Potty Training

I thought I'd talk about how I potty trained Richie.. then when people ask for tips I don't have to write a huge "comment"…

Being a momma's boy he follows me everywhere, including the bathroom. I had never put him on the potty or anything but he knows what I'm doing.
When we got back from Kansas after the New Year, he was sick. As soon as he was over the sickness he went in the bathroom with his Bob Bob and said "potty". So I said let's do it! We started potty training that next day. I made a sticker chart, got stickers at Wal Mart (you can get 500+ for $2) and M&Ms. I put him on the potty and we waited. To distract him we played with shapes (after a while that got old and he started throwing them- time to find a new distraction!!). I only let him sit on there for 20 minutes. Then he put undies on. I took him every 30 minutes. It obviously takes a lot of time and patience.
I had to learn from him first- I had to learn how often he needed to go. I learned that if he carries a drink around with him all day, it's harder to train. I made him ask for a drink in order to have it more controlled instead of having a drink every time he saw his cup.
My phone has an elapsed time alarm on it so I set it to go off every 30 minutes. If he was going every 20 minutes, I changed to time on my alarm. Be prepared to do a lot of laundry.
I didn't let Richie pick out his undies because at that point he had no particular interests (18 months). So I just grabbed some. He liked the stickers, and of course loved the M&Ms. I gave him the M&M while he was on the potty whether he went or not and I told him good job sitting on the potty or good job going potty.
After a month, I didn't really feel like we were getting anywhere quickly. I'm also pretty impatient. I felt like we were at a standstill.. every time he sat on it he wouldn't go, but then he would go in his undies. So I started turning on the water in the sink or tub… that always makes me have to go! As soon as he went I would tell praise him. I was trying to make him understand the process. It didn't take long to break him of this, and he was going in the potty.

He still wasn't telling me when he had to go, I just had to get lucky that he was holding it when I set him on the potty. So when he would go potty I would ask him if he went potty, and really tried to teach him what to do to tell me that he had to go. I never made him feel bad for peeing his pants, instead I said "Oh no! You peed your pants. You're supposed to go potty in the toilet remember?" He got to the point where he would say "oh no" when he saw his undies.

It doesn't happen overnight. When I see blogs that say "How to potty train in 3 days" I roll my eyes. Yeah, for the 3 year old that you've tried to potty train FOUR times!! Richie and I have been potty training since January 4th. He doesn't always tell me when he has to go but he's doing really really well! Especially for not even being 2!

I have to say, when I saw a difference was him understanding the difference between a diaper and undies. Another HUGE difference was when I would keep him in his diaper a little while after he woke up. It takes the pressure off and gives him time to tell me when he has to go. Plus he never went right when he woke up anyways because he probably just went in his diaper when he woke up.
I think it's also important to just potty train during "awake" hours. If they're sleeping, let them sleep and wear a diaper. Work on sleeping in undies after the awake potty training has been learned.

GOOD LUCK! Keep your patience!!