Potty Training {Part 1}

My mama was here keeping Trey a while back because he was a little under the weather. I came home from work one afternoon (it was a Wednesday) to find Trey in big boy undies. GG said after his nap he refused to put on a diaper so she told him he had to wear big boy underwear...so he did! This afternoon he had accidents but he went and sat on the potty quite a few times. That night after he went to bed, we decided the next day we would start potty training since he was definitely showing signs of readiness.

I will admit, I was a little naive about the whole potty training thing. (Ok, maybe a lot naive...) 

Trey had shown interest in the potty at both 15 months and 18 months where we went and bought big boy underwear, let him pick out a potty and all and loaded up on potty training paraphernalia (books, movies, sticker charts, prizes, etc). 

Each of the times before we would put Trey in underwear and he would just pee on himself and not really look like he cared or did not care. He would go and sit on the potty and even went once or twice but nothing regularly- we figured it wasn't time and we stopped. 

This time around was different though- Trey was now 26 months and completely capable (I felt) of being potty training. PLUS- it would be completely fantastic to only have one kiddo in diapers at a time and this left us plenty of time to get Trey good and trained before Baby Kermie arrives. 

I was planning on starting to train him after we got back from our trip home (to New Orleans for Mardi Gras) as I knew that would be hard to have a potty-training toddler during that time. Well, Trey had other plans and he decided the week before we were going to leave, that he was ready- guess he showed us! :)

SO, back to the start of my story- that Wednesday night I read and I read and I read. I text my friends and family to get tips. I was sent links and helpful "this is how I did it" tips and books <---- so THANKS YALL!!! I read different methods and testimonials and blogs and together with GG and Jim, we came up with a plan.

We figured potty training would be a three step process for us: 

Step 1: Pee in potty

Step 2: Poop in potty

Step 3: Get trained for naps and nighttime

Trey still pees quite a lot during the night (less at naps but still some) so we knew at this point he physically could not hold his tee tee long enough to sleep. PLUS, he really needs sleep to function so we didn't want to totally jack up his sleep at this point. 

Our plan for Thursday (GG and I would be home with Trey) was to put him in undies, have the little potty in the living-room and the big potty (with the little seat insert that we had bought back when he first showed signs of interest) in the hall bathroom for him. We would set the timer and make him sit on the potty every 15-20 minutes. We (sort of) used this method the first week of potty training and here is how it went.

Day 1 (1/2 day) Wednesday: Trey decided he was done with diapers and wore underwear after his nap until he went to sleep. He pottied 3-4 times on the potty and had two little accidents. I felt like this was the start of really being done with diapers!

Day 2: Thursday: We woke up ready to rock and roll! I ran out to the store to stock up on wipes, cleaning supplies and more underwear (since we were caught so off-guard with him wanting to potty train) while GG held down the fort.

I thought about the timer thing and that just sounded like we would be bothering him all day to potty (which maybe we should have been!) So instead, we would ask him every 30 minutes if he needed to go and we would also tell him to let us know when he needed to go. He sat on the potty a ton of times but didn't go. He had 4-5 tee tee accidents and 1 poop. This day showed us that he could definitely go hours between going potty and he could hold it well. We put him in a pull up for nap. When he kept having accidents we even asked him if he wanted to put a diaper back on but he refused.

Day 3: Friday: GG on her own: I told her not to stress out about it and not to push him if she didn't want to. He didn't go on the potty at all but had 4 accidents all day (3 tee tee and 1 poop). He just held it until sleepy time I guess, lol.

She was so proud of him wanting to use the potty they went and got Happy Meals for lunch! :)

Day 4: Saturday: Bootcamp style! Jim and I were both home and we decided today would be the day we really buckled down and got on this. We pushed fluids on him all morning. I swear at one point there were 5 cups with different liquids on his little table, hehe! We would set a timer and put him on the potty every 30 minutes. He would get one jelly bean if he sat on potty and three if he went on the potty. Once he was done on the potty, we would reset the timer and do it all over again in 30 minutes. He had three accidents (no poop) and went only once on the potty, BUT he sat on the potty a whopping 12 times! We also let him use his sticker chart to put a sticker when he sat, went, flushed and washed his hands. He LOVED getting the stickers!

Day 5: Sunday: We decided to forego mass this morning even though we had been doing really good with going and Trey was doing really really well sitting through the whole mass. We made a sacrifice for the greater good I guess, haha. We pushed more and more fluids and continued with setting the timer. Trey had many, MANY accidents this day but most of them were finished on the potty!! He went on the potty a total of 6 times and sat on the potty 15 times!!!  We used all sorts of tricks to get him to sit on the potty, his ipad, books, treats, even our phones; whatever it took to get him to sit on there and hope he went!

We just kept telling him to keep his underwear dry and to check them to make sure they were dry.

This was also the Super Bowl, so the Tolers came over that evening to hang out and watch the game with us. Quinn and Trey LOVED the halftime show and danced like maniacs to Katy Perry. Trey only had one accident the whole time they were here.

Day 6: Monday (I was at it alone as Jim had to work):  He woke up Monday morning to a mostly dry pull-up!!! He started to go first thing that morning but finished on the potty so I was feeling really good about how our day would play out. He went on the potty 7 times and sat on the potty 13 times! He had three big accidents and a couple small that were mostly finished up on the potty. He went on the potty twice without starting to have an accident first which I thought was  HUGE step in the right direction. I kept the timer but was more lenient- more like every hour I put him on the potty unless he had an accident or went on the potty then I would extend that time a little bit. He also thought it was extremely funny to wear his underwear on his head WHILE sitting on the potty. Hey, whatever works!

Day 7: Tuesday: His first day at school since we started PT! This was also our first time leaving the house with Trey in big boy underwear. I was super nervous the whole way to school (the whole 15 minutes!) and kept reminding him what felt like every 3 seconds to stay dry. I got a piddle pad (from advice from Les) to put on his seat just in case. We had no accidents to or from school this day and I was SO proud of him! He sat on the potty 8 times at school and went 5 times!! He only had once accident all day and it was a poop which was expected. We were SO proud of him! He had one more accident when we got home then was good until bedtime! We were SO proud of him and so were his teachers!!! He gets jelly beans at school for using the potty just like he does at home! He was so proud to wear his big boy undies to school!

We were so proud of him at this point that we got him a treat for doing so well. He is really into Toy Story so we bought him a Mr. Potato Head! He loved it as you can tell!

Day 8 (Week 2): Wednesday: Trey woke up and peed on the potty!! We had a Dr. appointment with Dr. Hurtado to check on baby Kermie and to get our anatomy ultrasound so this was an exciting day all around! It was the longest commute to the dr EVER; took us an hour!

 Thank goodness for this sweet boy and his love of trucks, buses and all things boy because that truly was a lifesaver to have him point out every. single. truck on the way to the Dr. He also told me at one point he had to go potty so we pulled over and he sat on the Thomas potty in the back of the car. It was a false alarm and we were totally in the ghetto so I just prayed nothing crazy would happen to us as Jim was ahead of us in his truck. Trey sat in the back and read books and waved to all the cars and  a school bus driver blew the horn at him. You would have thought it was Christmas he was SO excited! He was good the whole Dr visit and had NO accidents!

He told us he had to go at one point and Jim tried to take him to the bathroom and that's when we learned he is DEATHLY afraid of big public restrooms. I'm guessing it's all the noise because he didn't really like going in them as a baby to get his diaper changed either. We had one more false alarm on the way home then he was good until nap. He fell asleep in the car (in his undies) and slept for about 30 minutes until I could get him home and into a pull-up for his nap and his underwear stayed dry that entire time- yay Trey! That day he had four accidents (two poop- very big ones) and two tee tee.

Day 9: Thursday (School again): He had one accident on the floor before school and one poop accident at school and that was all! I picked him up from school and we headed home that evening for our trip home to Louisiana. We stopped once on the way home for a false alarm but he did sit on the potty in the truck and try go go potty. We put him in his jammies and pull-up for the ride home since it was close to bed time anyway. 

At this point, we were SUPER apprehensive about the four days we were about to spend away from home with a toddler who was about 1/4 of the way potty trained. We were planning on just making the most out of it and doing all we could to keep him on track. 

Stay tuned for more on the potty training chronicles!