Potty Training

The thought of uploading and discussing Christmas pics is still too much for me, so I've opted to talk about potty training. We've been working with Miles on using the potty for a while now. I thought seriously about training him in August using the 3 Day Potty Training method, but I just didn't think he was ready. We pushed it to the week after Christmas b/c daycare is closed and Darrin & I were both off of work. I knew daycare would be a huge help in training him, but I wanted to get a jump start at home so they wouldn't have such a big job. We waited until we got finished with all of the Christmas stuff and officially began potty training on Wednesday, Dec. 28th.

I read the 3 Day Potty Training method but chose not to do it b/c that is not what they do at daycare. The 3 Day plan tells you to constantly remind the child to keep their underwear dry, but don't take them unless they start to have an accident or unless they ask to go. I see the point, but Ms. Lee Ann at daycare said that she takes them every 20 minutes at first and then spaces the time in between potty breaks longer and longer until they are trained. She said it usually takes 2 weeks. Sounded good to me, so that is what we did.

I did like a few of the points in the 3 Day Potty Training plan. One thing it mentions is to get rid of all the diapers with your child. It shows him that he is a big kid now and that he does not wear diapers anymore. So, Miles and I packed up all the diapers on Wednesday morning.

His first pair of underwear...

The whole experience has gone far better than I imagined. The first day he had 4 accidents....3 the next, 2 the next....and then none the next with the exception of #2, which we won't discuss in detail....instead I'll just say that that part is a work in progress....."Phase 2", if you will.

On New Year's Eve, we had plans to go to Darrin's sister's house to spend the night. I was worried about what this might do to potty training, but we moved ahead with the plans. We drove an hour to Paducah to go to the mall...shopped for a little over an hour...and then drove 20 minutes to Crystal's house....all in underwear, and without an accident! There were potty breaks, of course, but no accidents.

I've always said that I didn't want to reward my child with food or candy. We started off with a bowl of stickers, toys, games, cars, etc....by the end of the week, we were using Smarties, Fruit Loops and Angry Bird gummies. By the end of day 2, he was completely over going to the potty every 20 minutes. We had to get create and increase the prizes. At one point, he was throwing Fruit Loops in the potty and aiming at them. Whatever it takes, right? I put on his Buzz Lightyear underwear yesterday and told him not to pee pee or poop on Buzz b/c he didn't like that. He came to me later and said very sadly, "I pee pee on Buzz".

To date, he's only told us once that he needed to go....and for that he got a push up for dinner compliments of Daddy...

As I said, it has not been as bad as I thought. I envisioned Darrin and I completely frustrated with him and each other. I'm happy to report that we have not lost our cool even one time. That's big time. Today was Miles first day at daycare. I was thrilled when I picked him up and he still had on the same clothes I dropped him off in. He had zero pee pee accidents and....well, we are still working on "Phase 2". Very glad that the hardest part is over. Ecstatic that daycare is helping this week. Looking forward to having a potty trained child very soon.