We've had three dry nights in a row. No, we haven't had a problem hitting the sauce - unless, of course, it's a problem that I can't have any "special sauce". I mean, Kieran has woken up three mornings in a row without having wet his pull-up.
I wasn't even trying.
OK, I sorta tried. Before he went to bed, I made Kieran go to the bathroom and have a pee.
And, uh, it works!
I thought potty training was supposed to be hard!
Yeah, I know, I still haven't forgotten the Poop-splosian Extravaganza of 2006 and it's subsequent two months of messy undies that gave me Poop Fingers. It's long behind us now, though.
About a month ago, I read a post on Parent Hacks about potty training that gave me a brilliant idea. The discussion was about non-candy rewards to promote potty performance. When we started, as you may remember, we had a program that involved two kinds of stickers rewarding sitting on the potty and peeing on the potty. It was very, very successful - probably mostly because we waited until Kieran was 3 1/2yo when he was very ready to learn to go on the pot - except for pooping, which you also may remember. The suggestion, from one of the parents, was to reward the child with a beloved toy.
Hmmmm, thought I, would Kieran poop on the toilet and without accidents in his pants if he got a Matchbox car each time he performed? I asked him and he said he would. And he did! He still only poops every third day - when he was an infant and only breastfed, he only pooped once per week - but since the Operation Poop For Cars started he has NOT HAD A SINGLE ACCIDENT! NOT EVEN ONCE!
Through Operation Poop For Cars, Kieran has received 7 Matchbox trucks and two Speed Racer DVDs, one of which comes with a wee Mach 5 racer. The program has now completed and I have no doubt that Kieran will continue his excellent work.
And then there is the peeing at night thing!
A few weeks ago he slept over at my mum's and, despite not ever pressuring me or even saying anything to me, she thinks it's high time for Kieran to night train. Since I hate laundry, I have not wanted to even go there. I mean, sometimes, in our financial feast/famine cycle it's hard just to keep everyone in cleans socks and undies! So, I was content with letting Kieran go to sleep in a pull-up.
Not so my mum, who tried having Kieran go to bed commando and woke him up twice in the middle of the night to pee. Now, when I heard that, all I had were nightmare flashbacks of not sleeping for nearly two years while Kieran and I had marathon middle of the night nursing sessions. It's bad enough that I have to get up in the middle of the night to pee, I wasn't exactly keen on waking my 3 year old and dragging him around in the middle of the night, as well. And, besides, that night my mum attempted to night train Kieran, despite peeing on the toilet twice in the middle of the night, he STILL PEED in her bed around dawn!
Yeah, not my cup of tea.
But, the other night, after Kieran had drank a big cup of water just before we were going to sleep, I made him take a pee before climbing into my bed with me. He was wearing a pull-up, but I still wanted him to void his bladder before bed. It's just healthier.
And he did. And he woke up dry. A fact I can verify due to the nifty little marks on the inside of the pull-up that disappear when peed on.
The next night, I made Kieran run off for his pre-bed pee. Again, he woke up dry.
And, again, last night, off he went to the toilet and in the morning he was yet again dry!
So, I'm marking the calendar with stickers to see how many nights we can go pee-free. I haven't decided on a reward, but I think we should have one. And I'll have to think of it soon. And I'll have to figure out a way to protect his double-sized bed against a near future commando sleep attempt. (I'm thinking fleece backed cheap vinyl table cloth)
It's been a long journey, with lots of ups and downs, but overall, looking back over our progress and our challenges, I think things have gone quite well!
It's not quite over yet, but the end is in sight. Just in time to start the diaper circus all over again from scratch! Hey, have I mentioned I'm thinking of doing cloth diapers? Haha! Yeah, that's a discussion for another day.
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2 comments:
um, you can buy mattress protectors at walmart, or zellers for very cheap, and they work much better than a tablecloth because the tablecloth is nowhere near the size of a double bed. they also come with a zipper to guard both sides of the mattress so the cover doesnt slip off... and dont worry night training doesnt take too long if its approached properly, so happy training :)
just one small warning for you. i don't know if this will happen as kieran is 3 1/2, but when we started potty training liam at 2 (he was ready) he backslid when sean was born. ( sean's birthday is august 8, liam's is august 25th, lol, so they're almost exactly 2 years apart). we almost had to start over, but by christmas, he was potty trained. just to warn you, lol
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