Saturday, May 7, 2011

Potty training and extreme couponing

Well, the time has come. Sterling has finally decided he is ready to discuss the fantastic word "potty"! Luckily I have potty trained 22 two year olds (at one time) as a preschool teacher, so this is right up my alley.... so I thought! I have patiently been waiting for Sterling to decide when he is ready. I certainly do not want to push something on him and not have any results. The one thing that I love about being a mommy is that the network of other moms around you can be really helpful... but sometimes, its hard to hear about someones child doing more than yours, even though I fully understand that Sterling may be excelling in other areas that that child may not be yet. On the other hand, I get great pointers, and for the other moms out there that read this (even though my readers are a small amount) I hope some of the pointers that I have can help you too!
Working in the Doctors office, I'm fortunate enough to have met a Pharmaceutical Rep that has a child the same age as Sterling. Every time she comes in the office we discuss where are kids are at developmentally, or where good sales are, shoes that fit fat feet... etc! <-- That has been a challenge in itself! lol. She has a lady that lives across the street from her that has 4 children. 2 girls and 2 boys. She gets allot of advice from her and shares it with me. We have a little network of advice and it seems to be working with all 3 of us!
Some of the pointers that the lady across the street told my friend have really been encouraging! Along with my personal success in training children,  I hope they are for you all too!
*First of all, Girls are easier to train than boys. This is kinda common sense. There is no "sitting training" then "standing training" with girls... which is a huge obstacle for mothers of males! You finally get them used to sitting, but then daddy stands up to pee... so mommy, how is that the same? The first step is to have daddy do what baby does. There is no shame in having your husband sit to pee, just to show your son that its okay to do it that way! I have brought Sterling into the bathroom with me a million times, and explained what I am doing on the potty. I try to be as excited as possible, so that way he too will be excited when he is ready. When daddy does it, its even more encouraging! So, definitely don't be afraid to ask the man of the house to take a little step into the sitting direction!
*Next, Make sure that if you are ready to potty train, and your child is in daycare, that they are actively being involved in the process with you. Share your training ideas and having them give you their ideas will help keep things consistent for your child. This is very important for a working mother like myself. I would hate for Sterling to have gone potty more at daycare than he does with mommy! Tell them when you are ready! and if they are ready before your child is, don't be afraid to tell them to wait.
 No shame in the potty game!
*My friend has suggested that I also let Sterling pick out his own potty seat. When he turned about a year and a half, My husband and I went and bought him a little potty. We set it right next to our potty and encouraged him to at least sit on it when we go potty. This helps your child get familiar to the idea, even if he/she is not ready. When your child gets a better understanding of what the potty is for, he/she will decide if they want the small potty, or if they would rather use a seat on the potty. Sterling, for example, doesn't like the small one. So, I have taken the lid off the seat and transferred it to the "big boy potty". With her suggestion of letting him pick a seat out, this will also encourage him! Her child picked out Sesame Street. Now, he loves to sit on it, because that is the one he wanted.
*The biggest obstacle with a working mother is having the time to dedicate to training. The lady friend told my friend that she has had to dedicate 3 straight days to straight potty training. This means, no going anywhere! Consistency is key! At the top of every hour, (as suggested), I will give Sterling a drink of water. At the 1/2 of every hour, I will ask him if he wants to go potty, and no matter what his answer is, we will go sit on the potty. EVERY DAY for 3 days straight. She said it has worked for all 3 of her younger kids and they caught on immediately!
*Another suggestion to me was No pullups. This one took me back for a moment, and I thought, "wont that be skipping a step?" The reason is: Kids do not want to feel wet. Talk to your child about big boy/girl panties/undies. Get them excited. Let them pick them out. Be prepared for a day of laundry! No child is perfect, and by no means should you ever scold a child for wetting themselves. She told me that letting a child feel wet, and not having the diaper there to catch it, will also help them understand that if you sit on the potty, you wont get wet! She feels as if pullups are kinda a lazy way out, and do not teach the child anything other than its OK to pee in your pullup. After hearing this, I fully agree! So this coming weekend, we are going to pick out underware. I will start on a Friday when I get off, and go all the way until Sunday. She did tell me that the exception for pullups are at nap and bedtime, as of course, your child is too young to know when to get up yet or to hold it for a long period of time.
*Lastly, the reward. With my preschoolers, I drew little pottys... and every time they went potty I put a sticker inside of their little potty. This was hung up for them to see regularly, and they love stickers! The lady friend of mine said She gives 5 mini m&m's for pee pee on the potty, and 10 mini m&m's for poo poo on the potty. They also have an Elmo potty DVD (you can purchase this at walmart) that the little boy gets really excited to watch. When I was teaching, I even made up a potty song.
"STERLING, went pee pee on the potty, He went pee pee like a big boy, he went pee pee on the potty, WHAAAHOOOO!" clapping my hands as I chanted this. ONLY if he went potty. The kids loved it! You can search online for potty songs and dances and they have so many that you can do for your child. The more fun it is for them, the more they will want to go.
I'm really excited to put all the advise and prior experience to the test! Updates will definitely be posted as I go, and more pointers are appreciated! Lets all share our ideas and help each other!

Now, to Couponing. I will be doing this for the first time this week. Having a family of 3 with one dog, jump to a family of 4 with 2 dogs has definitely opened my eyes to how much money is being spent on food. Every little penny counts now. My friend Julie saves so much money when she finds good deals, and I have been watching her do this for some time now, with no time to do it myself. The time has come. No more waiting and wishing. Sunday I am getting 2 newspapers, and using my helpful websites such as Coupons.com to give me pointers. I have printed "how-to's" and bought a coupon organizer. I have religiously been watching "Extreme Couponing" on TV, and although I have no plan on walking into a store to get $1,000.00 of laundry detergent for free, its very informative on how it works. I think I'm learning the little tricks that months ago did not make since. I have my sister in law here to help, and I'm ready to get some food! Any advice helps. I have posted something about it on facebook and got a great response from this, so hopefully my first time will be a great success! 
Again, Posts will follow with my savings! 

A week ago I got my wisdom teeth removed, and today I am in more pain than ever, only getting about 1 full hour of uninterrupted sleep. I have to sleep sitting up, because if I lay down my face throbs. I have no pain management other than Motrin, and I feel like my jaw is going to explode! At 12:30 this morning I finally decided to force myself to sleep. It took about 2 hours for me to finally tap out. Then I woke up at 3. My husband woke up around the same time, unable to sleep, so we have been up together chatting all morning. It was a much needed catch up session! I have been sooooo stressed with my job, that when I come home I just want to be with Sterling and when he does to bed, I want to go to bed to. I'm totally neglecting my duties as a wife and friend to my husband. This morning when we were chatting, I missed him. Isn't that sad? At least we had our moment, Even if it was way to early. 

Today, I am hitting up a neighborhood yard sale. It starts at 7 am and its a HUGE sale. I'm pretty excited. Oh the little things in life! Wish me luck! 
Off I go to get ready! Happy Saturday Y'all! 

God Bless, 

Molly-Kate  

2 comments:

  1. Hey Miss Molly! I wanted to share my experience with potty training Tryp. Small potties never worked, he wanted to go straight to the same potty that we were using. He did really well because they started training him at daycare so it carried home. We only struggled with pooping for a while. The daycare owner said it was normal because it was a "control" thing. It was hard for him to "let go" of pooping in his pants. Alot of the time he acted scared to go poop but eventually we got it worked out. It wasn't nearly as bad as I thought it would be and he wore pull ups at night until we noticed that he was going all night without peeing so off to big boy undies we went!! I hope you have success with Sterling! :)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Katie- Sterling actually poo poo'd twice on the potty... i have seen his "poop face" and ran him in there and he has gone for me! but noooo on the pee pee yet.... and i havent been able to catch him mid-poop to get him on again!
    Thanks for the advice, im hoping everything works out!

    ReplyDelete