Mom life

If you guys have been following my whole journey with this, you know I recently did the 3 DAY POTTY TRAINING METHOD. I followed her steps to a freaking T. I did this almost 3 weeks ago. I won’t go into her details of the book but here is the basics. Get tons of new sheets, tons of new undies. Day 1 you wake them up with diaper still on. After breakfast you go to their room, grab some undies and get on their level. Explain to them, that these are their big boy undies and only babies wear diapers, PRAISE them and be soooo excited about their new big boy undies! Throughout the whole process you praise them for how BIG they’re. SO then you get every single diaper in the house and make it fun and have him throw all of them away!

PS it took Oaks a minute for this. He refused the undies and cried and cried, so I let him be naked until he calmed down. It took about 20 minutes for him to calm down and let me put on his big boy undies. Now he loves them. Anyways, then you literally say ALL DAY LONG “Let mommy know when you have to go potty, okay?” “Keep those undies dry” I said this every 3 minutes I think haha. You literally cannot leave their side because you have to catch them in the act and RUSH them to the potty. You don’t say anything negative, don’t punish them for peeing in their pants. You rush them there, and then say lets keep these undies dry and go in the potty next time okay? Then REPEAT this all day long. I left Oaks side for 1 minute and I missed an accident or 2, so I learned the hard way that you cannot leave their side through this.

I did this on the weekend and it sucked really bad. It’s very boring haha. So just be prepared for it. The book goes over what you need to do, BUT…

HERE IS WHAT HAPPENED.

Day 1: many, many accidents. LOTS.

Day 2: lots and lots of pee, poo, accidents LOTS. I started to feel very discouraged and felt like it wasn’t working.

Day 3: He started holding himself and then would say “pee pee” and he went pee in the potty! Poop he did the same thing, but I would wait for him to start pushing and then semi finish on the toilet haha. Then all of the sudden he stopped going pee too, so I had TJ go buy a little Insert to go on top of the toilet and that SAVED US. He went right away and was more relaxed. Now he doesn’t need it, but it helped in the process of it all. SO I recommend getting it. HERE IS THE LINK.

I’m super impressed with out how quickly he caught onto the whole rush to the potty when you have to pee. He still has accidents, but only because he’s having to much fun when playing with friends. He tells me every time he has to go, it’s amazing. OR he’ll hold himself and thats a sign to take them.

He got the gist of potty training, but I wouldn’t say that they’re FULLY potty trained. They just understand the basics, and you kinda just get it over with the first 3 days. BUT with that said they WILL still have accidents and wont be fully trained in 3 days. So don’t expect them to be perfect and good to go after 3 days.

A week later, he peed the bed every night still, so I would get him up a couple hours after bedtime, or sometimes 3am, (the book tells you to) and he never went and would just basically would still be sleeping. So I finally went against what the book said and put him in pull ups at night. He pees sometimes and will still wake up and say “pee” and ask me to take him. DO YOU MOMMA. Follow the rules, but you’ll also start to do things a little differently according to you own child and the relationship you guys have. It all comes down to doing what works for the two of you, but following basics of someones else’s advice and twisting to your own.

THEN. Shit hit the fan. Literally. The kid WON’T go poop in the potty 2 weeks after 3 day potty training. He will hold it. Lovely right? It’s still a struggle to this day and something we’re working on. If you don’t want to hear about poop probs then don’t keep reading haha.

But I bought him a Potty that sings, and that still isn’t helping. Finally I put him in a pull up when he tells me he has to go and I’ll stick him in the bathroom and let him do his business. I just say let mommy know when you need to go poop.. it still takes him forever to go. It’s been pretty rough. So we’re still trying to get the hang of it all with that. He’ll go every now and then in the potty, but it’s not everyday. He’s mostly scared to go. I still praise him every time there is a tiny bit of progress and I’ll tell him how proud I am of him! HERE IS THE POTTY TRAINING SEAT.

I gave him rewards when he went and now every time he goes, he says “award award!” hahah It is hilarious!

I love FRUIT OF THE LOOM undies for him! He loves them too!
ALL in all it gets extremely frustrating and is very tedious! I still get very impatient with it. But as long as you’re consistent and keep praising them, they will get it! It’s so worth it. Just keep with it! I was so close to giving up on day 2, but don’t. They will understand.

THREE THINGS YOU NEED TO KNOW.

WHAT YOU NEED. you don’t need 20 sheets to do it, thats what the book tells you, but I have 3 sheets and just washed every time he had an accident. So lots of laundry. You will need about 12-15 pairs of undies.
DONT EXPECT. Don’t expect them to get it right away. Some do and some don’t. Oaks didn’t until the middle of the third day. They won’t be fully trained in 3 days, so also don’t expect that either. They’ll know basics which makes it easier to train them.
BE PATIENT. You’ll need lots and lots of that. Keep your calm, go punch a pillow scream in a pillow to get your frustration out if you have to.. haha. I know that I had to take lots of deep breaths.

http://www.lovebylynn.com/listen-to-that-mama-voice/

MY TOP / OAKS TOP / MY PANTS

Have you done this 3 day method? How’d it go?

Let me know if you have any questions! Pillows and blankets in THIS POST. For Oaks sippy cup in this post, check out my BOTTLE WEANING POST.

Have a great day!

xoxo,

SARA LYNN

A little while ago, I decided it was time to wean Oaks from the bottle. He was 27 months old to be exact. I never felt the need to, honestly. My doctor told me to take it away at one years old. I thought that was to soon, so I never did.

He loves the baba and bankie, it’s his comfort. It was never an issue for us and really just worked out. You know how you hear things they tell you you should follow and you should take something away at a certain age, well, let me just say, don’t listen to others when it comes to YOUR child. Of course, get advice and appreciate the advice, but that doesn’t mean you have to take it.

I used to feel embarrassed when Oaks was carrying around his bottle, but I got to a point and just thought “you know what, fuck it, I’m not going to care and just do my thing”. Do your thing, own it, flaunt it, who cares. It’s your life, your kid, and they aren’t little forever. The moment I knew it was time to remove the “baba” was when he started to really want it every second of every day, wouldn’t eat much because he’d be getting full off of milk. I started to use it as a babysitter, so I could get work done, and that wasn’t good either. It was fine and dandy for a little, but then It just started to become an issue.

I didn’t plan to do this, and had no idea how I was going to do it. I just got fed up one day, threw the bottle away and then started from there. After that, my plan was to take it moment by moment, hour by hour. I didn’t read up on how to do this, I just did it. I filled up a sippy cup, the NUK to be exact that he still uses, and said “this is your “baba” now” he FLIPPED for 5 minutes. Cried and cried, and then that was that. He was done. He went downstair picked up the sippy and said “baba?” and I said yep!

I’m not even joking, thats how easy it was. I WAS SHOCKED. That was it? I thought this was going to be a living nightmare since he was so damn hooked on that baba.

So after that, my plan was to keep him FULLY distracted, because when he gets bored, he tries to look for his baba. He still wanted to sippy after that because that was his new “baba”. So I just played with him all morning, kept him distracted with his favorite games, favorite foods, took him on playdates with his friend, took him to the park etc. The whole point was to keep him distracted from wanting it. I lay him down for naps and bedtime with his sippy and still do to this day.

The first 5 days, he would ask for it a lot, then he stopped all together for a few weeks. And now we are back to asking for it. It’s hard because its a sippy cup that you drink out of, but I just figured its a sippy and thats the next level down from a bottle. I still will have to distract him some days, but he’s fine for the most part and I’m glad he’s off the bottle. I was getting a little worried about his teeth rotting from to much milk. Only because he wanted it all day long. If he wants it now, I just give him water in his sippy with a splash of milk. For some reason, he has to have milk in it.

This turned out to be such a positive experience and a learning experience. Heres why.

I was using his bottle as a babysitter, therefore not paying enough attention to him, and It made me really sad realizing this. It made me realize how much I was missing out on. Interacting and playing one and one together is very bonding and we did a lot of that. It also made me play with him to distract him, and that ended up being really fun for both of us!

Honestly, you guys get it, it’s boring playing the same game over and over again, but how long will they be this little? Not long. Play the stupid game with them over and over, because to them, it’s the funnest game in the whole world.

It brings me back to memories with my mom playing my favorite games with me. I still remember! We would watch anastasia together and play card games. She was such a good mom and I believe that is why I really pay close attention to the details of parenthood now. She got on the floor and played with us. Even though she was probably so exhausted for playing it over and over, but I never knew she was. I have a lot of vivid memories like that, and I wanted Oaks to remember those things too.

The phones are the biggest distraction. Set down your phone mommas, if you have to, TURN IT OFF. Just for a couple hours and just really enjoy these moments. You will miss them when they’re gone. I really try hard and do this every day. And the days that I don’t do it, I feel like crap honestly, so I pay close attention and control my phone issue. We all have a phone issue. Its an addiction, its like a drug.

So with all that, don’t be afraid to take a step in helping your child grow. The whole bottle weaning isn’t scary or hard. They adapt quite quickly honestly. I got him addicted to the bottle, so I sure as hell can get him off of it. Put down your phones, live in the moment, motherhood is wild ride, its insane and so amazing. I love every part of it, the good and the bad, The hard is really hard, but it helps us grow and learn and get to know our babies. Pay close attention to them, help them learn and really just love the crap out of them.

I linked all the toys, and our clothes in the bottom of this post!