New Bedroom

Hey J., I looked at some of the responses about spending time and napping in the new bedroom and I think that's a great idea. I'm not a big fan of night lights but it may ease the transition. As for the potty. You can't go back and forth on it. If you're up for it physically, then just keep on it. Let him know that the new baby needs the diapers so he'll have to be the big brother or big boy and go to the potty. Also, I've mentioned this before but I've not known anyone that has done it but there is a potty specifically for boys out there called peter potty. It's a urinal. I wish I had found it when mine was potty training. Mine was two when we potty trained him so it's definitely not too early to do it. Some may say that it's wrong but we did the we're so proud or oh no, mommy is so upset because you didn't go and now I have to take time away to clean the mess. Sure it's a little mean but it worked and the whole naked peeing outside helped too. LOL!! I think the most important thing to do is to decide if you're going to do it and then stick to it. Don't go back. Good Luck!!

from a mother of three boys get him to sit on the potty to do everything he can learn to stand any day. I have experienced that sitting to learn to poop on the potty and standing to learn to pee can be confusing and I have a boy that was very difficult to teach to sit after his prek school showed him to stand to pee. Needless to say we had a poop problem so after that I would not let my boys learn to get potty trained other then sitting for both...it's way easier and they get used to sitting so the pooping is no big deal. When she shows interest go for it and remember he will have accidents it's something called training so he won't be perfect. Use that calender it's a great help that the other mom mentioned.

For the bedroom have him play in there with mom and alone when you can then start off with naps in his room...work your way to bedtime in his new room plus I don't know if you have something like this but some kind of special light he picks out with you (guide him) or something with music to it or something that does a light show he can falls asleep to might help at bedtime. Best of luck to you.

Try to have him take his naps there first and get really excited about his "big boy" room. With the pottey training boys can be harder and take longer than girls. My son was 3 before he was pottey trained. I let him run naked for a few days and it just clicked. When it takes a few weeks or more, he isn't ready and you will just stress yourself out. I have heard many of my friends talk about waiting until the 2nd one comes because there is so much going on- some kis will regress with the pottey because they see the new baby getting attention when they get their diaper changed so be aware of that possibility.

Don't make such a big deal about it. He will probably be very excited to have his very own room to sleep in. If you behave in a very positive manner regarding this he will too. Two months is not very long before the new baby arrives and I would get him in his own room ASAP. Make bedtime as positive as possible. If you ready a little bedtime story to him, only do this in his room. Make all the good things happen in his room. On the potty training, just keep trying and brag on him when he does go potty. I would say something like "oh your Mommy's big boy today - just like daddy". Ignore the times he does not go and do not give attention to this. If possible have his pull ups/training pants where he can put them on himself and the baby wipes for him to use. The less attention he gets from going in his pants the less likely he is to find it as an option. V.

My son is 6 years old now however I do recall the woes of potty of training him! I found that boys are more difficult to potty train then girls. Most girls are ready around the age of 2 to start training however boys usually are not. If you are ready to begin but aren't committed to it then your son will know this. Wait until you are committed to following through with this process. I think getting him familiar to the process at this age is a great idea. It may take him a while to feel comfortable with the process of it all. When I began training my son I would take him into the restroom every 2 hours. We would sit him down on his potty. I personally suggest you train him sitting down first, once he's going both potty and poopoo that way then you can begin training him how to potty standing up. The reason for this is that when they are first learning it's not so much that they are learning how to go on the toilet, they are learning to pay attention to their bodies and how they feel when it's time to go and they can get those different feelings confused. You will end up with a boy thinking they need to go potty but end up going poopoo in their pants instead while they are standing at the toilet trying to go potty. It's much easier to start out with them sitting however everyone has their own preferences and experiences. Once my son was sitting down and comfortable we would talk about how his body is feeling and if there is any potty that needs to come out. I would turn the faucet on in the sink too, for a little inspiration!! This was a great trick to use as it almost always worked. It doesn't need to be full blast. Just enough so that he can hear it pouring into the sink. It's a great to put a pitcher or pan in the sink to catch the water so that you can recycle that water to feed the plants or to use for cooking dinner if you are going to boil pasta or something along those lines, just so that the water isn't waisted. After my son and I talked about how his body was feeling, I would read to him. I had several different potty books that he enjoyed and so he would sit and listen about how other children learned to use the potty. After I was finished with the talk with him and the book, about 5 - 10 minutes would have gone by. Then we take him down, and flush the toilet and wash our hands and we get a small treat for trying. The story telling and the small treat were incintives for him to want to keep trying! Once he did go potty for the first time which we really celebrated and made a BIG Deal about then we moved to a potty chart and he would get a gold star everytime he would use the potty. I purchased his chart at www.freeprintablebehaviorcharts.com. They have charts for potty training and for chores which they call reward charts and etc. It's a great site to visit and I recommend it to all of my girlfriends and co-workers with young children! Good Luck!! Don't get discouraged throughout this process. Some children take much longer then others and as I said before, boys are more difficult to train and they usually aren't ready as early as girls are. You may also find that training him to go potty comes much easier then training him to go poo in the toilet. Patience is the key! Buying him so fun new big boy underwear is always a great incintive to get them excited about the idea of it all!! We used a child seat that fits right onto our toilet seat so that his bottom fit fine and he didn't have to try and balance himself on the big seat but some people find that using potty training toilets are best for their kids. I would try to use your regular toilet with a child size seat first, this way you don't have the mess of of a child toilet, but if your child is intimidated by the Big Toilet then I would move to the small child training toilet. The seat you bought to fit onto your toilet will still be needed when they are ready to get rid of their child toilets and to upgrade to the regular one! This is such a Big Momment for mothers as it's one of the first steps to our children becoming indepent and growing out of their baby stage!! You'll do great! I just know it!!

Hi J.,
If I were you I would transition him to his new room as soon as possible. There are going to be enough changes in your house once the new baby comes, and that way he will already be used to it. You said that he likes the new room, just make him excited about being in there. Maybe take him in there to play alot so he gets used to being in there. Children are very resiliant, if you get him excited about his "new big boy room", he may suprise you at how fast he transitions. I wouldn't push the potty too much right now especially with the new baby coming and him being in a new room, because you may be disappointed if he regresses once the new baby is here. That's alot of changes for the little guy already. He's also still pretty young. Just go with his cues. Potty training deffinately doesn't happen over night. If you do want to continue the potty training, be consistant and use possitive rewards! I used sugar free popsicles every time my son went poopie (since he only went once a day), and an M&M (that he got to pick out the color) every time he went peepee in the potty. Once he gets better at it, you could phase these out and let him work toward a larger prize at the end of the day/week for no accidents. There are some great videos and books on potty training that he may enjoy. If he has a favorite stuffed animal, you could incorporate it into going to the potty too to make it fun. Praise, Praise, Praise when he does go in the potty, do the potty dance, etc, but don't make to big a deal about accidents. Just take him straight to the potty and sit him down and ask him to try to go there when he has the feeling. Hope this helps.

I think if you spend time with your two year old in his room playing and just hanging out then he will see it as a comfortable place to be. Make it out to be his big brother room and be sure to set a routine at night for his security. Brushing his teeth, changing into pajamas, reading a book, singing a song, etc.

Potty training I have found is going to happen when they are ready. Unfortunately, it is on their time. So you can encourage the training with sitting on the seat, but ultimately it will just happen one day. I wouldn't push him or force him into it.

At this point, you should really be hyping up that he is about to be a big brother and that he is a big boy with a big boy room. I like the idea of starting with naps, then transitioning to night-time sleeping. But I think you should give him the choice. He's old enough where you can ask him if he wants to start sleeping in his big boy room. They like it when they can make decisions for themselves, and it helps build their confidence to start becoming more independent. As for the potty training, I would just try to praise the efforts he gives but wouldn't push it. Transitioning to a new room and soon having a new sibling are big changes to get used to, you don't need to add to his stress. Wait and see how he reacts to his sibling and let him get used to the idea, then start motivating for training. Good luck and congrats on your new baby!

For Potty Training, I used a calendar (poster board size - with different pictures of him) and every time he completed the task to include washing his hands, he got to place a sticker on the calendar (at first I tried to get him to place it on the correct date, but later realized that as long as he was doing it, it didn't matter. He also got a sticker on his shirt. He also had a favorite book he read in the bathroom. One thing to remember: your son is on his schedule. If you try to force the issue, you will be the one frustrated. The time to potty train is much shorter if it is their idea and not yours.

I can't really help you with the bedroom but I have been through the potty training. All I can say is it is one really bad week especially the first couple of days. You will have to choose to be 100% commited or it is not worth the effort. I would recommend the naked/underwear only method. We let our son go to the store and pick out which underwear he wanted and we got him excitted about wearing them for a few days and then I did. So my suggestion is spend lots of time outside or on easily cleanable surfaces. We did not go anywhere for that week either unless it was an outdoor activity. If your body is not up to it now that is understandable, but that also means that you will have to wait quite some time to start again. I could not image trying to do it with a new baby and a lack of sleep. It was a really stressful week but well worth it. I wish you the best with the new baby and the potty training.

We had our 2-year old start napping in his new room as soon as it was done. He was also very excited about the new room (we have cars too). Once he was used to the idea of sleeping in there and understood that he was expected to stay in bed, call for us when he woke up, whatever you want to teach about staying in bed, then he started sleeping there at night and it was no big deal. He even asked me to remove the night light after a couple of months. He said it was too bright. :)

as far as potty training, if he likes cars, I have a great idea. We went on ebay and bought about 100 used hotwheel cars for really cheap. Everytime he went potty we would let him pick out a car. After a while we had so many cars lying around that we would recycle them back in the box and he never noticed or seemed to care. After a few months we transitioned to skittles - 2 for pee 5 for poop. He does really well now. We also are having a baby soon and didn't want two in diapers.
As far as the bed we put him in a big bed we put on a cd and told him if he was still awake after the cd stopped he could come to our room. That rarely happens. Good luck.

J.,
Could you share your responses with me? Please?! My two year old is still in our room and my husband is tired of it. He is also resisting potty training. He was doing ok with the daycare provider but I'm a teacher and I've been home for the summer so he isn't performing for me. I have him sit for as long as 10 minutes reading books on the potty. He does nothing and then gets up and pees or poops in his pull up!!! I have him in underwear today so I will see if that helps.
S.

J.,

I would say not to waste your efforts with the potty training now. If he's interested, great, and praise him if anything happens, but don't bother pushing it because he will most likely revert back to "baby ways" like diapers when the new baby is getting all your attention this way by needing diaper changes, etc. With both my kids, there was some interest between 2 and 2 1/2 years, but we didn't get very far by pushing them. They just had their own schedule and once they were about 2 1/2 to 2 3/4 years old they took a big interest; wanting to go to the store to pick out big girl/boy underwear etc. and that's when we dove into it more aggressively. When mine were still wishy washy, it was hit or miss, but it only took a few months later and then the training was going strong and going well, so, encourage but don't be disappointed if this is your son's wishy washy period and actually because of the baby, the more aggressive training period may be delayed due to the little new one in the house. When your son is training, it's actually more of a hassle for you because you've got to have it on your mind all the time to ask him if he has to go and take him right away if he says yes. This will be hard with a newborn, so if you have to put it off a little bit, that's perfectly okay--enjoy the new baby and everything will come in time. Besh Wishes!

-S.