Potty Training- As easy as 1-2-3....

I'm am proud to say my little boy is now potty trained! It's wonderful! No no no- its amazing. Does that even do it justice? Well, anyway, I'm in heaven and in heaven you only have half the diaper bill. It's a beautiful place.

 

To begin with I read and read and then read some more. I tried to learn everything I could to make this transition as easy as possible. I decided on 3-intensive days of potty training. We called it "Potty Training Boot Camp". And let me tell you- it was intense. So intense that I was actually having dreams about potty training at night. I know it was probably much harder on me than on Tanner, which I'm grateful for because I wanted this to be a good experience for him.

 

So here it was I did. Day 1: Tuesday. It was Chris' day off and so he was in charge of Bailey. I just wanted to have some 1-on-1 time with Tanner so I could give him 100% of my attention. When he woke up I ran into his room so excited to tell him we are potty training. He got excited too, although he had NO idea what he was getting himself into. I let him pick out some big boy underwear and we put them on him. He really liked wearing them. I then explained what we were going to be doing that day, how I didn't want him to pee in his big boy underwear and how if he needed to go pee or poop he had to do it in the potty. I decided we wouldn't be watching any TV because I didn't want him to get absorbed in a show and not be able to recognize his body's cues. So we did watercolors, silly putty, sidewalk chalk and coloring. We became awesome Lego masters and we did tons of bubbles. We played and played ALL morning and he had one accident. It wasn't alot but he did pee on the tile floor.  But besides that I'd say, Tanner is especially good at holding his pee.

 



 

 All morning I pumped that kid full of chocolate milk and juice boxes (which are such a treat for him).



He should have peed alot more than he did.  But 3 hours later he still hadn't gone again.  Let me go back, also all morning I was taking him to the bathroom EVERY 20 minutes. HE WOULD NOT GO IN THE POTTY. I tried his awesome "CARS" potty, I tried having him aim at cheerios, I tried having him sit on the potty and tossing the ball back and forth, I read books to him- I'm tellin' you. I TRIED IT ALL.

Then Chris peeks his head around the corner and says "Tanner, do you want to go pee outside?" I immediately said no because I didn't want to start that habit but then as I watched him squirm as he tried to hold it in, I gave in and took him outside. He looked at me and I said "Okay Tanner, you can pee off the porch." He immediately let it rip. I'm telling you- it was "Niagara Falls". Poor kid. He'd held it in sooo long. We clapped and cheered. To me- it totally counted because he didn't go until I told him he could and he went right where I told him to go. I'm not gonna lie- I was proud.

 

But then I started worrying that he wouldn't ever want to pee indoors now. Oh well- we'll cross that bridge when we get to it. After that we ate lunch and drank a ton more liquids. We played some more and then it was time for naps. I tried to get him to go in the potty again but he wouldn't so I put him in some plastic padded underwear (NOT PULL-UPS) and covered his bed in a "goodnights bedliner".



 I laid him down and 2 hours later he woke up completely dry. Hallelujah!!! As soon as I heard the crackling of his plastic underwear I ran into his room and checked him. Finding him dry I CHEERED and CLAPPED. (I'm kind of an enthusiastic mom). I then hauled his booty to the toilet and told him he could go in the potty. And he did! I was soooo proud. I continued to take him about every 20 minutes until bedtime. He had 4 successful trips to the potty. At bedtime I put his plastic covered underwear back over his "big boy underwear" and he went to sleep.  He didn't make it through the night- but I didn't think he would.

Tanner cheering for himself after peeing on the potty for the first time!

So proud of my little man!!!!

 

 

Day 2: Wednesday. The next morning was rough. It was like he'd forgotten everything we'd learned the day before. He had 3 accidents before 10 am. I was beyond frustrated. I told him it made me sad when he peed his pants and happy when he went in the toilet. The next time our egg timer went off, marking our 20 minute mark, I ran him to the bathroom and he FINALLY went on the toilet. After that he was accident free the rest of the day. I lengthen our time to 40 minutes and kept pumping him full of liquids. 7 successful potty trips and once again- dry through his nap.

 

Is there anything cuter than little boys wearing big boy underwear?

Day 3: 10 successful trips to the potty, dry through nap time. Only had one accident and that's because I left him with his Daddy while I ran an errand. He did fantastic.  Tanner also did his #2 business in the potty on his third day of potty training. We left the house for the first time on this day to go to Nanny and Papa's house. While we were there he went poop and so he got a milkshake.

 

Day 4: Friday: By this time we were getting much more comfortable with our routine. The only thing bugging me was that I still had to be the one to tell him to go to the bathroom or to take him. He would not tell me when he had to go. But he had 9 successful potty trips that day and that night he did not wet his bed. AMAZING!

 

The next 3 days consisted of me taking him about every two hours or so.  We did have our first family outing and Tanner stayed dry the entire time (2 hours at the pumpkin patch- playing hard). It would have been easy for him to have an accident but he held it until we got home. He did so great. Unfortunately, that night he had an accident. A number #2 accident. But to be fair- he did tell me he had to go poop. I just didn't get him there fast enough. I turned around to get him pj's to change him into afterwards and by the time I got back- he'd pooped in his underwear. However, he was sooo grossed out by it that he hasn't done it since. He kept saying "its on my leg" "its on my knee" "its on my foot" It was a mess and he did not like it. That was the only time he pooped his pants!

 

Anyways- A week after starting his potty training he's now telling me when he has to go. He's pooping on the toilet now and he's been accident free for 4 days. Also- he was dry 5 out of 7 nights!!!! YAY! Potty training done in a week- UM- HECK YEAH! I'm so proud of my little man!!!! Life has resumed as normal and we can leave the house without the fear of him having accidents. SO HAPPY! I think the night training will just happen on its own. Not going to worry about it right now- plus- he's doing pretty darn good at night too!

 

A few notes from the Momma:

I used a ton of incentives to make potty training interesting to Tanner. I made an "I DID IT! Potty Training calling Chart" He would point to someone's picture and get to call that person and tell him/her that he went pee. He loved doing this. Although he mostly just wanted to call his Nanny every time.

Talkin' to his "Aunt Rah" on the phone

I also did a sticker chart. I'd taken him to the store the day before and let him pick out some stickers. He fell in love with these superhero stickers and loved putting them on his sticker chart after he went pee each time

I also filled my apron full of treats, like fruit snacks, fruit roll ups and smarties. Each time he went he got to pick our a treat from my apron. He really loved this.

However, as time went by and he didn't want to pee for candy I had to up the incentives. He started getting "Star Wars Pods". You better believe that kid was a pee machine when he saw those. His collection really started to grow.

We basically lived on my tile floor for the first 3-days. Call me a chicken, but I DID NOT want to clean pee out of my carpet. So we just hung out in the dining room and kitchen for 3 days straight, oh and we were outside alot. haha. Here are the kids playing Lego's together on the kitchen floor.

I had to find something really special as an incentive for Tanner to go poop on the toilet. Luckily, my kids have a weak spot for milkshakes. Tanner doesn't mind going nearly as much when he knows he's going to get a milkshake afterwards.

Here's Tanner drinkin' his milkshake at Sonic

 

All-in-all, I feel like he did great. All the prepping was worth it because it only took a week and out of those 7 days, only 3 were really intense. Not bad! Let just hope Bailey is this easy!