Warning: This blog has nothing to do with Jesus except that I PRAYED A LOT during this process. It also has a lot of information about pee and poop and pictures of a half naked baby. I am posting it to remind myself of this time, so it might be a read worth skipping if this kind of thing freaks you out :).
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| Changing our last diaper!! |
Day 1
I’m starting this blog in the middle of my potty training
experience so I don’t forget how miserable it is, and at this point, I’m not
sure I even remember why I started. I
know some factors include:
1. I wanted to try the 3 day boot camp method.
2. After reading Lora Jensen’s 3 Day Potty Training Method, I knew there was no way I could do it
while 7 months pregnant or while working or while I had another child, so THIS Spring
Break seemed like the logical time.
Also, Daniel fell perfectly into her suggested age range.
3. I thought it seemed like a good idea to only have one kid
in diaper
s at a time. Not so sure today.
4. Gradual steps didn’t seem like they would work for Daniel
– especially after my efforts to get him to “gradually” give up the
pacifier.
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Thank you to his grandmother for
sending cool new toys to borrow! |
Yesterday, we started the day by having breakfast and
talking about giving up diapers. I
didn’t have what it took to start potty training before I had eaten and brushed
my teeth. It was a good call to wait.
By 8:30, Daniel and I had thrown away all his diapers
(really just put them in a trash bag in the garage – who is going to just throw
away $30 when we have another baby on the way??). By 9:30, he had had at least 3 accidents. And none of those accidents had resulted in
any pee in the toilet – so no celebrations, no stickers, no M&Ms. By 10:00, I was texting my friends to step up
their prayers. By 10:30, I caught him in
time to get a little bit of pee in the toilet, so we celebrated big time. He got off the toilet, I went to get his
M&M, and he peed all over the kitchen floor. We went back to the potty. He peed a little. He told me he wanted to get down, got down,
and peed again on the kitchen floor. So
3 pairs of underwear now wet in the course of 5 minutes. That was pretty much standard behavior until
lunch.
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Drinking lots of juice (which he
never gets!) |
I watched him constantly as we played. We painted, colored, and shaped a lot of play
dough. We read a lot of books. We ran to the potty so many times I lost
count, but I know I washed at least 15 pairs of underwear at naptime. I don’t think either of us was so happy to
put him in a pull up and say goodnight.
As a side note, Lora Jensen does not recommend pull ups for sleeping, but
my friend Emily and her urologist husband do, so I went with the pull up. I mean I need my sleep. There was only so much I wanted to sacrifice
for this.
Daniel went to sleep right away. I immediately took a shower to wash all the
pee off myself, and then I napped as well.
At 2:30, he was up again and ready to go. We did another round of the pee in the potty,
pee on the floor, pee in the potty situation.
I think he saved up all the urine he could during that nap for this
purpose. At 3:00, I (almost in tears)
turned down an offer to play outside with our neighbors in 70 degree
weather. But then by 3:30, he was
finally telling me when he had to go BEFORE he actually went. Granted, he told me he had to “doo, doo” no
matter what he was going to do, but I’ll take it. By 5:00, he had pooped for the first time in
the toilet, which was a major success – worthy of a call to daddy, a text to my
prayer warrior friends (gotta love friends who will pray with you through potty
training!), and a mini pack of M&Ms instead of just one. I also let him watch a Curious George episode
since I figured 20 minutes on the potty meant no accidents for a while, and I
rewarded myself with a phone call to Emily for some encouragement. In spite of our successes, I was still
wondering what in the world I’d gotten myself into.
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| Painting! |
By the time he was in bed at 7:30, I was exhausted. I disinfected the bathroom and my
kitchen. I mopped the kitchen floor
because there was no way I could employ my standard “5 second rule” after
seeing the amount of pee that had covered it that day. I rearranged our potty command station (aka
Daniel’s little table relocated to our kitchen). I washed all the underwear. Then I fell into bed. I don’t think I’ve slept so hard in a long
time. I woke up this morning, and my
back is killing me. My neck, shoulders,
and arms are also sore – I’m sure from all the times I lifted my 30 pound child
on and off the potty while carrying my daughter in my 5 month pregnant
body. Who said potty training wasn’t a
workout?
Day 2:
On this day, I decided to have my coffee BEFORE Daniel got
out of bed instead of drinking a cold cup while wiping pee off my shirt. I also got smart and put the M&Ms in the
bathroom along with his stickers, extra underwear, wet wipes, and Clorox wipes.
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On Day 2 he got to go plant
a tomato plant from Pop with Daddy |
When Daniel woke up, we immediately changed his pull up for
underwear, and during breakfast, he told me he had to potty and successfully
went! Day 2 was full of indoor play, but
I did start to trust him enough to play at the train table, which sits on
carpet. He made it through all of Day 2
with no accidents. Unfortunately, he has
not learned the word for pee, and continues to tell us he has to “doo doo.”
My saving grace on Day 2 was my incredibly awesome husband
who came home at lunch to let me go for a jog outside while he stayed with
Daniel. It was awesome to see another
adult in this process and also get some fresh air after being essentially
locked in my kitchen and bathroom with a toddler. During that time, Daniel also reached another
milestone which was telling Daddy he had to go potty!
Day 3:
After an accident free morning, I made the resolution to try
playing outside today. Andy came home
again at lunch and brought Chic fil a.
By the time he got home, Daniel was already down for his nap, so we sat
on the back deck and had a lunch date.
It was awesome.
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For the record, Daniel could
care less about the stickers or that chart. |
Daniel did play outside after his nap, and amazingly, he did
tell me when he had to use the bathroom, but when we came in to do it, he
promptly ran into the living room and peed o
n the carpet. Thanks a lot, kid. Other than that, Day 3 was accident free, and
Daniel told me every time he needed to use the toilet.
Day 4:
Lora Jensen doesn’t want to tell you in her book what
happens after Day 3. I think it might be
because you think you’ve seen a miracle and then Day 4 arrives. On Day 4, I got brave and took Daniel to the
gym so I could work out. I made sure I
was ready to go so that as soon as he used the toilet after he got up, I was
able to put him in clothes and jet across the street to the YMCA. We told the nursery workers all about his
potty training, and he was so proud to celebrate with them. I cringed when I saw a girl holding him and
my sweet child refusing to get down to play and said a prayer that he would not
pee all over her.
After working out, we stopped by the house for another potty
break and then went to Harris Teeter to pick up groceries. After that, we came home, had an uneventful
morning and took naps. And after nap
time, the other shoe dropped.
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| Potty Training is Hard Work! |
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| My glass of wine - thank you, Meredith!! |
Daniel had accident after accident after accident all
afternoon. It was almost like the
morning of Day 1 all over again. I think
I’ve even blocked the worst of it from my mind.
All I know is that it was bad.
And then, right before dinner, I caught him trying to poop on the
loveseat. OH MY GOSH!! I ran him to the potty where he
finished. We celebrated, and then I
found half his poop in the hallway. I
was able to kind of figure out that he had been scared to poop, and I think that might have been the cause for
the accidents, but right after dinner, I texted my neighbor and begged her for
a tiny glass of wine since I currently live in a dry house. And yes, I waddled my pregnant self over to
her house in my bare feet with my wine glass to get it. And yes, I drank it. Every last drop at the kitchen table alone while
my husband bathed my nasty child. I don’t
even want to hear a judgement on that.
It was necessary.
The only good thing about the afternoon of Day 4 is that
Andy came down with Daniel after bath time and said that while he was filling
the tub, Daniel sat down on his little potty without any prompting and used the
bathroom by himself. Miracles do happen.
Day 5
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| There were a few meltdowns. |
I woke up with a dread of Day 5 and a serious debate about
whether or not to throw in the towel and put a diaper back on Daniel. But Day 5 was MUCH better. We went to the Y, where he actually tried to
use the potty for one of the workers!!
Another milestone. He was also
accident free on this day with the exception of a stretch of time when we
played outside.
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This is how we make pooping
less scary. |
Today marks the one week anniversary of Daniel’s last day in
diapers. We have made it through a week
of big boy underwear and potty training.
Today, we took Daniel to church, and I was really sweating how he would
make out in the nursery, but he did so well.
He had no accidents, and we also tried another big event which was our
first lunch out in big boy underwear. We
made it through that accident free, too!
He is definitely still hit or miss with telling us when he
needs to go, and he for sure doesn’t tell us much before it happens. I have no doubt we still have several
accidents in our future, and I’m not completely sure I’m glad we decided to
potty train. Diapers are so easy that it
has been kind of sad to give them up.
But, considering he had to give them up some time, this seems like it
was a pretty good way to do it. We will
see!!
