Reward System

We are trying to night potty train Luke. It's been an interesting few weeks. He's been potty trained during the day for a year now and we decided he might be ready for night-time. The verdict is still out on that one. We have encountered some issues along the way. One, we are expecting him to hold his bladder for 12 hours (the amount of night sleep he gets). Now, I can't hold my bladder for more than 4-5 hours at night (and even less with a pregnant bladder), so how can we expect him to hold it for TWELVE hours? I don't really know, but we are trying it anyway. Issue number two is that he has been afraid to come out of his bedroom in the morning to go potty by himself when the house is dark (closed blinds, no lights on). This is the kid who has always waited for me or David to come and get him in the morning...he doesn't just come out of his room on his own. It's been heavenly. Until now. So, we practiced and practiced with him...talked and talked and talked about how this works. Talking things through with Luke usually does the trick. Not this time. So, we gave him a flashlight. It took him a week or so to be brave enough to come out of his room, with his flashlight. The first time, though, he ran to the bathroom and ran right back to his room. When I asked him why he didn't go potty, he said, "I got too far" (meaning too far from his room). Oh, dear. Shortly thereafter we moved his room closer to the bathroom (something we were going to do anyway as the new baby will be taking over his room). That helped, but hasn't been the ultimate cure I had hoped for. There have been other issues, but if you are still reading this you are probably hoping this novel is almost done, so I'll spare you the details. During all of this there has been a lot of sheet washing. To Luke's credit, there has also been a lot of dry sheets. Still, we are waiting to see if this is going to fly. Any tips?? I'm all ears.

So, the reward system...Luke has been getting stickers for his chart (it's really just a piece of paper) for each morning he wakes up with a dry bed and dry undies. After the allotted amount of stickers there is a reward. The first reward was a trip to the pet store. So simple, but he loved it. The second reward was a trip to the Botanic Gardens....thus the pictures below. He loved that too, as always. We have a membership and would have gone again anyway. Bonus. He almost has enough stickers to go to the zoo. We'll see if there is a fourth reward or if his mom will give up! David keeps telling me "it's a process," but how long is that process supposed to last? Maybe there won't be a need for a fourth reward because he'll have this down by then. A girl can hope.

Dad and the Boys

Mom and Caden

Running down the path.




"See no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil." Sort of.




Our Luke. Love him!
He seems like such a big boy to me these days.

Mom and the Boys.

Dad and Caden walking across the bridge. Love those two!

Mom and Caden walking back. This one seems to be growing up too. And way too fast!