Moving On

I wanted to document M’s potty training process so I can refer back to it with each successive child being fully aware that the same method doesn’t necessarily work with each child, but wanting to at least try it.

I think I started getting books and DVDs about potty training back in April or May. We’d read and watch and read and watch, poor guy. Then I officially brought the potty chair out of storage, but didn’t pressure him or insist he use it. I let him run around without a diaper on so he could see and pay attention to what actually happens when he goes potty, since, up to this point, he did it without thinking. He didn’t really go potty on the potty, at this point, but he was definitely starting to associate the words peepee and poop-poop with what was going on and that was a big step. Then he kind of just lost interest, or I wasn’t pursing it at much, or whatever it was, we didn’t make anything of it for a few weeks. During that time, though, I kept repeating to him, “Peepee and poop-poop go on the potty” or ask, “Where do peepee and poop-poop go?” and he’s say, “Potty!” Then one night as my very-hard-working husband and I were spending our Couple Time together, he pops out with (ever so romantically…), “I really think M is ready to be potty trained. I’d like you to really help him with it because I think he’d learn quickly.” I think I knew he was right, but I wasn’t really looking forward to cleaning up all the messes and I had the great excuse of being pregnant and just putting it off until after Baby was born. But D was right. So the next day I began to resume the diaperlessness and I have to say it hasn’t been bad at all. Sure he’s had some accidents, but nothing that wasn’t easy to clean up and those times were used as a great learning opportunity to redirect him to the potty. We moved the potty chair out of the bathroom and into the living room at this point because I found that his biggest obstacle was stopping what he was doing. So I had to come up with another campaign slogan, “Stop what you’re doing, go potty, and then go right back to what you were doing!” That seemed to work well and there were a lot less accidents when the potty was moved and he was reassured that he could resume playing as normal.

It was last week, though, that I decided that the only time M would wear diapers was during nap and bedtime. Now it was D’s turn to be a bit hesitant. I tried it out and it worked surprisingly well. I’d bring his potty with us on errands, but we never had to use it and we’d be out for two hours at a time. His MO is a bit different from what I expected, but then that’s usual for him, he doesn’t do anything by the book. He will stop what he’s doing, go to his potty, go peepee, put the potty seat back down (it always has to be down when not in use, according to M. These OCD tendencies come from his father…fyi), and continue on with his play. He will say, “Poop-poop!!” if he needs to go and then we’ll meet him at the potty, but he’ll never come up to us to ask to use it, he’ll just go straight there and sometimes the only reason I know that he has gone pee is because I hear the top slam down. I had chocolate-covered raisins at the ready as an incentive, and I did use them a couple of times, but he didn’t care and so I stopped that (never really felt comfortable with that whole getting a treat for pottying thing anyway, so it worked out). If you make a big deal out of it (which most kids like…), he just gets annoyed and says, “All done,” as in, “Ok you can stop now, it’s over and I’m already playing again.” Odd child. However if you do make a big deal about it when he is running to the potty saying, “Peepee! Peepee!” he won’t go (says, “all done”) and then he’ll go elsewhere (as in not on the potty) a few minutes later. We caught on rather quickly to that and just help him pull down his underwear, if he needs it, and let him run off to the potty. It’s just a funny scene to behold. Him running. Us trying to follow at a distance. The room getting awkwardly quiet as we try not to notice him, but are wrapped up in observing this new behavior of his. Him shutting the lid and running off to continue whatever he was doing… Another thing that has helped him is the, “Quick! Run! Run! Quick!” You’ll see him all of the sudden pop up and start running while saying, “Quick! Run! Run! Quick!” Then he’ll stop at the potty and start doing his business. I think he likes the raised voice (he doesn’t ever shout, though, because he probably doesn’t want to alert us to anything!) and the running part, which is his custom-made incentive, I suppose.

I found a great deal on underwear at Target: 7 pair for $4.48 on clearance. They are Sesame Street, which we don’t watch, so we just describe what’s going on in the picture on each underwear and how not to pee on the nice puppets. They’re cute, but totally look like underwear, so Mom got him boxer briefs (lol!!) that look more like shorts than underwear for her high-traffic-area house. He still hasn’t completely mastered the pulling down underwear and/or shorts part, so I let him run around in just the underwear and these boxer briefs are a bit more modest and look oh-so-adorable on him!

Since this week is the first real week of just briefs (and we’ve been staying with Mom and Dad since D is on ovenights all week), I didn’t really know what to expect, but he started off with a bang. The first night we slept here, he woke me up at 1am to go peepee and then woke up in the morning with a dry diaper! Completely shocked me. He woke up the next morning around 5:50am to go peepee, even though he had gone some in his diaper, and went back to bed until 7:30am. He hasn’t woken me up the past few nights, but will go pee right before I put him to bed. He awakes up with a wet diaper, but definitely not soaked like he usually was. All in all, I’m completely and utterly impressed with how he is doing with this whole potty training thing.

How is he out and about? Well he had an accident early on in church on Sunday, but then went potty on the potty two other times in church before we left (aside: he went to the big boy Sunday School class upstairs and colored a picture that is now on our fridge!!). I usually have to see if he’s displaying any signs of needing to go because he won’t tell anyone when he has to go and that can be a problem when his faithful little potty friend is not nearby. So I have been spotting these signs and we rush to any available potty before an accident can occur. Today we were coming out of Whole Foods after having eaten lunch there, shopped a bit, and before that having played for an hour and a half at the library. All of the sudden, near the cart return of all places, he stops, pulls down his shorts and says, “Peepee” as a seemingly never-ending stream of pee lands itself in a puddle under a cart. I was trying to shield him as much as possible, but of course he had to pick the busiest area of the parking lot to go to the bathroom. I was mostly proud and only somewhat embarrassed : ). Oh and the only other incident of note was on the way home from the lake D, M, and I visited on Saturday. He insisted he didn’t have to go before we left (he NEVER has said yes when we ask him if he has to go), so sure enough, three minutes down the road we hear, “Peepee! Poop-poop!!” Poor David quickly found a patch of grass to pull over on and I whipped M out of his carseat and onto his potty that was stashed in the back next to him. Sure enough, he told us the truth! If that’s the worst of it, we’re golden, but who knows. We just take one day at a time and enjoy what is turning out to be a relatively easy potty-training experience. I’d say he’s fully day-trained because he can hold it for a few hours if it’s not an emergency and partially night-trained. I think we can have this wrapped up by the time Baby makes her appearance, if things keep on this track. What a nice thought: only one child in diapers!