Wednesday, October 6, 2010

"What the heck am I doing?!"

As parents, do you ever ask yourself what the heck you are doing? I seem to have a lot of those moments lately. Then I feel some added stress because I don't have a "test" baby. It's not like if I screw up, I'm just screwing up one kid, I'm dealing with 3 at once!

WARNING: THIS POST CONTAINS TALK OF POTTY TRAINING AND KIND OF YUCKY STUFF!!

The boys are in big boy beds, the cribs are gone, so no going back to that. I wonder if it was wrong to move them to beds so soon. I actually just got an email from baby center or one of those websites saying that most children aren't ready for beds until they are around 3. In this regard, I really feel like we did the right thing in moving them to the beds, because they were getting out of their cribs, and that was dangerous. But now they don't ever want to stay in their beds to nap, they like to get up and run around after we tuck them in and night. I have to wonder if by really not being able to enforce when it is bed time by having them confined to their cribs, am I undermining myself as far as bed time goes? Will I be fighting this issue for years to come now? ugh! I just don't know.

I've read and heard differing things about when is a good time to potty train. Some "experts" say it's easier for kids to learn really young, between 1 and 2 years, and others say that parents should wait to start until after the child is 2. Most parents I know say to wait until they show signs of readiness. Well, the boys like to take off their pants and diapers and run around naked, and I'm really so sick of diapers, that I want to get the potty training done and over with. I've attempted once with Marcus, and then everyone got sick. He had been doing ok with it, but we didn't even get much of a basis set. I decided I'd start up again with potty training today. The method I think I like best is the let your child go diaperless and when you notice them show signs or start to potty, get them on the toilet or potty chair. Well, when I tried before, I decided to train one boy at a time, which was Marcus, and then I had to deal with jealousy from Ethan and Owen. Plus I was cleaning a lot of puddles up from the floor. Well, today I decided since right now we're having such wonderful fall weather, to let them be little nudists in the backyard. I had a potty area set up with their potty chair, and they were having a great time (this time around I decided to try and train all three at once). Well, Owen was showing signs that he was going to poo, so I put him on the potty, and I smelled a foul smell and assumed he did what he was suppose to do. Needless to say, I was a surprised to not see anything when he got off the potty. I look over and see something on Ethan's bum, and then I notice his feet are covered in poo. He went poo, and then walked through his pile. EW! I really didn't want to give up trying for the day, but I'm in the backyard with three naked little boys, trying to keep them away from their brother's poop, which is very interesting to them, and get Ethan cleaned up. So yeah, I quit for the day. I guess him pooping in the backyard is better than him doing it in the front room. Diapers are so expensive, and they are so gross, I'm really ready to be done with this stage, and the boys are getting rashy a lot more, they don't seem to like to keep their diapers on, but they don't seem interested in learning to use the potty either. Am I getting discouraged too soon? Am I approaching this the wrong way? DOES ANYBODY KNOW HOW TO POTTY TRAIN 3 BOYS AT ONCE??? Am I doing damage to my kids by, let's face it, not knowing what the heck I am doing half the time?

5 comments:

Unknown said...

Oh Bo...no fun :( I don't have the experience yet, but I've read that naked tushies are the best way to go (don't use pull-ups) and something I read said to use a timer--every 30 minutes you put them on the toilet and have them go...that way they are constantly going and you'd have fewer accidents. I know, it sounds exhausting, but that's what I read on Babyrabies.com...and her little guy seems to be doing pretty good.

The Schaefers Go To Hawaii said...

Not to compare your boys with dogs, but erica's suggestion is dead on for house training. We trained our pup (remember she was formerly a 9month old stray who had never been in a house before) using the timing rule and it took 3 days from when we started that for her to be completely trained. We started on 15 minute intervals and worked our way up to 45. The idea is that if they are always in one place...a place you put then... to potty, they eventually feel uncomfortable or embarrassed about going anywhere else. Your boys are all way smarter than a puppy so I am betting it would work pretty well! Save the diapers for night time and save yourself some time and money.

Three's Company said...

Thank you both! I am going to do the timer thing out. Another friend sent me a link on FB about potty training twin girls and the concept of teaching them to take turns. So I'm trying to decide if I'm going to buy two more potty chairs or if I'm going to try to tackle the taking turns obstacle as well...

Man, this is shaping up to be a daunting task, but the end result will be a beautiful thing... ya know, until I have to clean up the bathroom and they start doing the standing/aiming thing. The joys of boys... lol

Unknown said...

lol...SOOO glad I don't have to deal with the aiming thing :P

I guess it might be neat for them if you got them all their own "special" potty seat...but I'd say that is completely up to you. We are, personally, skipping the potty chair altogether and just using the big toilet with a kid seat on top. I figured it be easier than using the potty seat, THEN transitioning to the big seat, but that is just my opinion...I think that with three of them, having the potty seat that can move around would definitely be easier than lugging them to the bathroom every 30 mins! :)

The Schaefers Go To Hawaii said...

Maybe you could just buy one extra seat and rotate them! The benefit of multiples is that you give them a competitive edge when training them to do something new. They have a lot of Giguere in them, and if there is one thing about Gigueres, it's that they hate seeing someone else do something better than them. ;-) Two seats may make it easier on you, and you don't have to shell out for two. Plus, you keep the spirit of competition going if you don't have three!

Besides, who knew these things were so pricey??

http://www.amazon.com/PRIMO-Toilet-Trainer-Stool-Pastel/dp/B000BXKTMA/ref=sr_1_11?ie=UTF8&qid=1286434877&sr=8-11