until either nap time or bed time (when he'd get a diaper put on him), unless he had an accident which was just oh so fun to clean up and I was scared to death that he would get a bladder infection or something. *head desk*

So we decided to just back off for a while. So for the last almost 2 months we just went back to diapers full time.

And then last Tues Caleb got up from his nap, we were out of pull ups anyways and the one he wore for nap time had overflowed w/ poopie that got on the rug in his bedroom and he'd tried to clean it up himself w/ wipes (so I had poopie wipes all over the floor and the poop was now ground into the carpet *vomit in my mouth a bit remembering that*). And I decided it was high time he started using the potty again.

And this time he's ONLY using THE BIG POTTY (with the adaptor seat) and he's wearing underwear full time. I don't want any more crappy transitions I have to deal with. And I'm shamelessly bribing him.

He did NOT want to wear the underwear at first or use the potty but I was able to sweet talk him into the underwear after bribing him to pee in the potty by telling him he'd get M&Ms if he did it. Yes I'm going to bad Mommy hell for bribery but if you wanna come change poopie diapers until he's 18 you can be my guest.

So we started w/ 3 M&Ms for a pee pee and 5 M&Ms for a poopie. And I've been hauling him in there every hour. If he doesn't go then we do 30 mins, then every 15 until he does. He got a little frustrated with his play time being interrupted (and had a couple accidents b/c when he's busy he doesn't want to move). So we've changed his reward schedule. He now gets 2 M&Ms just for trying to go potty (he will now happily jump up and run in there every time, no complaints), 4 for pee and 6 for poop.

He's doing much better. He pulls down his pants all by himself and likes to wash his hands.

We tried doing underwear for nap time and explaining that he could come out of his room if he needed to go. I don't know if he didn't understand or just doesn't have control when he sleeps yet (his diaper is NEVER dry in the morning), but yeah that was a BIG mess a couple days in row so now we just do diapers for nap and bed time.

He still hasn't got poop in the big potty. He saves that for the diaper, but at least he's going pee in the potty several times a day and wearing underwear and those are big steps for him. So we will see how that goes. I'm not sure how church is going to go tomorrow. Its 3 hours long and in the middle of nap time (so I usually have to change a stinky in the middle of church) so I don't think I'm brave enough to put him in pants but we'll see. I think we'll keep bribing and then this week start taking him on short outings from the house wearing underwear and see how it goes.

Wish us luck. I'm praying hard we can get this to work this time. He's 3.5 now. He can hold it for HOURS so I know he has the control. He just needs to learn to recognize and respond to the signs.... Or be willing to do so. I really want to be able to keep him in underwear when we leave the house. I think that was the downfall of our last try.