Potty training day 1

Finally time to potty train Nolan.

I tried to train him back in January but the night that we started he got a high fever that lasted for the next three days.

I decided to wait a couple months and I prepped myself by doing a training session from the experts.
I did the training through the Positive Parenting Solution. I highly, highly recommend it. It was worth every penny for me just for the potty training course alone.

It helped so much. Ever time I have potty trained in the past, (my three older children) I have not been mentally or emotionally ready to do it and I'm sad to say they are probably scared in some way from the trauma of it all. I know I was.

This time I was determined to do it right. Without trauma, without heart ache or pain.

I knew that was doable because my sister did it twice with her two oldest.

I got everything ready and started (again) the day after Easter. I told Nolan the night before that "Tomorrow we are saying bye bye to the diaper."

He had had plenty of prep talk from me and his siblings and motivation from his cousin who is about 9 months older then him (already going on the toilet) so he was pretty ready.

I am realizing that in all reality that (meaning the child truly being ready or not) will make or break the entire experience. It was night and day different for mother and child this time around because he was so ready...and I was too (finally).

About a month or so ago we started practicing pulling pants up and down. I showed him a video on YouTube of an old sesame Street episode where the kid practices putting on his own clothes.

So we started with that and everyday I would have him try to put his pants on by himself and he got better and better at it.

When he had the pants down good I had him do his shirt. That was tough at first but he got it too.

He had some good victories with those so he was in a good spot self-esteem-wise to start doing other hard things like sit on a toilet and go potty.

He was scared of the big whole and falling in so I went to the store and bought a potty seat insert and some underwear.

He was excited to use that potty seat. I showed him how back here and he did great getting his stool, then positioning the insert and pulling down his pants. He just didn't have the control quite yet to stop his stream and run to the toilet.

My sister told me that when her kids showed signs of being ready to potty train but then had difficulty when she tried to train them, she would stop and wait about two months and try again and it would be easy as pie the second time.

So that is just what I did.

This time we just took the pants and everything from the waist down off. I learned that form the training I did. I felt like it was training me how to potty train him which I had never had before. In the past it was just a bunch of different people saying what they did.

So as you can see in the pictures below, I found some big 'shock blankets' that belong in the truck in case if an emergency....two huge thick fleece/wool blankets....and laid them out on the living room floor.



We pretty much camped out there all day.

We had lots of supplies ready.

Drinks: chocolate milk, drink boxes, water bottles.

Snacks: 3 kinds of crackers, and a big bag full of Easter candy.

Paper towels, tissues, garbage sack, wraps and carpet cleaner.

And lots of games, puzzles, books and toys to play with.

I didn't have to deal with cleaning 5 to 6 pairs of pants and underwear in one morning thanks to this method (which was a God send) why didn't I think of that before?

With this method, if he mastered going potty naked (which means he goes on his own or with prompting) then he could wear pants without underwear (commando). (again I don't have to deal with cleaning out underwear).

If he had problems with that he went back to naked.

If he mastered commando, then the next step was to master foreign toilets, then night training and then he could wear underwear.

The first thing in the morning he pooped and peed in the toilet right away.

I couldn't believe it.

I wasn't aloud to ask him of he needed to go. I could only prompt challenge or give a choice.

He did the best if I challenged him.

In fact one of the times I said 'You can't beat me to the bathroom," he ran so fast he smacked his head on the door way pretty hard (so I wrapped it up for him). I told him we had to slow down after that.

We had so much fun hanging out together, reading books, doing puzzles, playing play dough, and watching Fantasia clips on Youtube.

He only had one accident on the blue blanket and it keeps the pee from absorbing like a champ...not quite as good as plastic but good enough for how soft it was.

We took a nap together. All that playing and peeing in the toilet was tiring.

He did super for his nap too. We just put the soft fleece blanket on the bed while we napped and he did great.

I went to bed scared. The day went so well and he did so good I couldn't help but think 'OK the honey moon period of potty training is over....no more beginners luck....get ready for the real work!'