11/5/14 Potty Training

Starting out:

Packing up the diapers.

We put away all the dippers. All Josiah has is big boy underwear. We got 25 pairs in hopes they would last a whole day of peeing in them. They are size 2t/3t. I was nervous that at 21 months they wouldn't fit him well, but they are a pretty good fit! He is just wearing PJ pants and undies, or nothing on the bottom. We also have about 15 pairs or more of PJ's. We expect to do a lot of laundry in the next three days.
So far, Josiah has peed on the potty 3 times and in his undies or on the floor 5 times. No matter where he pees, he ends up crying a lot. We have added reward for just sitting on the potty because I can't get him to do it willingly without one. Now, he gets a chocolate chip if he sits on the potty. The problem is his language skills aren't good enough yet to comprehend if then statements. So when I tell him he can have a chocolate if he sits on the potty, he doesn't get it and he just ends up crying about not getting a chocolate. He gets a lot of praise every time he sits on the potty and especially if he pees while sitting there, but it doesn't seem to help him stop crying.

One day's worth of chocolate chips.

He woke up pretty early for when he went to bed, so we are hoping it was just over tiredness and put him down for a nap. We hope he can either sleep though peeing on himself or not pee until he wakes up. We are hoping to get him to sleep about 2 hours.  He did end up waking up sopping wet, but he had slept 2 hours and was in better spirits for our continued efforts.
Day 1 ended with neither of us being sure if Josiah gets what's going on and some fear of bedtime. We have a pair swaddle bees training pants my sister got us, that fit him. They are just like slightly thick underwear with a water proof lining. I don't think I would use disposable pull ups, but cloth ones seem to be to help save the bedding, Josiah still feels wet if he pees and they look and feel more like underwear than his diapers do.  We put him to bed in those. Since Josiah didn't drink anything after 6pm and went to bed at nine, it worked ok. We woke him up an hour after going to bed to sit on the potty with no results, and I work him up at 6:30am (well he was stirring and fussing) and put him on the potty with no results.

Josiah's Potty

I did some reading again after Josiah went to bed and decided to add a timer to day 2 routine to make sure we get enough practice on the potty, and to try to encourage more fluids and fibers (green smoothie if I can get him to drink it). I think the timer will help make sure if we aren't paying enough attention to Josiah's behavior he at least has a better chance at fewer mistakes. I think the fluids and fiber will keep him from holding his poo any longer and give us lots of practice before the pizza night at my parents on the last day. He didn't poop at all on day 1. I think he needed to and had a lot of gas, but just wouldn't because of the change.
Day 2. Josiah was damp when I got him up to potty at 6:30 with no results. He didn't quite make it back to sleep before his friend came over for baby sitting. When he heard her voice around 7:20, it was over and he was up for the day. Taking him potty while his friend was here worked better than I thought.  I figured we would have more crying as we pulled him away from his play to go potty, but he would come saying "chockie?", which is his word for chocolate.
The timer seems to work well but he doesn't usually pee when we put him on the potty just because the timer went off, and a few times he would start to go, just a couple minutes after coming off the potty because of the timer, but when we put him on because of his behavior change or because he dripped a little, then he would go a lot. Twice so far today after his friend left he asked to go on the potty, I think after he lost a tiny bit, and peed a good amount once he got there. So maybe the purpose of the timer is just to remind Bryan and I to be attentive to his behavior and how long it has been since Josiah last pottied. We kept pants on him while his friend was here. He did poop in his pants, not on the potty. Oh, well, more practice. Turns out cleaning pooped in underwear is about the same and a diaper, so it didn't make much difference to us.

The travel potty.

We got the travel potty out and set it up in the bathroom to try to have him get used to it. We'll probably try to get him to use it a few times at home before we try it out when we go to my parent's house tomorrow.
So far, I am more hopeful that this is working today than I was yesterday and we are at about 1/2 way though.