Tuesday, June 03, 2008

On sleep, potty training and rainy day boredom...



Having a two and a half year old is TIRING. The constant chatter, the 'mommy, he'p me?'s, all the energy... I've been limiting the amount of sleep he gets. I wake him at 7:30 in the morning and only let him sleep for an hour in the afternoon so this is probably why I'm feeling the strain lately. But sleeptimes were getting to be too much for me otherwise. Does anyone else do this? Elliot tried to go a few days without his nap, but towards dinner time he'd get quite whingey and grumpy so I don't feel as though he's ready for a nap-free day.

Also, I've been feeling some (self-induced) pressure to start potty training Elliot. Quite a few of his (all younger) friends are already or in the process of potty training. But I'm still not sure how to start and if he'd be ready for it. I'm not sure I'M ready either, but if you have any advice or tips, PLEASE do share. Portable potties or straight onto the toilet? Straight into underwear or Pull-ups? Too many decisions.

Since we bought Elliot's playhouse all he wants to do is go out and play in it. Just generally run around in the garden. Unfortunately it's rained nonstop the last few days and being stuck indoors is sending me crazy. I try to vary the activities we do during the day - singing, dancing, colouring, painting, play-doh. But I'm running out of ideas - does anyone want to share their favourite rainy day activities? That'd be fantastic.

5 comments:

  1. we have the little musical potty and he peed in it once. but since then he's been scared of it! he'll sit on it sometimes, but most of the time when i ask him if he wants to use the potty he shakes his head no and runs away. i also tried giving incentive (lollipop for peeing -- i called it a potty pop -- but that didn't work). so we're taking a break from it now and i'll try again in a few weeks. i think i will try pullups next. he seems to like the underwear idea -- i had him run around in underwear for an hour or so and i explained that you cant get peepee on this kind of undie (and he didn't) but he wouldn't use the potty either, so i put the diaper back on. if you come up with something wonderful and motivating, please, let me know!

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  2. I really don't want to come across as a know-it-all, been-there-done-that but I do want to just share this with you. I knew my boys were ready to stop their daytime sleeps when they simply refused to sleep when I put them down. And then, if they did sleep for say 10 minutes or so, they wouldn't go to sleep at bed-time. A couple of weeks after that started with Patrick, I stopped trying to make him sleep after lunch and would keep him up purposely. For a few weeks it was hellish at around 5pm until bedtime but he got used to it at last and that was the end of nap-time.

    Sadly, it was the end of nap-time for both of us! ;-)

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  3. aw sounds liky you have been having great fun and he is such a looker!

    Potty training, I would say try for 1 week. Bring a potty downstairs (if you do not have a downstairs loo) and pop him on there frequently. Buy some cheap pants for him and lots of them as there WILL be accidents.

    See how you got for a week and adjust that to suit you.

    I wouldnt go for night times yet it may be too much and maybe pop a pull up on him while out as I personally don't like seeing kids using potty at the side of the road but each to their own. I would just take him loo when you pass one and make sure one is near by, if he wears pull ups to start while out he'll feel the diffence.

    Thsi si what I did with my lil girl who is now 4 1/2 and she was fully trained after a coupld of weeks, incl nights.

    Good luck with it, I'd say he is about ready for it :o)

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  4. Both of my boys were close to, if not, 3 before they really potty trained. I tried before that and they just weren't into it. I say you will need to "feel him out" on the issue of pull ups. My oldest never did the pull up thing and in fact once he was potty trained in the day he never wet the bed at night. My younger son is 6 and still wets the bed occasionally at night so he wore pull ups for a long time at night. We never did pull ups during the day unless I needed to go out and run errands - but that also seems to give them license not to tell you they have to go.
    I think the key is follow his lead and see how it goes. if it doesn't work then put it off for a week or so and then try again.
    What I told myself is that he won't go into kindergarten wearing diapers so sometime between now and then he will pick up on it and like I said both boys were about 3 when they got it!

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  5. I made the mistake and pushed Christopher into the whole potty training before he was really ready. They usually show you some sign and I have heard that boys are a bit more problematic when it comes to that. If he is not giving you hints about wanting to potty train I honestly won't force it on him. I had a really hard time with Christopher because of this.

    Alyssa on the other hand showed interest months ago but Ms Lazy has regressed. I am not even pushing the issue. She no longer wants to poop in the potty anymore so when she gets ready again I will get to it. I don't have the patience nor the energy to deal with it at this point and I know that sounds bad but what else can I do?

    I don't think I have any advice with the napping. My kids napping schedule is all over the place. They are both up as I type at it's 11:04 pm. Christopher will go to bed within 30 minutes but Alyssa will not go until about 1am. Right now it's not an issue as I am a late sleeper and on this crazy schedule they both get up after 10am. Occasionally closer to 12pm. It's madness here. I have never been a scheduled-minded person.

    Anyway, Christopher, even at 4 needs a nap most days. He tends to get super grumpy anywhere between 4 - 6pm. Sometimes he naps other times he won't. The funny thing is I can get him to nap everyday if I wished. I just need to lay down in silence with him and in about 10 minutes he is out. When I do this it's good for me because I get a nap too. Unfortunately I find things to do throughout the day which prevents this. I just don't take him anywhere when he is tired.

    Alyssa still needs her nap but I confess if there are things I need to do outside the house I will make her skip it and she is fine unlike her brother who is unable to function when he is tired.

    Sorry for the book :-)

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