Finally I could post something that is a change! Yes, we are making some progress now.

We began 10months of EC or Infant Potty Training with frustrations as he suddenly went through a potty pause stage where he just forgot how to control his bladder and pooped and peeed all over the floor. Sometimes, just within 15-30mins. Read my previous post here.

Our solution was to put him in Bright Bots Training Pants during the day to soak up messes before they reached the floor and these pants proved rather absorbent. The more washes, the more absorbent! Most of the time, it was contained inside and I only had to wash the pants, not mopped the floor. Thus, I was less stressed and only just said to him, “Oh! You sssh!” when I spotted the wet patch. Only then, he would start whining as if guilty or caught in the act. Yes, he still does not TELL me when he wetted himself but only act very suspiciously guilty, standing still at some corner. He knew I would not be pleased with him but I seldom actually scold him harshly now. I only just say very firmly that he was to tell me that he wanted to pee.

So WHAT changed?

Nearing his 18month day, he started waking up and calling out to us at night with dry cloth diaper and we would bring him to pee around midnight when he first woke up and again at 2am where he’ll sleep back til morning where Hubby would bring him to pee and give him his morning milk. Previously, he had been wetting himself during the potty pause stage.

In the morning, he would be dry but he would poop after his milk and we had to bring him to wash up and wash the diaper. Hubby tried bringing him to the potty initially but he didn’t have any output. So if he drank the milk late at 7plus when Hubby is leaving for work, I would be woken up by his backside ‘smell’ at 8am because he likes to crawl all over me to wake me up, putting his bum on my face. Luckily, it was all contained in the Bumwear cloth diaper and furthermore, he wore a pair of long pants.

Change - He stayed dry and called out to us during the night.

Lately, after his 18th month, he started walking out of the room by himself to find me after a nap either in the morning or in the afternoon. He still takes two naps a day. Then, I would find him still dry and bring him to the bathroom. Even more recently, he stayed dry for both naps and always walk out to find me to bring him to pee. I still put him in cloth diaper though just in case because I don’t want to have to wash the absorbent pad he’s sleeping on that often.

Change - He stayed dry for two naps and would find me to help him pee.

During the day,
When he’s awake, he doesn’t stay dry all the time. Sometimes, he still wets himself but he would come look for me and stand close to me while I’m doing stuff. Then, I’ll finally notice that he has wetted himself and bring him to the bathroom to pee the remaining and wash him. I’ll still keep reminding him that he must tell me before he peeed.

Lately, it’s getting better and he even wore the same training pant throughout the day. Most of the time, is either I bring him to pee after a meal or after milk, bring him to pee before napping and after napping or sometimes when he makes some grabbing or jiggling action, or when I feel it’s been sometime since he last peeed. Because he could hold quite well now, he hadn’t had that many misses. Of course, I still have days like, one day it’s only one training pant and the next day, total flop and all training pants used (8 of them).

Change - He stayed dry for longer hour during the day, most of the time at least 1.5 hours. Less misses. Also dependent on amount of water drank. Sometimes, he held for only 1 hour.

Signals:
These two days, he actually started walking towards the bathroom the moment I ask him, “Do you want to Sssh Sssh?” because I noticed him fidgeting. Then, he did his pee successfully. He would stand at my study room’s doorway if I’m on the computer in the afternoon and when I asked him, if he wanted to pee, he would immediately turn and walk towards the bathroom with me following him. He would also come to me sometimes and looked imploringly and I would guess he wanted to pee if I remembered it had been some time since his last pee.

Change-Walk towards the bathroom himself after ‘notifying’ me with an appearance.

Bowel Movement

When he got sick at the end of Dec’09 and had a bout of running nose, I prevented him from crawling all over our bed and me. Thus, he stopped doing it every morning. Now, every morning, he would play with our huge closet door, sliding them here and there, open and close my drawers. For a while, he was sliding the cabinets in the bathroom too and Hubby finally bought these fasteners to lock the bi-fold bathroom doors of both toilets rendering him unable to open and close them anymore. So he started opening and closing the curtains in the middle instead while I was still sleeping, letting in a stream of sunlight. Then, he would stand and look out the drop-down windows at the traffic and people below (The bedroom faces a small road). And soon, he would do his pooping standing there. These ‘routine’ went on for a few days until two days before, I couldn’t stand it anymore. I knew it would be more troublesome to wash his bum and cloth diapers later on if I took even just one more minute of sleep.

Thus, I got up feeling groggy at 7plus and brought him outside the room immediately to the main bathroom once I got woken up by the stream of light and him standing there. To pre-ampt him.I placed him on the toilet seat and cued him to start his pooping. He did! It was a success for two days but today, for some reason, he didn’t want to even after a long while of seating and later on, pooped in his training pants instead.

So for bowel movements, he’s still not constant. Before the potty pause, he was able to do it every morning for months only when I bring him to the bathroom. During the potty pause, we were washing diapers with poop every morning. So now he’s regaining back somewhat but not always successful. I wondered if he needs to ‘go backwards’ and sit on a potty chair instead. Maybe he feels more comfortable with his feet touching the floor? Had wanted to get a two-step stool for his legs but couldn’t find one.

So what brought about the changes?

I guess it’s his natural development because from BabyCenter, it seemed 18 months is when a child starts to be able to hold the bladder better and some are able to start potty training. Also because I changed his method of peeing. Just last week, I decided that I had enough of carrying his heavy body over the toilet bowl. I’m doing that a lot of times during the day & sometimes night and it takes a toll on me sometimes.

So last week, I let him ‘pee standing up‘ like what boys do.

A type of potty we ourselves used when we were young too! Decades ago...

I was clueless on how to help him pee standing up. I’m not a guy so I wondered whether the position was correct because he kept fussing and refused to pee. Then, when I brought him over the toilet bowl, he would pee. He’s a funny boy because he only recognises the toilet bowl as the ‘container’ for his pee and would often refused to pee over drain or grass when we are out at a natural place and can’t find a toilet near.

So Hubby helped by putting the potty onto the covered toilet bowl, carried him over it and asked him to pee with “Ssssshhh” sound. He saw the toilet bowl and released, then realised that he was peeing into the blue potty and thus knew that it was a container for his pee. But the next time I tried it on the floor again, he did not want to. So we gave up and left it.

Last week on Monday, I started him on it again. I asked him to stand over it and cue him with the “ssshhh” but he still did not dare to. So I followed Hubby’s method to place the potty onto the covered seat and he released successfully.

Right after, he needed to go again and I put him standing over the potty again and he released too! That really made me happy. Finally, he understood to pee standing over the potty and that it’s alright to pee into it. Of course, it’s not always aimed correctly so some ended up on his leg. (I always remove the training pants first). Even with the higher depth, he still spilled some when there’s a great volume or when I did not place the potty at the correct distance. But I only had to carry him after that to wash a little and wiped. No need to carry him for a while over the toilet bowl to pee anymore. That’s a relief for my arms.

With this, I noticed that he actually enjoyed watching his pee landing into the blue potty because he could see it more than when he was held. Because he enjoyed this, he automatically walked into the bathroom whenever it’s peeing time! (as described above). My guess is he ended up holding his pee in just so he could release into the blue potty, like an incentive. Haha. This theory was further confirmed when today, after his evening nap and I brought him over the toilet bowl to pee in the Master Bedroom’s bathroom, he walked out of the bedroom and headed straight for the toilet where the potty was! Like he had forgotten he had just peeed already. Heehee.

I think it’s more comfortable for him to pee standing up than held with our hands straddling him so he liked this method way more. I still held him at night over the bowl though because we hadn’t figured out how to pee him standing when he’s in a semi-conscious state. Would he be able to stand straight? Probably we would try one day soon.

Anyway, I also just realised this few days that he is tall enough to wash his hands over the sink by standing on a  small stepping seat! And we had been stupidly helping him to wash his hands after a pee or poop by propping him like Superman with hands outstretched(the so-called football hold) making ourselves and him tired in a weird position. It’s a “you never try, you never know” moment when I put him to stand on the seat and he was leaning right over the sink with hands extended right under the tap. *knock my forehead. I told hubby this too and he was astonished as he had followed my instruction to do this too, never thought he was tall enough.

MY wish is that he would start telling me he wants to pee in words soon so we could avoid all the misses! Also for him to be able to remove his pants himself! It’s a little difficult with the tight elastic of the training pants. So I had bought some boxers for him. When he could stay dry most of the time, I’ll likely train him on it.

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