Potty Training Day 4 and Beyond

Day 4 and beyond... (whenever I think this in my head, it is said in a Buzz Lightyear voice)

JJ was home last week on a vacation so we had a nice little Stay-cation which is why I was completely absent in posting. I will go more into our stay-cation this week. H did not do well with pooping in the potty while JJ was home. I am not sure if he was just so excited to have his dad around all the time or was just too distracted but he would poop his pants like it was no ones business. 

After having to clean up poop for a few days, I decided to go back to not  wearing any underwear. My thinking is that the underwear was still some protection and he felt that he could poop in it. I knew that if he wasn't wearing any underwear, he couldn't poop on the floor.  I also decided to give him a little matchbox car every time he pooped in the potty. Between the toy incentive and not wearing any underwear, he hasn't had 1 accident. He was very upset about not getting to wear his big boy underwear at first, so I told him that as soon as he pooped in the potty he could put his underwear on.  H has rocked pooping ever since. 

One thing that has happened since he started getting a toy, is that he poops on average 4 times a day. When he was wearing a diaper he only pooped once a day but now that he gets a toy, he is going 4 times a day. It is just absolutely crazy. After the first the poop we put underwear on and he is doing good not pooping his underwear after he gets it on. 

I am going to stop giving him a toy after a week of no accidents and then we are going to start night training. That I am not looking forward to.  H does now call of his toy cars his "poop cars". It cracks me up every time. He will be playing with one of the cars and will hold it up and yell "POOP CAR!"  He is so proud of them. I can't wait until he does this in public :)

The guidelines that I used to do the potty training are from Potty Training Boot Camp. The guidelines are as follows:

Before you start- Make sure you have 3 full days that you can be home without leaving the house at all (this was the hardest part for me). If you leave, there will be an accident which is not the message you want to send to her in the beginning.

Needs:

• Training pants (soft cotton gerber ones)- lots of them J They work better than underwear since they are thicker and allow for more pee
• Potty seat that you can take anywhere you play (inside or out)
• “night night undies” (What we called them). We used the training pants with the rubber on the outside over the reg. training pants. If the thought of this is horrible to you, then use pull ups but do not call them that and ONLY use them for sleep times- remember no more diapers!
• Potty ring for travel (starting day 4)
• All she will wear for the first three days is a tshirt and training pants so its easy to pull up and down.

Day 1- As soon as she wakes up tell her that starting today there are no more diapers! Let her help you “trash” the left overs you have and tell her what a big girl she is. She needs to sens e your confidence in this decision so you cannot wavier once you start. Otherwise, the attempt will fail miserably. Tell her that everytime she goes pee or poop in the potty she will get a treat (we used m&m’s). Every 15 minutes (I used a timer) put her on the potty. Make sure the potty is right next to wherever she is playing so she doesn’t feel like she has to interrupt play time to go. Have books and toys available for her. Never ask her  if she has to go, just say, time to potty and put her on. If she goes, celebrate big and let her help you flush it down the big potty. If she doesn’t say, ok we will try next time. If she has an accident, simply say “uh oh, next time we will go in the potty”, change her and let her help you clean it up if needed.  Don’t make a big deal. In 15 minutes, do it again. (I know it seems ridiculous, but trust me it’s magical). Oh- and give her lots to drink on these days. The more she has to go, the more chances of success and she will begin to realize what it feels like right before and during. Be prepared for tiny dribbles throughout the day in the potty that will deserve celebration.

Nap- change to night night undies and tell her she will have a treat for dry undies but don’t punish for wet. Change immediately upon waking into training pants and put her on potty.

Day 2- repeat day 1 but extend to every 30 minutes.

Day 3- extend to 45 min. to an hour.

Day 4- plan a small outing. (we did publix). Put her on potty before you go. Take her to public potty as soon as you arrive, then right before you leave, take her again> (drives you crazy but it works). Then again as soon as you get home.

Day 5 and beyond- continue to be very consisten tand extending the time in between. Never ask her if she has to go- tell her and physically put her on the potty. Pretty soon she will start telling you she has to go, it’s amazing how it works.

By day 3- she should be virtually day trained for pee. Nights can take a little longer, just be patient.  Cameron took a little longer to get all his poops in the potty, but it was only a matter of  a week or two before he was accident free in that area. CONSISTENCY IS THE KEY.

Whatever you do- DO NOT GO BACK TO DIAPERS or be prepared to start all over.

Here is hoping that this works as well with A once we start potty training her!

KK

Potty Training {Part 2}

Day 2

We increased the time between me having him sit on the potty to 30 minutes. I was incredibly nervous about more than doubling the time between I reminded him to go potty but H was amazing. He has actually started coming to me and telling me that he has to tinkle and then says "own". He wants to go on his own and take care of everything.  He is such a big boy it blows my mind.

I didn't tell JJ that I was using the Publix cookies as a treat so while I was out having a girls night with my sister, he finished them off. I can't really leave the house and go grocery shopping right now so I had to improvise. We ended up having a boxed chocolate chip muffin thing in the pantry so I added a mashed banana to it and made mini banana chocolate chip muffins as treat. 

We played outside for a while but always made sure that the potty was close to us in case something happened. We finished the day with NO accidents!! I do have to say that H is still wearing a diaper at nap time and to sleep because I think it is just too much for him to take on all of it at once. This seems to be working for us. 

Here is a photo dump from Day 2:

our lego creation (a crane truck) from our potty time

Making the muffins first thing in the morning

A watching all the actions

Beautiful E playing with H

A's first pigtails

A hanging out while we play outside

H was making A laugh which made him feel like the coolest person ever

He wanted to play chase so bad. I couldn't deny him it.

Just love that handsome face

Day 3

This kid is killing it! We have increased our time to 1 hour between when I remind him and we have had no accidents. This is 2 days in a row. We decided to put underwear on him today to get him used to pulling them up and down and they have not caused any problems. Sometimes he needs help getting them up and down but other than that he loves it!  We bough Mickey Mouse and a blue variety pack of underwear from Target and he got to choose which underwear he got to wear.  He is loving his underwear!

Since the time was spaced out to an hour between "seatings", we decided to go to my Moms to play with C & E. We spent the day in the pool with H wearing a swimmy diaper (just to be on the safe side). He got really tired of me asking if he had to go potty but he did tell me when he had to go so we didn't have any accidents in the diaper at all. 

We finished Day 3 without any accidents. I am sure I am going to jinx it by saying that I think this kid has really gotten the hang of this whole potty thing. 

KK

Potty Training... kill me now! (said the very proud Mama)

So, this past week, H woke up and decided that he did not want to wear diapers anymore.  This is all well and good except I was not prepared to start potty training at all.  I don't/didn't think that he was ready. He hated having his diaper changed and showed no forewarning of when he was going to potty. 

Day 0.5

We managed to try potty training until lunch on the first day and then H freaked out when he had an accident in his underwear and begged for his diaper back. I was happy to oblige since I really didn't think that he was ready to start potty training. 

Day 1 (when potty training started for REAL)

We were not going to start potty training again for a few months to a year but while I was working out, H disappeared. I found him with his diaper off and on the potty. That was it for me. There was no going back. Once he decided to take his diaper off himself, he had made that decision. I let him know right then and there that potty training was happening and we were going to follow it to completion. 

So they day started in a pair of underwear. We played outside and sat on the potty every 10 minutes. I plied him full of juice and set off on the adventure of day 2.  We had 1 accident about 3 minutes after sitting on the potty and I decided to do away with the big boy underwear.  I think that the underwear felt too much like diapers so he didn't feel the need to use the potty.  So, we took the underwear off and spent the rest of the afternoon in the playroom like this:

So far we have had much success for only the first real day of potty training.  I have decided to give him a treat whenever he goes on the potty. He gets a quarter of a Publix chocolate chip cookie whenever he goes on the potty. He gets so excited about getting a treat because he doesn't really get cookies around our house. 

The face of a proud little boy (with chocolate chip cookie on it)

We did switch potties because the potty from Day 1 (blue potty) didn't have a lip on it and the first time H went to the bathroom in the potty, he peed all over me. We have switched to a frog potty that my sister lent me that has a nice lip/guard on it. 

New Potty

I didn't realize how mentally exhausting potty training could be and how much I could miss going into other rooms in the house. 

One thing I did do, a while ago, was stock up on some books and Duplo Legos for him to use only when he is on the potty. I also downloaded some Fisher Price apps to my phone to entertain him. These have proved very helpful because he has something special to play with while he sits on the potty. The apps encourage him to sit on the potty a little longer when I think that he has to go #2. 

Here is to hoping things go as well as they have so far!

KK