04 May 2012

Y3W: That's my boy.

Ha!  I love him.

I just want to update everyone on the status of Carter's potty training.  As I mentioned before, this kid has been a total nightmare with the potty.  And I think a big part of that is, once he hit 3, I so desperately wanted him to be ready to train.  But the truth is?  He just wasn't.  I feel like there's a lot of pressure on parents to get their 3 year-olds potty trained right away.  Some kids are ready for it then {if not sooner} and some just... aren't.  And Carter Man?  Well, he was one of those kids.

My goal with him then became trying to get him ready to train.  Books, movies, buying the potty, letting him pick out his own underwear... you name it.  He also liked to run into the bathroom to watch daddy go pee on the potty or watch his cousin Ben go.

Once he showed more interest in it, we tried again.  And again.  And again. And again.

So what finally worked?  Ya know, besides the usual incentives of new toys, games he could only play on the potty, M&M's for trying, change and $1 bills for his piggy bank, stickers, etc?

Putting him in underwear.

Yep, that's all it was.  We put him in underwear one day and never looked back.  Sure, there were accidents.  But he hated the way it felt when he wet himself.  It helped him learn how to control it. Then from there, he wanted to go on the potty {ahem, ya know besides the one day he held his pee hostage for hours on end.  That was fun.}

Now? He's an ol' pro.  He's running to both pee and poop on the potty and he's only wearing pull-ups at bedtime.  And even then, he's not wetting himself throughout the night and he runs right to the potty first thing in the morning. What happened to my nightmare-to-potty-train boy!?!

Something just clicked. And I thank gawd for that!

He is doing so well and we could not be more proud of him.  And ya know what's even better than that?  He could not be more proud of himself.  And that has, by far, been the best part of this whole experience.

Way to go, Carter Man!

11 comments:

ashley said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
ashley said...

aweomse job Carter!! feels good to only have 1 in diapers huh, momma? well...for the next 4 months at least ;)

Lisa said...

Way to go Carter! This post really gives me hope. I've been trying to train my son at 2. He has been showing interest since he was 18 months, and I am DYING not to have to change diapers. But he's just not ready, and I have to accept that. I mean heck, he can't even take his pants off himself! So thanks for giving me the faith that it will happen, when it happens! Big *High Five* to Carter and mad props to you Jenni

molly said...

This is exactly how we got Landon to potty train. We just put him in underwear and it worked (for the most part).

Still have him in pull-ups at night. ughhhh. But I consider it a success.

Congrats, Carter man!

Mandy@ a sorta fairytale said...

Yay Carter!! We bought Bennett some big boy undies at the store and are thinking of trying to train him this Summer. He'll only be 2 1/2 but I'm hoping he'll have some success!!

Anonymous said...

Good for him! We're going to train Braden in a few weeks! He'll be just about 2 years 4 months, I'm really hoping he's ready because I refuse to have 2 in diapers, that's one of the reasons we waiting longer for baby #2!

Jeni said...

Yay for him! We just got through potty training our youngest and undies were the real trick for us as well. He wanted absolutely nothing to do with the potty before that, but once he really bought into the "big boy" aura of the undies, and realized how unpleasant having an accident sans diaper was, he was on board all the way.

Becki said...

That's exactly what we had to do with my son too. Worked like a charm within two days. Thank GAWD for daycare who dealt with those two days of messes! The first few nights we had him in a pull up, but he was clearly staying dry overnight just like Carter is doing so we switched to undies overnight and never looked back. He's only had about 3 overnight accidents in 9 months. You might try making the whole switch over so you can save on not buying pull ups. And yea for Carter!

Tracy Eyles said...

Yeah! It's such a relief when they actually get it. You're right it finally clicks when they feel that gross, wet feeling. One thing that I found worked when we potty trained my daughter. We put undies, under her pull-up. She felt wet but we didn't have the mess.

Cori said...

Congratulations Carter on potty training! My daughter is 2 and she's shown so much interest in the potty (likes to sit on it, likes to watch others use the bathroom, talks about it, has even gone on the potty a few times), but she just doesn't seem to have the motivation to stop playing and go to the potty (she doesn't have any accidents during nap time or bed time, only when she's awake). We've tried putting her in undies, but she doesn't seem to care about how it feels when she wets herself (or worse!). For now we're back to diapers and we'll give potty training another try in a few months.

Jeannie said...

Lookin' good mama! I love the shirt you're wearing in the photo :)

© jenni from the blog, All Rights Reserved.

Designed by A Grande Life