Outing #1

We had our first outing today and it was great!! 2 and half hours and no accidents. He didn't tell me had to go, either, but that's ok. When it hit the 2 hour mark of him not going, I just plopped him on the potty and he went. This all happened a little sooner than expected, but like a lot of things that happen in parenting that stretch us and make us move out of our comfort zone, it was good. My folks came by but had to be somewhere. My mom hadn't seen Evan in a week and was really bummed to not be able to spend more time with him. So into the car we went so she could have some time with us. And it was a great experience! I was nervous, but thankfully our first 'public' outing wasn't very public at all - it was outside and not many people about.

So that's the update!

I think it's official...

...while at home, Evan is potty trained. We've had 5 days in a row with no accidents and him initiating going both pee and poo. He has demonstrated that he can hold it, and he no longer lets just a little out at a time - it's all there at once. I do make him sit on the potty before naptime, and sometimes before a meal if he hasn't gone recently, but otherwise, it's all him!

I have yet to take him in public without a diaper on, and I'm sure that will come just like this did. For now, I'm excited that it's official, even if it's only in the house!

Good luck to all you potty training parents out there. Potty training early is possible. Don't let anyone tell you it's not. It takes patience. It takes discipline on your part to keep going and not give up when you feel like it's a hopeless task. It takes time - and sometimes longer than you think.

Some tips looking back:

• Mark off a week to do nothing but potty train! This means no one coming over to the house while the little one is awake - it's distracting.
• No treats. We tried that, but for him, he would sit, pee a little, get his sticker, then pee a little more - not what you want to do!
• Don't stress about it - they feel that
• I would advise being down to one nap by the time potty training begins. 2 naps just really disrupt things
• Patience!!!!!!
• Consistency!!!!!
  

At the end...finally

We are at the end of potty training. Since Thursday last week, the days seem to look the same. Sometimes we're better after a nap, sometimes, not, but we typically go all morning and most of the afternoon after nap-time with no accidents. Same way today. No prompting to go on the potty and several times where I would look up from my seat and he'd just be sitting down to pee (or poo) or just be getting up!

I admit, it has taken longer than I expected, but the majority of the time with 2 naps in a day and with so many interruptions of having places to be or having people over, while very fun for me, was not very conducive to consistent training. I looked, and I have not had 3 solid days of nothing in a row since I started this. So I blocked Thurs/Fri/Sat off this week to really seal the deal. He does great at home, but I've been too nervous to take him out without a diaper on. And maybe we'll keep doing the 'diaper while out' routine for a while, who knows. I just want him able to play with other kids and still pay enough attention to what's going on and not make a mess. Maybe that's high hopes. For now, I'm so excited that he's at least 95% potty trained when we're at home.

I'll let you all know how the three day boot-camp goes!

Day....what day is it?

Waiting and reading

I'm not sure what day it is. It's been 2 weeks since I decided to sit down and do this. So I think that makes 14 days. And while I wish I was posting to say that we have it down pat, I'm not. I am posting to say, though, that we're getting close!

Yesterday, Evan came to us and told us he had to pee. Three times! There are 5 stickers on the chart from yesterday, but the other 2 are because we sat him on it because he had started to go in his pants (but we knew he hadn't gone all the way) and we wanted him to finish on the potty. Right now, this is the most frustrating battle. Sometimes he'll start to pee in his pants, but then stop when he realizes it. The frustrating part is not the wet pants or his whining that he's wet. The frustrating part is that he still has to learn how to release ALL the pee once he sits down. We'll sit him down and he'll grunt and push and out comes 3 little drops. Yeah - not the rest of the pee. The good news is that he has the control to stop the pee and hold it. We're just working on getting him to go all the way at one time. We'll get there. Just like we got here. Slow and steady.

Today has been great. Lots of changes in one day, but we're making it. I guess I forgot to mention that up until today, Evan has been on a 2 nap schedule. It dawned on me yesterday that if I switched him to just one nap, we'd have the entire morning to work on things and only one nap to interrupt us. So today, I pushed him until 12:30 before I put him down (he'd been fighting the 2 nap schedule for about a week now...) and he did great. Not a very pretty pre-nap time, but we'll get the hang of that, too.

This morning, though, was wonderful! He initiated 4 times on his own, and the accidents we had were due to being upset about being told no, or banging his head on the table edge - both brought tears, which in turn, brought out the pee. The other accident we had was totally my fault. I decided to go put the mail out by our front door. Well, I checked him to see if he was wet on my way to the front door. When I started to unlock the door, he started calling for me, but I just went ahead and kept opening the door to stick my letter outside for the postman. He, of course, was still calling. When I turned around, he was standing in the kitchen patting himself. Bummer. But at least he was trying to tell me, right?

All in all, we're getting it. He's able to hold it. He's starting to tell us he has to go, or like today, he just picks up a book and sits on the potty. I have to be watching for this since he'll sit down with his pants on. To help this, I hae only been putting him in his underwear, and he pulls that off pretty easily. It's so cute to watch him tug at them to get them up and then even funnier still is watching him pull them up - covering his front and totally leaving his little butt cheeks hangin' out. :)

General Update

So I've decided that when you potty train, you really do need to have an entire week or two blocked off completely for this to work. Tuesday and Wednesday this past week were tough days. Fun for me, tough for the routine. We had people in the house the majority of both days and while Evan peed in the potty, of his own initiative, when the house was empty in the morning, I was changing wet underwear and pants the rest of the day due to the distractions. Lesson learned. If I am to have people over, it needs to be during nap time.

The good news is that every day seems to be better. Today, we had 4 times where he came to me or where I saw him give me the sign (him holding himself and then trying to pull his underwear down) and we went and sat on the potty! I started doing a sticker chart today. The praise was working fine, but I wanted something a little extra that was NOT food related. This is purely a pet peeve of mine and I don't judge anyone who uses food as an incentive, I just feel that our society is already centered around food enough that I don't need to encourage it as a reward when something else will do. Anyway, the sticker chart actually seems to work. He was a little confused at first why he couldn't just keep putting stickers on the sheet, but by the end of the day, he got it. I think.

So here's hoping that tomorrow is better. I looked at my tracking sheet this morning and was discouraged because it said "Day 11" on it, but then I had to remember that it was only really Day 9 for this new method, and considering the 2 days of company, we're doing really well.

I'll update more when there's another turn of events - hopefully a good one. :)

Day 8 - Breakthrough

Today is day 8 of potty training, but day 5 of the 'new plan' and today is the day we had our first breakthrough. I'm writing this right after the event, so maybe we'll have more today, it is only 10 am, but for now, I'm just so excited I had to come down and write about it!

At about 9:45, we had already had 2 'accidents' - no big deal, par for the course as of late. I've figured out that he goes about ever 60-75 minutes, and that he grabs himself, or puts his legs together, before he goes. Still hasn't made the connection that getting wet happens after he feels the urge, but I think we're getting a little closer.

So today, his last accident had been at 8:30 and I was just waiting for the next one. I ask him off and on if he has to pee and he usually just shakes his head no. I hadn't asked in a few minutes, and all of a sudden, he went to where his books were, picked one out, and handed it to me. Instead of sitting next to me where I was, he walked over to his potty and sat down. I quickly took his pants and underwear off and asked if he had to pee. He just looked at me and reached for the book. So I sat and we read and within 5 minutes, out came the pee!

Not sure if this is just coincidence, or him actually realizing he needed to go, but either way, it gives me hope and the encouragement I needed. Further updates to come as we have more breakthroughs!

ADDITION as of 7:30pm:

We had one more time where Evan was on and off the potty of his own volition (I don't tell him to get on anymore unless I think there's poop involved!) and he went! We did this yet again at about 3 and he peed on the floor while up. (He had tooted and thought he had done something, so he stood up and out came the pee!) We had an accident after dinner, and then one again about 30 minutes ago, but with the last one, he came to me patting himself and saying 'pee pee' - so that was a first and encouraging. Tell you what, I was really hesitant about all this yesterday, but I totally swear by this method today! You just have to give it the full 5 days! I'm excited to see what tomorrow brings. All I can do is hope at this point. :)

Day 4 and 5

Not much to update. The new regime is going well. I think. He pees. I ask him if he's wet. He says yes. I change him into clean/dry clothes. Repeat.

Hopefully in a couple days he'll start to realize why he's wetting himself and he'll be coming to me to let me know he has to go. For now, I'm about to start load #3 in 2 days...it is a lot of laundry - especially if you don't have all that many sweatpants (what I found best with their fitted pant legs, and they soaks the wetness up so they feel it and you don't have to clean it up off the floor!) - but I'm hoping that it's totally worth it. The good news is that he knows he's wet and has just started to be bothered by it!

I think that the 45 minute schedule that I had him on earlier is ideal for an older child who knows what the feeling is and just has to get the hang of going on the potty. But for younger kids, when they need to learn what the urge actually is, this method, logically speaking, seems like it's the better deal. More cleaning, yes, but honestly a lot less stressful since I'm not having to entertain him on the potty or watch the clock the entire day. Obviously, I may change my mind on that in 4 days if this doesn't start to work, but I've been assured that it's worked with every child it was tried with. I'm hoping I can add Evan's name to that list soon!

Until a breakthrough happens...I'm off to clean!