So, I talked to Emery's daycare provider, who has had lots of experience in this arena, and she highly suggested I do the "3 day potty training." Basically, for 3 days straight you put all of your focus into potty training and do pretty much nothing else. I figured I'd go for it. The day I decided, I washed all of his little size 2T underwear and got them ready. I knew I didn't want to put him in pull ups.
On May 31st, Emery went to daycare. So, while he was gone, Elle and I went to the library and checked out a handful of children's books all about potty training. We also got a dvd. Then we went to JoAnn's and picked up a bright red poster board and some really fun foam sports stickers. Patrick helped me draw a baseball field on the poster board and I colored it and put the title "Emery's Potty Chart" with a Royals logo. I printed off from the computer some coloring sheets about going potty, also and gathered up several pennies for Emery to put in his piggy bank as rewards.
On June 1st, while Patrick was gone with Emery to swimming lessons, I hung the poster in the bathroom, put Em's piggy bank in the bathroom, and got the books and dvd ready. When he got home I told him I had a surprise for him and showed him the poster. He LOVED it. Right away he said "Royals baseball!" We had talked a lot about wanting to be a big boy and get rid of diapers in the week leading up to the big day, so he wasn't totally surprised that it was happening. I think that helped! I wrote a little recap each day about how the day went, so I'll include those here!
Emery with the very first sticker for his potty chart!
Love those cute little undies! :)
Potty training Day #1: It went better than expected today! BUT, it is SO MUCH WORK. I am drained! It wouldn't be very bad if Elle wasn't here, but between her crying for me, feeding her, and trying to squeeze in bathroom trips every 15 minutes for Emery and making sure he didn't have accidents...I'm spent! (Insert much needed glass of wine here!) This morning while they were at swim lessons I hung his poster and when he came home I told him he had a surprise and I showed it to him. He loved it! I showed him the fun foam sports stickers I got to go on it and the pennies and piggy bank are located on the bathroom counter top right now! He surprisingly caught on right away. We decided to do a 1 minute timer so he sits long enough to try and not get up until he hears the beeping. That helped a bunch this morning. He peed on the potty twice right away and then had a couple accidents in his underwear and he'd tell me afterward "I need to go potty." So, I told him it was ok and we'd run to the bathroom and sit on the potty and remind him that accidents happen and it's ok, but that when he needed to go he needed to tell mommy and we'd run to the bathroom together. I checked out 4 potty books and a dvd from the library yesterday and had them ready for today, so all day between bathroom trips we read potty books, watched the potty dvd (3 times!), and I also had a couple potty coloring sheets that we colored together. The purpose of the 3 day training is to make everything about going potty so that's what today was. At nap time I decided we'd lay him down in underwear. I knew he'd wake up wet but wanted to just go for it. He slept an hour and woke up crying in a puddle. I felt so bad and he was so upset. I had to tell him several times that it was ok and that it takes a lot of practice to get it just right without accidents. At 3:30 he actually came running to me and told me he needed to go potty, we ran to the bathroom, and he went without leaking in his underwear first! I was so excited! We did high fives for a long time after that! He did it again two more times this afternoon/evening. I put him in a diaper at bedtime and told him I wanted him to be able to sleep really good tonight with out having an accident and that we'd wear big boy underwear tomorrow again. I hope tomorrow goes even better than today...we're increasing the time between bathroom trips to 30 minutes tomorrow...but honestly, he seemed to have it down by tonight to tell me when he needed to go. I just kept asking him all day...Are you still dry? Do you need to potty? My goal is to have him comfortable to go to daycare by next Monday or Tuesday and then it'll be smooth sailing from there. Not sure about what to do when we're at public restrooms..he's still so tiny and his butt falls right down in the big seat! lol
I'm a Big Boy!!
After day #1!
Potty Training Day #2 was so up and down. Emery woke up with a soaked diaper (normal) and I think wearing the diaper over night put us one step back...but that was better than him waking up during the night in a pool. He didn't want to sit on the potty this morning, so I didn't force it. All morning it was hard to get him to go, and he would leak a bit in his underwear, stop himself, then run to the bathroom with me. I had to use more bribes today than yesterday...not sure if that's good or bad! But they worked. lol. At nap time I put him in undies again and he woke up DRY! That's the first time ever. I did put a cloth diaper cover over his undies so if he did wet it wouldn't totally soak him. Maybe that helped. After nap he didn't want to sit on the potty again, even though he woke dry. I knew he needed to potty and kept asking him. He leaked in 3 different pairs of undies and I was getting discouraged for a bit and then finally he went! I almost got upset with that process...he just kept playing around. This evening Patrick said he went twice for him and then tonight right after reading books and getting ready to hop in bed he told me "I need to potty!" I already had a diaper on him, so we took it off and he went!! I was so happy! Oh, I forgot to mention that he pooped in his underwear around 4:30. I knew he needed to poop all day and he just kept holding it in. I tried and tried to get him to go on the potty but he wouldn't. Then he told me he needed a diaper and I told him, no, he only wears diapers at night now. I sort of told him it was ok if he pooped in his underwear if he wasn't going to go on the potty...I didn't want him to get so upset that it would mess up our progress. So, he did. I dumped it in the toilet and showed him (like I do with the cloth diapers). I have a feeling the pooping will take some work. I talked to my friend, Dawn, today about bedtime and sleeping in a diaper and she said that she researched how knowing when to go to the bathroom while you are sleeping is a whole different thing than feeling the urge during the day. She said her daughter used pull ups at night for about 3-4 months after she was day time trained and then all the sudden she started waking up dry. I'm not going to stress about night time right now, no reason to. Overall though, I think he's doing really well. Each day will just get a little easier. He loves his big boy underwear. There's no going back and honestly, I don't think he'll have many accidents at all. He hasn't totally lost control and peed everywhere since yesterday morning at about 10 am.
After day #2!
Potty Training Day #3: Emery had NO ACCIDENTS today!! He woke up with a very wet diaper again today, and this morning he refused to sit on the potty right after getting up. I tried but he wouldn't go. Bribing him with things didn't work either. After breakfast I asked him to try to go and I'd give him more grapes. He finally went around 9:30. And, that's when I realized, he's not going to go and he's going to refuse if I ask, so I need to just wait until he tells me he has to go. I continued asking him throughout the day if he was still dry and that seems to help remind him. He went again around 11. At 12:30 Patrick came home from work and after lunch before nap Emery went again. He was in the same underwear all morning! He did have a little trouble at 12:30 with keeping his pee pee pointed down so he got that pair wet. At nap I put him in underwear with the same diaper cover over it. He slept two hours and woke up dry again today! I was SHOCKED. All afternoon Patrick took him when he had to go, he seems to go better and without any issues for Patrick. I figured we'd try putting shorts on over his underwear for the first time this afternoon so we could go outside, and he did great. We put his swim suit on and he played in his baby pool for almost an hour. When we came in I asked if he wanted to go potty and he got on the toilet and peed without any question! He took a bath, we ate dinner, and he told us he had to go again after dinner and Patrick took him. He didn't poop today, so I'm sure we'll continue to have struggles with that. But then when we were getting ready for bed he peed again without any problems before I put his diaper on for bed. He is totally getting this! Tomorrow I'm thinking if the morning goes well we may venture out of the house for a bit and go somewhere...maybe to get ice cream? That might be a nice treat for my big boy!
After day #3!
I'm very proud of my big boy. As of today (day #4) at 3 pm, he had a pretty big accident this morning when he didn't make it to the bathroom in time (he peed on the bathroom floor) but since then he's done just fine in the same pair of underwear. He's still refusing to go potty if he hasn't decided he needs to go, so that's a little bit of a struggle, but when he says he has to go he always goes. I decided I'm not quite ready to leave the house by myself with him, so we're waiting until church tonight to take him out. At least Patrick and I can tag team it there if he has an accident. :)
1 comment:
He's a little person who wants to be in control of his bodily functions. He'll figure it out as it sounds as if he is on a good track. Quite a project for you all.....but just sayin', everyone is eventually potty trained. It will happen.
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