As Trevor says often, he's growing 'bigger, bigger, bigger' and he proved that by potty training like the big boy that he is. Call it Mommy and Daddy intuition but the 2 year 9 month old seemed ready even though he told everyone he liked his diapers. We had been reading 'Diapers are Not Forever' and other potty books for a while so he knew the time was close when he would get big boy underwear!
After our sister-in-law Annie's own brother and sister each had success potty training their 3 year old boys with a program called 'The 3 Day Potty Training' system, we decided we would go by that too. We simply can't imagine potty training someone for months and months. Plus we don't have time for that - baby sister will be here soon! Of course, we said if he wasn't ready, he wasn't ready and we would try again in the future but we should know better - Trevor is a smart boy who figured it out rather quickly. So we're not entirely bought into the fact that boys take longer to potty train than girls. We'd just say that maybe they start later than girls!
So principles of the program include:
- dedicating 3 full days to potty training (read you won't leave the house)
- you must catch child in act of peeing at all times in order to be successful....when child starts going in underwear, quickly scoop them up and rush to potty
- avoid asking 'do you have to go potty?' - instead instruct child 'tell mommy/daddy when you have to go to the potty, ok?' (that way they have control of the situation) you'll say this 50 times a day!
- between reminding them to tell you, have them check for dryness - you'll say this too 50 times a day!
- never keep child on toilet if child is not peeing or pooping
- when they release in toilet, provide flood of praise
The other big thing is to make a big deal out of taking off the last diaper, putting big boy underwear on and then throwing out all the diapers in the house. And really do it! No 'crutch' for Mom and Dad left in the house. We added to this by having balloons and a special breakfast for Trevor complete with caramel rolls. As you can see here, Trevor really got into the celebration!
We made a sticker chart for him last week and put it up for him to see and get used to. We also had a bag of chocolate miniature treats for when he went potty and a bin full of small toys he could choose from when he went poopy on the potty.
Day one (Thursday, August 30) was interesting. He had 4 different accidents in the morning. One time the pee just started running down his leg and he just stared at Mommy so she picked him up and rushed him to the potty and he started crying and saying 'don't want to go on the potty.' The rest of the times he had an accident he'd look at Mommy while going and say 'I'm going potty in my underwear' and just kind of laugh but Mommy would pick him up and bring him to the potty where he would always say 'don't want to go on the potty. I don't want to go!' Mommy was about done at that point but she knew she had to stick with it because he was ready. Heck, just the day before he told her to change his diaper because it was wet. If you know that, you can go on the potty!
At nap time, we talked about how how he's a big boy and big boys use the potty. It takes some getting used to it but she knew he could do it. If he woke up and felt the pee-pees coming just to call for her and we'd run to the potty then go back to sleep. Well, he didn't do that but he did just have one spot on the towel when he woke up.
Oh another trick of the trade is to bring all the toys to one central location, preferably a non-carpeted area for easy clean-up. Easy to do at our house since the main floor is mostly tile. So after nap we were playing on the floor with playdough when he got 'the look' in his eye that something was happening so Mommy asked if it was time to sit on the potty. And guess what? He did!!! He let just a little out (like 2 little drops) but Mommy made the hugest deal about it! He was SO proud!!! We ran over to the sticker chart and he put a sticker on! He also picked out a chocolate - a little Snickers!
A few minutes later he said 'somethings wrong with me' (which was a little sad to hear but Mommy figured out it meant 'something's happening' which meant more pee-pees!) So he willingly got on his potty chair and lots of pee-pees came out! We made another big deal out of it including a 'woo hoo' dance, another sticker and another chocolate! This time Trevor wanted to take a picture and send it to Dada! So we did and we called him along with the Grandmas and Papas. He was very excited!!!
Trevor even wanted to dump it out all by himself....just like Henry does in his potty book.
Funny side story, since Trevor and Mommy had to be attached at the hip at all times that obviously meant that he would go with Sara to the bathroom when she had to go. Sara would always announce 'I feel the pee-pees coming' and Trevor would say 'Run Mommy, hurry!' When she was done he'd ask if she got a treat. Um, okay!! Baby does like chocolate!
After those 2 successful times day one, about every 90 to 120 minutes Trevor would announce 'something's happening' and run to the potty and go. Except the next three times also included poopies so he got to pick out a toy from the prize bin along with a chocolate!!
Woo hoo - it was finally clicking together and it hadn't even been 10 hours since we started! Such proud parents we were! He requested steak for his celebratory dinner and we happily obliged! After dinner and some playtime, we talked about at night how if he needs to go to call out for us and we'd meet him at the potty. Well, he didn't do that night one but he only had 2 spots on his sheets when he got up in the morning! The program says no pull-ups so we're going with it, even for night-time sleeping.
Day 2 Trevor had 2 accidents in the morning because he stubbornly announced he didn't want to go on the potty. Well, after those 2 accidents he must have learned pretty quickly that wet underwear weren't so fun to be in, even if it was for just a few minutes nor was clean-up of the tile. He did however always enjoy picking out new big boy underwear to put on after an accident. But after those 2 accidents in the morning things again clicked and he would say 'pee-pees are coming hurry Mommy to the potty' and he would go! He would then dump it out in the big potty and get a sticker and a chocolate and have a big smile on his face :)
At naptime on day 2 his bed stayed dry. He woke up after an hour and a half (usually sleeps for 3 hours or so) and wanted to lay with Mommy on the couch. She was a little worried that he'd have an accident but nope. He stayed dry for part 2 of his nap and throughout the rest of the day and evening.
Daddy got home early from work because of the holiday weekend and was able to partake in all of the celebration dances and what not after all the successful potty missions and you could tell Trevor really enjoyed that and felt very proud. One thing Trevor did on Day 2 that just melted our hearts was when we'd tell him how proud we were of him going on the big boy potty, he'd say 'thank you Mommy/Daddy' and give us a big hug. Precious!!!
On Friday night (day 2) Trevor started telling us his ear hurt and looked the part too so when he woke up Saturday (2 wet spots on his sheets) we called and made him an appt for a possible ear infection. We weren't sure how it would go with leaving the house on Day 3 but it was no problem for our little (er big) guy! He proudly went on the potty before we left then didn't have to go until he got back home. The rest of the day we hung around the house staying low key since he did have an ear infection but anytime he had to go potty, he would announce it then run to the potty!!
Saturday night we tried to put a pull-up on him just in case the poopies came from the antibiotics but he wasn't having it. He said those are for babies. So we went with it and he wore his big boy underwear. He stayed dry except for one little spot on his bed but somewhere between 7:30am when Sara checked on him and the time he got up 30 minutes later he did have a hard poopy in his underwear. Trevor was less than impressed and came in our room crying that he had pooped in his big boy underwear. We said that's okay, accidents happen but he just kept saying 'yucky' and 'sorry.' He's so precious, he says 'sorry Mommy/Daddy' - that's okay buddy!!!
On Sunday morning we ran a few errands and although Trevor had to go on the potty at one point the stinker didn't want to go at the store. He much prefers his little potty so we came home and right away he went to his potty, sat down and did his business. Sometimes he likes to bring the ipad on the potty :)
The rest of Sunday was business as usual - he'd announce he had to go potty, run over, take off his underwear and sit down and go! It's glorious! Although we still checked in with him to say 'Remember to tell Daddy/Mommy when you need to go potty' and 'How's your underwear?' and he'd say 'Dry'!! Wow, he really did it!!! We couldn't be more proud or excited. Although this is just another example of how he's growing up way too fast!
He really only goes on the potty when he has to go - no real false alarms and when he sits down it's pretty instantaneous that he goes. No waiting around here! Although when the 'poopies are trying to come out of his butt' (his words) he will sit for a little while without success. We get it though, they sometimes take a while to come out, he he!
Nothing new to report on Monday or Tuesday either - it's like he's always gone on the potty!! Nap-time is either one wet spot or dry and at night-time for his 11-12 hour beauty rest he might have one or two wet spots but his underwear is always dry in the morning. He wakes up and goes potty so the accidents must happen in the middle of the night. We're not too concerned about this right now given that the bladder is a muscle and needs to be trained but we may start waking him up when we go to bed so that he goes on the potty and realizes that it's okay to get up and go potty and then go back to bed but we'll see. We know he'll figure it out in record time - heck, he hasn't even been doing this for a week and look at him!!
Oh wait, there was something 'super big' that happened on Tuesday! Mommy and Trevor were at Target getting a new train for his track when he started showing signs he needed to go. He said he didn't want to go at the store so Mommy and Trevor had a little talk about how at Mickey's House (ie Disneyland, his reward at the end of potty training) they don't have little potties and if we're going to go there we have to start trying to go on the big potty at stores and our house. He said 'okay Mommy' and Sara wasn't going to press the issue rather just hurry out of Target and get home! However, after checking out he saw the restroom and wanted to go in! He picked his stall, pulled his underwear down and sat on the big potty and went! Success!!!!!! So of course we went back to the toy section and got him a new firetruck too. Mommy = sucker but seriously we had to celebrate!!!
So by the end of Tuesday his sticker chart looked like this - which included 2 special stickers for going on the big boy potty - once at the store and once at home! Although Trevor could care less about the stickers or the treats - he says he doesn't want a treat and asks Mommy to put the stickers on so we guess we're done with this!
On Wednesday Trevor goes to daycare so we weren't sure how it would go but a mid-morning check-in showed that he has had no problems using the big boy potty there!!! He probably really likes showing off to his teachers and friends how he goes on the potty! WOO HOO!! Go Trevor!!!! We feel so blessed and lucky that he got the hang of it so quickly! We really couldn't be more proud!!
