Hello Big Boy Underwear!

I have been dying to make this post!! Monday we started potty training! I know we tried it before but it was always too soon and I had read if they fight it and really resist, the child is not ready and forcing them will only make it harder. So we backed off. It wasn’t necessarily he fought it, but he would be doing good for a few days and then have several accidents or we got lazy with it and didn’t push him to continue going. Devin and I talked this past weekend and decided with Monks turning 3 this month, we needed to really start and go with it and not get lazy with it. He had several of the signs they say to look for. I had read several ways to do it and Tio sent me some links too, and we picked the things we thought would work for us knowing our son. I could not be more proud of my baby boy, excuse me, my big boy! He has done a great job!! We decided to put him in only underwear and no diapers at all. We did that the first day and he had a few accidents but that was to be expected. We even put him to bed overnight in just underwear and pants. Not such a great idea. Did we really expect him to not soak his pants and sheets overnight? Hello dumb parents, it was his first day! We decided we would do a diaper only overnight. One night, his diaper was completely dry! I was amazed! He even sleeps in his undies for naps and has done extremely well. We just monitor how much he drinks before we expect him to lay down. About an hour has been a good time to go by. He takes his last drink about an hour before he goes to lay down and in that hour, he goes several times to the bathroom and then never goes in his sleep! Of course he goes to Tia’s on Wednesday thru Friday, so she has been such a huge help in his success. She makes sure he goes every 20 minutes or so and I know within the next week, he won’t be going that often, but for now, he needs to be reminded to go every 20 minutes. Yesterday, he wore the same pair of underwear from 7:15 in the morning until 7:45 that night when he took them off to take his bath! HE WENT ALL DAY WITHOUT AN ACCIDENT! We were so proud of him! He has not mastered pooping in the potty yet. I did worry he might get constipated, but he didn’t. He just happened to go in his undies at Tia’s. Oops. I know he just does not feel comfortable yet with it but he will get there. At home, we put him on the toilet for about 25 minutes once in the evening so he can try to go. He reads several books and then we let him get down. He normally goes in the morning though, so this weekend, I will make him sit there for a while around the time he normally has his bowel movement. I am also getting a prize bag, just a few cars and small toys and candy that he can get IF he poops in the toilet. He gets a sticker when he pees. After Pippa’s check up the other day, we went to Target right after and bought him four packs of big boy underwear! He picked out some Cars ones, some Toy Story and some Pixar ones. Pete bought him a pack of Rangers ones. Lol. He now has 23 pairs to choose from and gets very excited to pick them for the day. I also bought him a waterproof mattress pad cover for when he does start sleeping in his underwear. He was wearing underwear when we bowled, and we made sure to take him every 15 minutes to the bathroom. Do you know how fast 15 minutes goes by?? I felt like we never left the bathroom. He would go though and try. Sometimes nothing, sometimes he would. We all alternated taking him and the one time we did not stick with the time, he had a small accident. We just changed him and reminded him that we don’t want to wet our big boy underwear and continued. (That was only day 2 also) It can get frustrating, especially those first few days when you do have a little accident, but you have to make sure you do not discipline him or show you are disappointed. Just simply remind what we want to happen, and go on. He would apologize sometimes and I didn’t want that. I didn’t want him feeling bad like we were upset. I would tell him he didn’t need to apologize just to try and tell mommy when he feels like he needs to go. He was as happy as could be. I was so excited when I put on his diaper last night for bed (he wore underwear after his bath and I did not put on the diaper until he was getting in bed) and he pulled at it and I asked what was wrong and he said he did not like it. He did not like his diaper! Woo hoo! Progress. He is getting there and there is no going back. I can’t believe it, no more diapers! We have enough left to get through nighttime for a few weeks, and then when we run out, we will not buy anymore for him. I am so proud of my big boy and he even is proud of himself which makes it so worth it. Huge milestone for my boy. 

Blurry but him in his Buzz Lightyear ones

His stash. This is actually minus a few as they were in the wash. :)