Diary of a potty training Mom - Part 9

It has been a while since I gave the Internets an update on our potty training progress in the past 6 weeks. I am happy to report that in this case, no news actually is good news!  For the most part.

For the first few weeks, Cooper was a rock star. He had no accidents, like zero.  Then he stared to get a little to comfortable and would hold it too long which would end up with an accident.  It tends to happen when he is busy doing something else and the adult is far away.  He can't be bothered.  It happened at the corn maze, in Edmonton, while biking... you get the picture.

For as long as I can remember, Cooper has been a big pee-er.  Even if he didn't drink before bed, it didn't matter, he would always pee through.  Even a night time diaper in a bigger size. It. just. didn't. matter! So we fully expected to use pull ups, or even diapers at night with Cooper where Grady went straight to underwear.   Well after about 2 weeks of being potty trained we started waking up with a dry diaper.  So we put him in underwear and he stayed dry for about 3 weeks.  In the past week or two he has started peeing in the night again so is back in pull ups for nights.  I almost gave the pull ups away during that 2 weeks.  I won't make that mistake again!

Cooper also has some weird pooping habits.  He tells us that he has to go and we rush to the bathroom.  He promptly tells me to go away while he does his thing.  He calls me, I come back, we dump it, flush it, and Cooper tells me to go away so he can poo again.  This can happen up to 5 times a poop.  It annoys James, but I am just happy he is getting the poop in the toilet!

Cooper has also tested us in every single location you can possibly poop.  At the park, in an outhouse, on a road trip, in public, and the list goes on.  Grady to this day has never had to poop at the park or in an outhouse!  We actually brought the potty on our road trip to Edmonton and actually had to use it a time or two.  I would put money on the fact that he will have to poop the next time we are on an airplane, another place that Grady has never gone.  You know those people that can only poop at their own house?  Cooper is not one of those people!

It is also interesting that Cooper uses poop and pee interchangeably.  He'll yell he has to poop and I rush extra fast for those #2's!  We arrive in the bathroom and he pees instead.  One time we were at a public washroom and I was holding him on the public toilet to poop and instead he peed - straight ahead and all over me!   I am trying to teach him yellow pee or brown poop but we are not having much success. It is always a surprise to see what he does in the bathroom :)

All in all, I can't complain.  He is doing heaps and bounds better than Grady did after only 6 weeks.  I'll take it!  I am very happy that I will never have to go through potty training again!

Potty Training - Take 2

This past weekend was dedicated to potty training our young Cooper. He was at exactly the same age as Grady was when we potty trained him so we cleared the schedule and planned to stay home while we hoped to get rid of Cooper's diapers once and for all. While we used the 3 day potty training to a tee with Grady, we loosely based Cooper's training on it. We still went out. We still used diapers at night. We still hoped he would be trained in 3 - 7 days. Fingers crossed.

If you've been reading for a while... you'll remember that Grady did not exactly 'train' easily. While the pee thing seemed to go well, the poop thing did not. We crossed our fingers, our toes, and even our eyes in hopes that Cooper would not have the same issues.

 We started talking about the diaper fairy about a month ago. Not much at first, but as the date approached we talked about it more and more. The diaper fairy would come and take away all the diapers and Cooper would have to wear underwear and pee and poop in the potty. 

Friday night I had to go to the mall and do a return and we brought the kids. We decided since there was no way we were going into the disney store without buying something that we would let them each buy a 'prize' and that they would get to open when Cooper got 10 stickers on his potty chart. We told Grady that he had to help Cooper and encourage him to pee on potty and cheer for him when he did. 1 sticker for pee and 2 stickers for poop. Grady obviously got it, but Cooper not so much.

 That night Cooper cried countless times while we were putting him to bed because he wanted to open his toy. The kid was just not getting it and I regretted buying it. Couldn't go back now. Cooper did pee on the potty before bed so we let him add a sticker to his chart. That didn't really help as he again wanted to open his toy. Live and learn I guess.

Day 1

Saturday morning Cooper woke up and we put his underwear on before we even went downstairs.  All was going well.  We managed to catch his first pee AND poop!  The day was off to a great start. Then.... we missed the next 4.

He seemed to be getting it though.  He would start to pee, stop, and call for me.  Well technically he just started crying and looking down.  I ran him to the toilet and he finished his pee there.  I though that was a good start for day 1!

The first pair of underwear he chose to wear were these 'race car' ones.

The rest of the day was spent watching for Cooper to pee just a little and running him to the bathroom to finish his business.  We even got brave and headed to the park.  We decided peeing on a tree was just like peeing in the toilet.

I packed up a bag of 3 spare outfits and a couple pull ups.  Just in case.   We did water one tree.  It was hard to stay inside all weekend in August compared to March when we trained Grady.  Especially since it was the first nice day we've had in what feels like weeks.

Backyard fun in his coordinating undies.  

We actually spent most of our day playing in the backyard and with the little potty at our side. Even Grady used it a time or to.....

Oh and we decided for night to use a full fledged diaper.  We weren't confident that a pull up would hold the amount of pee that this kid puts out at night. Especially after a day where we forced him to drink all day - more fluid means more practice!

Eyeing up his prize that he couldn't wait to open.

Day 2

We woke up this morning and promptly put C in his underwear.  James really wanted to leave the house. I was hesitant.  We were supposed to be potty training and it is really hard to do when there isn't a bathroom close by.....  We decided to go to the spray park and hope for the best.  How many nice summer weekend do we get? Not many.

Drink up!  More fluids means more practice!

 We did OK.  We caught one pee in the potty and missed a poop.  I get really stressed about the poops in the underwear as it brings back horrible memories of 10 long months with Grady.  In the end, I wished we had just stayed home.  Live and learn.



Was so happy to finally get his 10 stickers! 

In the end, Day 2 was kind of a repeat of day 1. He would pee a little (or a lot) I would pick him up and haul him to the bathroom and he would finish the job.  Maybe day 3 will be the break through day?

Once the 10th sticker was reached the potty chart was retired. They didn't even bother to put the last sticker on.

Day 3

It was near impossible to stay home on Day 3.  I only have Mondays off to get things done and on this particular Monday it was a trip to the doctors.  We went to the bathroom before we left and then again when we arrived.  No one had to go when we left so we chanced it.

Happy boy!

When we got home I set the kids up on the couch with a show and made a phone call to my friend Sara.  While I was on the phone he told me had to me pee .  Told me.  Then it happened, he told me he had to POOP.  The kid pooped in the potty, not once but THREE time.  Sara can attest to all the times I had to stop chatting to help him with the potty.   She was able to share in my joy.  Any Mom totally gets how exciting it is that moment your kid asks to pee.

And just like that, the kid seems to get it.  Sine the first time he asked to go to the bathroom (which is still sitting in our family room) he hasn't had an accident.  Not to say that he won't, but holy moly, could he actually have been potty trained in the three days???

 

I hope so.

Day 4 to 10

Overall, things have gone great.  Cooper has been telling us he has to pee and has had very few accidents.  We bring him in public, we went on a road trip, and all was good.  Then there was the poop.  We thought we had him, we really did. After the day he went 5 times in one day ALL IN THE TOILET I thought we got it.    Then Wednesday he went in his underwear.  I thought it was a fluke. No big deal he had an accident.

Then it happened again on Thursday.  And I panicked.

For the weekend you could tell he didn't want to poop in the toilet.  He paced, he circled it, we all knew he had to poop but he would not sit on it and do his thing.

Although we didn't have success at getting him to poop on the potty this weekend.  He did poop on the ground at the park.  In 2 years of Grady being trained we have never had to poop at the park.  Well after only week Cooper put me to the test because of course we were out on our own.

I knew he had to poop so we pulled down his pants and I leaned him back because of course he didn't know how to squat like normal people who poop in the bush.  The first time (yes first time) it happened we did a good job of getting it all out.  I used some tree burlap on the ground to pick up the dog child poop and put in the garbage, then it happened again.

This time we got it everywhere. In the process of trying to get his pants down we ended up with poop everywhere and had to go home.   I will never forget the bag with wipes in it again when we go to park.  Never.

I hope that gave you a good laugh on this Tuesday morning!  Please send good vibes our way as I don't think I can handle another 10 months of poopy underwear.

Diary of a Potty Training Mom - Part 8

 

no Cooper is not potty training and no we are not even considering starting the process anytime soon.  But in the mean time, we are having fun with learning about the potty and what goes in there.....

As you may or may not remember, Grady wasn't the easiest kid to potty train.  The pee was a cake walk, the poop was not.  It was less than a year ago that Grady was still in a pull up because he refused to do his business in the toilet. Now he gets on the toilet solo and only yells at me to get him a book and to shut the door.  Then he wants nothing to do with me until he is done.

Then there is Cooper.

I am approaching the whole toilet thing a little different with Cooper. Some people say that kids are scared to do their business in the toilet.  We never really introduced the toilet to Grady before we started training him... maybe he was scared of it? 

Anyhow, we talk to Cooper about the toilet often.  Every time we bath I ask Cooper if he wants to pee in the toilet.  Sometimes he says yes and sometimes he says no.  If he says no I don't force him, but most of the time he eagerly sits on the toilet.  He wants to be a big boy after all.   Two times he has peed on the toilet.  Totally due to good timing but we did a little potty dance anyway!

I find it funny how he has only peed in the toilet twice but that he stands in the tub and pees quite often.  So he is starting to know what he is doing.

He also now knows when he has to poop.  He high tails it to behind the couch for a little privacy. I remember Grady doing this do, however he preferred a different couch :)

The other morning as he was running to the couch I asked him if he wanted to pee in the toilet and he happily ran off to the bathroom. I put him on the toilet and he made a little pushing face that he often does to try and 'push' the pee out.  The next thing I hear is a 'plop'.

O.M.G.  Cooper pooped in the potty!

It was only 7:30 in the morning but I let out a little scream and shouted that Cooper has pooped on the potty.  Grady came running over to check out the poop (gross I know, maybe he needed to see evidence) and then told Cooper that he would get him a treat for pooping in the potty.

Does this mean that Cooper may not be terrified of pooping in the potty when the time comes?

I sure hope so.

Our New Toilet

I can not believe it has come to this, I am posting about my new toilet seat.

While we were right in between Grady wanting to sit on the potty to poop but before he was doing it consistently, he fell in the toilet.  He is Mr. Independent and didn't want help with his pants so ran out of time getting the normal training seat on the toilet to do his thing.  He plopped himself on the seat and fell right in.  A few of my friends have the toilet seats where the childs seat is actually attached to it.

Introducing our new child friendly toilet seat!

With child seat up

The seat is normal when Grady is not using it and the child seat is magnitized (is that a word?) to the lid to keep it up.  When Grady has to go #2 all he has to do is pull the little seat down and he does not have to worry about falling in.

With child seat down

Why am I posting about this you ask?  Because I wish I would have gotten one months ago!  You can pick one of these bad boys up at home depot for $45.  And it was a $45 well spent in our house!  In case you are interested, this particular one is called the bemis next step.  I couldn't find it on the homedepot.ca page but they did have it at the store. Well the one we went to did.

And there you have it.  A post dedicated to our new toilet seat.  Oy.

Diary of a Potty Training Mom - Part 7

Warning:  This post will use the word poop, potty, and toilet often.  If you prefer to not read about this topic. Please do not continue.

Look at me Mom!  I don't need pull ups anymore so we might as well use them as hats!

I can't believe I am actually writing and publishing this post.  Grady is pooping in toilet.  shhhhhh don't say it too loud.  I repeat, Grady is pooping on the toilet and has been for about 2 weeks.  No more pull ups, no more poopy underwear, no more wondering if the preschool will call because he had soiled his pants.  The poop is finally going in the toilet where it belongs.

I haven't posted anything about our potty training experience since August as there was no new news to report.   For 4 months, Grady wore pull ups 100% of the time as he had no interest in doing his business in the toilet.  He has been 100% pee trained since March.  Nearly 10 months ago.  The pull up didn't change that.  There would be the odd time where I would tell him to pee in his pull up and he refused.  Absolutely refused.  We went through a 3 day period where he was peeing in his underwear for fun, not because he couldn't hold it, but he actually figured out he could pee in it and his pants wouldn't get wet.  We nipped that in the bud by making him go with nothing on his bottom half.  That stopped it mighty quickly!

Back to poop.  Starting in August we made him wear pull ups as we were sick of changing and sometimes throwing out poopy underwear.  We hoped that it would motivate him to try using the potty.  It didn't.  So we waited and waited for the day he may change his mind thinking it was never going to come.  We told him that when he pooped in the potty he would wear his underwear and not before.  He told us that he would poop on the toilet when Santa came.

Mom, why don't you wear a 'hat' to?  I have lots.

We had James children's Christmas party at the beginning of December and Santa would be making an appearance.  Would Grady start using the potty after seeing Santa?  For the month we often talked about poop and Santa as if they went hand in hand.

Now that Santa has come, are you going to poop on the potty?


That was a really big poop, Santa would really like that one... in the toilet.


Santa left you a special present in case you poop on the potty.

We incorporated pooping on the toilet in to those Santa videos you can download on line.  I don't think they actually had 'Santa wants you to poop on the potty' but it was something like 'Santa wants you to use the potty'.  The look on his face the first time he watched it was priceless.  It was a mixture of fear and amazement.  Priceless.

We wrote a letter to Santa and I added pooping in the potty to Santa's response.

Santa came to visit again on xmas eve at Grandma's and that Santa told Grady as he was sitting on his knee that he hoped Grady would poop on the toilet.

Christmas came and went and we were still changing pull up after pull up.

Cooper!  Grab a hat, its a party!

The only time I felt we were making any progress was on Friday mornings before swimming.

We would have a serious talk where I would ask him if he needed a swim diaper and he would tell me no.  I would explain that you can't poop in your bathing suit or in the pool.  That it was OK if he needed to wear a swim diaper.  He was against them for some strange reason...  It was on Friday mornings while he was wearing his bathing suit that he would often tell me he had to poop and actually sit on the toilet.  Nothing ever came out, but the effort was there.

Based on that, when we got home from SK I decided to try the bathing suit approach with underwear.  I sat him down and said he could where underwear if he didn't poop in them. He must keep them clean.  If he didn't, he would have to wear pull ups again.  He was thrilled.  After all, he has close to 30 pairs of underwear that he never gets to wear including many cool ones that Santa brought him.  Game on!

For 2 days he held it.  He changed underwear a few times a day just because he could. He was so excited.  Then it happened.  He pooped in his underwear.  Meltdown central.  He wanted to wear underwear, he did not want anything to do with the pull up.  Rules are rules and I forced him into a pull up for the rest of the day.  The next day we put underwear on again.

Then he started asking for a pull up to poop in.  He would sit on the toilet and try to poop but nothing would come out.  So he would bring me a pull up. For a few days I just went with it.  I was just happy he understood to NOT poop in the underwear.  We started thinking about what direction to go from here.  We considered 'running out of pullups' and cutting a hole in it and putting him on the toilet.   Alas, the decision was made for us.

A few short days later he was found sitting on the toilet.  He wanted privacy.  James and I waited in the kitchen wondering if he was actually going to do it.  We hear Grady yell that he had pooped.  A wave of relief rushes over me.  Then we hear, fluuuuuuuuush.  He flushed the toilet.  The evidence is gone.  There was a little evidence on his butt and Grady was over the moon excited.  So we went with it. We hurried out to the store to buy him a prize.

I don't know why I waited so long to give up the pull ups... I love my underwear!

For the next week, he would run to the toilet and try poop. Sometimes he would get a little nugget and other times nothing.  He would eventually ask for a pull up to get the major work done.  We were making progress and that was all that mattered to me. He was showing interest in actually putting his poop in the toilet. Something we had not seen to date.

One day he even fell in the toilet as he didn't have time to put the toilet seat on. I was so scared that this was going to reverse his progress, but when our young man puts his mind to something there is no stopping him.

Last Sunday while we were at Nana's for supper we had a few false alarms.  I left the light on in the bathroom so Grady could just run in there if he wanted to without help. Shortly after dinner we hear a him shouting from the bathroom that he pooped on the potty.  It was a big one.  All 5 of us piled in the bathroom to look at the poop and cheer him on.  It was a proud moment! His first full poop on the potty.  At 3.5 years old and after 10 months of potty training.

He still hasn't pooped in public or anywhere except Nana's or home but he is CONSISTENTLY POOPING ON THE TOILET!  Can I get a round of applause?  We packed the pull ups up for when Cooper needs them (who hopefully will not need them nearly as long!) this weekend.

So as with his thumb sucking, he picked a date months ahead of time and actually followed through. This kid is going to be a master negotiator.

Diary of a Potty Training Mom - Part 6

Unfortunately, nothing has changed since my last post on potty training. Grady is still kicking @ss with peeing in the toilet and staying dry all night. But the poop, oh the poop, is still the same.

I made an appointment with the doctor to discuss 'the situation' since we were there for Cooper's 9 month check up any way, and he shed some light on the situation.

Grady is a very strong willed boy and he is very bright. Dumb kids don't do things like this. I am very serious. Dumb kids don't do this.

It may sound silly, but I really needed to hear that. After 5 months it was nice to hear something positive about it.

I read some information on line that said that their kids did this until close to 5 years old! I just can't imagine this 'stage' lasting that long.

Grady starts preschool next month and I am not as scared about him pooping there, because we all know that kid can hold it in, what I am scared of is him being made fun of because he is standing in the corner trying to hold it in.

He has told me that he will stop sucking his thumb when he goes to school, I wonder if I can convince him to start pooping in the potty than to?

Diary of a Potty Training Mom - Part 5

Poop.

I have talked about poop more in the past 3 months than I have in my entire life. My friends may disagree with that statement. But in all seriousness, I have talked about poop with friends, family, strangers, the doctor, the pharmacist, just to name a few. We talk about poop in the morning, after lunch, at the supper table, we talk about it a lot.

When we embarked on the whole potty training adventure what feels like eons ago I was not prepared for the issues that we were going to run into. I expected the weekend to be tough. We had to stay at home for 3 days after all. I expected the first few outings to be stressful. They were. What I didn't expect was for Grady to develop a fear of pooping. He was terrified. Terrified.

It started out with him just being scared of pooping in the potty. He would hide and poop in his underwear or wait for me to get busy and then poop in his underwear. From there it just got worse. He was holding it in each and every time he had to poop. My 4 times a day pooper went to once every other day or longer.

I knew when he needed to poop. He had the 'deer in the headlights' look and would whimper 'mommy' over and over. I would run him to the potty. He would say he didn't want to. Not that he didn't have to. He did this for a few weeks and then it got worse.

I still remember the first time it happened. We had a couple (without kids) over for supper and it was obvious Grady had to poop. I figured that I would just ignore him and he would poop in his underwear eventually. Instead he cried. Really cried. He hid in the closet where he usually goes to poop and cried. I immediately thought he was constipated. He had been holding it in on and off for a while so maybe it was actually hurting. Over the course of the next few days we realized he wasn't crying and screaming because it hurt. He was screaming because he was scared.

Over the following weeks these screaming episodes went from once every so often to every. single. time. he had to poop. Now he was scared to poop everywhere. In the potty, in his underwear, and even in a diaper.

I was getting frustrated. I was out of ideas. I tried to google it on line and got little to no direction on what to do next. In the potty training book it suggested a magic stick that the child holds when the poop to help the poop come out. When James and I first read this on day 1 we thought it was hokey and ridiculous. Now with no other viable option we decided to give it a try. We modified it slightly and used these magic balls James had that Grady likes to look at but we hadn't let him play with them much before. We moved these balls to the bathroom and took them out while he sat on the potty. Wouldn't you know it, the first time we used them he pooped on the potty. There were still tears and screaming but the poop was in the potty.

I thought for sure this was what we needed to get Grady going on the potty. He did it once, we cheered, we danced, you would think that he would want to repeat the whole process. Unfortunately for us, he did not.

Even with the occasional poop in the potty, which I am now chalking up to pure luck, he still did not want to poop in the potty. As his fear grew, so did the number of days between 'movements'. The poor boy was getting constipated.

At his worst he went 5 days with only little guys coming out. We, meaning I, started to panic. We put a diaper back on him hoping to give him some familiarity to do his business. We put him on full doses of stool softeners and still nothing substantial was being passed. I continued to panic. I made an appointment for him to see the doctor. I was frustrated, confused, lost, and totally lacking direction of what to do next.

The doctor prescribed a more potent stool softener which would help him pass what was in there.

The doctor expressed concern that he may be doing this for attention. That with a new baby in the family demanding attention that he was taking control and getting attention his own way. He suggested giving him privacy when he went and to try not to give in to his attention seeking. I am not going to lie, it is hard to go about like you don't know that he is grunting and moaning in the other room trying take a poo. At this point I am willing to try anything. We have suspended all talk of pooping on the potty or pooping at all for that matter. Thankfully, Grady is still peeing in the toilet. Even since putting the diaper on he has been a superstar for peeing on the toilet. I can not actually remember the last time he had a pee accident.

At this point, the stool softener has done the trick and he is now pooping in his diaper every day. He still makes somewhat of a scene but we are trying to continue on with what we are doing until he says he is done.

To be truthful, I am not sure what we should do next. We are going to leave him in the diaper until he is pooping without issue and then we'll have to tackle 'poop training' from square 1. Secretly I am hoping that he will just ask to poop on the potty one day. Maybe one day sooner than later?

So to end this never ending post on a positive note I want to say how proud I am of Grady for keeping up with the peeing on the toilet. Although I hoped that this little issue would straighten itself out, I am just thankful that he didn't regress in the pee department as well.

Please, Please, PLEASE let the next potty training post be good news.

Diary of a Potty Training Mom - Part 5

Here we are, 4 weeks after we officially hopped on the potty training train. Grady is still wearing underwear! I would say Grady is 90% 'pee' trained. He uses the potty in public, he tells me when he has to go, and he stays dry when he sleeps.

Don't get me wrong, he still has accidents. Just this week we were at his Brilliant Beginnings class and he peed. He really peed. I had to wipe up and disinfect about 1/4 of the play area. You may wonder how this is possible... He started peeing at one end and I picked him up and carried him across the room while pee dripped from his pant leg. Thankfully I was surrounded by other parents in the same boat and they even helped me clean it up. They helped me clean up my son's pee. I digress....

Overall, in the pee department, he rocks! But poop, oh the poop, is an entirely different story. In 4 week or 28 days, Grady has pooped in the potty exactly 4 times. Now you can guess that he has pooped more than 4 times and your imagination will tell you where that poop ended up as it did not end up in the toilet. These 4 poops happened starting day 17. Day 17. I thought that once he did his business on the toilet once that he would be good to go. Wrong. The only reason he pooped on the toilet is that we had gone to Toys r Us two days prior and let him pick out a 'poop toy'. When he pooped on the potty, he go the toy. He chose an ice cream monster truck from Mater's Tall Tale (a version of the Cars movie). A $25 ice cream truck. All worth it if he was going to start pooping on the potty.

We also got a new Thomas poop chart. We searched high and low for Thomas stickers and they are surprisingly hard to find! We only get to look at the book of stickers while sitting on the potty waiting to poop. He doesn't look at it much. Currently, there are still only 4 stickers on his poop chart.

So we have made progress in a month with pee. I would be lying if I said I wasn't a little disappointed that we are not fully potty trained. It has been a frustrating experience. Obviously we are not going to put a diaper on him so I continue to change dirty underwear. Two pairs I have just thrown out. Maybe that was too much info.

Pooping aside, I am really proud of my biggest little man. I was so scared to potty train and now that is another notch on my parenting belt. I will likely still fret when it is Cooper's turn, that is just my nature, but I will be more confident in my approach and that it can be done.

Please keep your fingers crossed that my next update will be about a fully potty trained almost 3 year old.

Diary of a Potty Training Mom - Part 3

Day 4

Day 4 started rough. He held his pee in for over an hour when he got up (dry again overnight BTW) but we did get the first one of the day in the toilet. Then it became quite obvious that he needed to go #2. It was so sad to watch. He didn't want to go in the toilet or in his underwear so he did a little potty dance and whined my name over and over. Whether right or wrong I turned a blind eye and let him go in the his underwear and then ran him to the bathroom and plopped it in. This whole poop thing is going to be harder than expected.

Many hours were spent in this chair digging and dumping rice. How else do you amuse a 2 year old inside for 3 whole days?

For the most part, Day 4 was spent with Nana. Cooper and I had lots of errands to do since we hadn't been out of the house since Friday morning. I needed to get out. We had a very pleasant day shopping and going to the passport office. Nana on the other hand had to deal with a certain issue that resulted in Grady taking a bath.

Day 5

Today started off as my most challenging day to date. I nearly threw in the towel. We had 2 pee accidents which involved the entire contents of his bladder being emptied on the floor and a poop in the underwear. Great. I was beyond frustrated with the time invested for what seemed like little results.

Then Marley came over. She is 3 weeks younger than Grady and has been potty trained for months and months. We talked this morning about how we would show Marley that Grady uses the big boy potty now. As soon as Marley said she had to pee Grady and I rushed to the other bathroom. Wouldn't you know it.. he peed! Then later on in the play date he asked to pee. Twice.

He went to Nana's for a visit in the afternoon and used the potty twice again. For M&Ms of course!

And just like that a bad day turned into a great one.

Day 6

Today there were no accidents. Not one. Enough said.

Day 7

Today was our first day to venture out in public. We went to Family-a-Fair which is a huge trade show in a giant room with only one set of bathrooms. Great. What is a potty training Mom to do? I tried to put pull ups on over his underwear before we left and he refused to wear the pull up. I just want to wear my underwear he declared. I didn't want to force him to put the diaper pull-up on but I was a little scared at what the morning may bring.

There is good news and bad news. The bad news being I barely got to see any of the booths because the good news is Grady peed in the potty 4 times while we were out! Well... let's be serious. He peed in the potty 3 times and peed his pants 1 time. The great part of the 'accident' was that he did not like being wet. He immediately told me he peed and i had to carry him to the bathroom as he would not walk without his legs spread as far as they went to avoid his legs getting wet. Picture me wearing Cooper carrying a 3 year old and pushing a double stroller full of stuff we had collected at the booths including a blow up Dora Doll. I was that Mom.

Overall I would call the trip a success. Grady stayed dry most of the time and I got my first experience bringing a child in underwear out in public under my belt. Mission Accomplished.

Summary

The past week has been difficult. We were restricted to the house for 3 days. We cleaned up a lot of pee and poo. Any outing away from home became stressful. Tempers were lost. Frustration was high.

But... Grady now uses the potty more than he ever has. He sometimes tells me before he pees that he has to go. He stays dry overnight and at naps. He will use the toilet in public. And I don't have to give him a hot wheel every time he uses the potty.

I have hope that maybe, just maybe I have changed Grady's last diaper. Keeps your fingers crossed for me... pretty please?

Diary of a Potty Training Mom - Part 2

Day 2

The frustration that was the end of Day 1 continued in to the morning as Grady would NOT sit on the potty when he woke up despite not peeing all night long. I gave up and brought him to watch our morning show together. As we got up for breakfast I asked him several times if he wanted to go to the bathroom and he didn't. He peed before we even got to his chair. A lot. We had 2 utter fails first thing in the morning. I think I was so frustrated because you have high hopes for Day 2. If you saw a little improvement on day 1, why not more on day 2?

Showing off his boxer briefs.

As for poop, he finally went Sunday night after supper. He had been running into the tent (a favorite pooping spot) many times through the afternoon and running out leaving a certain smell behind. We all knew he had to go. Each time we rushed him to the bathroom where he produced nothing. I had a brilliant idea of putting the potty in the tent where he could do his business in a familiar area. This also failed. After yet another time in the tent, I asked if he had to poop and he said yes and wanted to go to the upstairs toilet. Fine by me. I put him on and sparing any more details we had marginal success!!

One thing I have learned over 2 days is that he stops playing right before he pees. It is like he realized it is going to happen seconds before he starts peeing. I think that is key - the child had to learn the feeling. And hopefully this will happen on day 3.

Day 3

This morning Grady woke up with dry underwear again and we were absolutely thrilled but he would not sit on the potty again. He watched TV. No potty action. He ate breakfast. No potty action. As I sat there reminding him to tell mommy if he had to use the potty and watching him like a hawk, he turns to me and tells me has has to go. This was my first moment when I thought this may actually be working.

Lots of fluid means lots of practice... Drink Up!!

The rest of the day followed with three other times he ran to me and we got to the toilet before the underwear got wet. All other 'accidents' were caught mid stream and finished on the potty.

We had some poop issues today as well. Our little man is holding them in. He visibly had to go and when we ran to the bathroom he wouldn't even sit on the toilet. He screamed. This happened about 5 times and not once did he do his business. Tomorrow could be messy.

The day ended in frustration as he released his whole bladder on the stool while brushing his teeth.

I think we did everything that the manual said and I don't feel like he gets it yet and today it is now the end of day 3. My last hope is that he wakes up in the morning and gets it. Otherwise I am not sure what to do. James and I agree that we have gone to far to put him back in diapers but yet he is not yet ready to wear pants and leave the house. Tonight I feel confused about how to proceed.

Diary of a Potty Training Mom - Part 1

Disclaimer: I fully realize that no one else may care to read about my adventures in potty training except the grandparents and other potty training parents.. but I wanted this on record so that when I potty train Cooper I will remember how frustrating it is!

Last Saturday morning, we woke up bright and early and embarked on our weekend of Potty Training. We decided to use the 3 day potty training approach. I admit I was skeptical. I have been trying to get Grady to go on the potty for months now with no success. What method could actually potty train my stubborn son in 3 days? I was getting to the point where I felt like Grady was never going to 'go' on the toilet, so I was willing to try anything. That and it came recommended by a few friends.

We know Grady is ready. He hides to poop. In the closet, in the dog crate, in the bathroom, in the tent (just to name a few favorites). A man needs his privacy right? He tells me to go away if I happen to walk in while he is doing his business. Also his diaper stays relatively dry for naps and overnight. I waited and waited thinking that one day it would just click. That day had not yet come.

We cleared the calendar. We stocked up on underwear and flushable wipes. We bought many hot wheels cars to use as reinforcement. We were ready to follow the plan to a tee for 3 days and hope for the best...

Warning: If the thought of reading about pee and poop disgusts you. STOP READING NOW! Can't say I didn't warn you....

Day 1

I was nervous. Very Nervous. The manual says to start after breakfast. Technically it says to be dressed and showered before breakfast. I showered at 4pm. After Grady finished eating I wanted to slap those undies on ASAP as Grady is an early morning pooper. We went upstairs and since he would not choose the pair he wanted I chose the digger boxer briefs ones. As I start to put them on him he screams he wants mickey mouse. The Mickey Mouse ones? ahhhh the Mickey Mouse diapers... nice try!

He screamed through the entire process of me trying to get the underwear on. Once they were on, we headed back downstairs to throw out the diapers. The manual says to throw out ALL your diapers. I am not that stupid... we threw out 2. One each. As we did so, we chanted 'diapers are for babies'. Now we were officially potty training.

There were accidents. Many many accidents. For each one we picked him up and ran him to the bathroom and sat him on the toilet. Sometimes he finished peeing on the toilet, sometimes he had finished his business on the floor. It didn't matter, we were making progress. He peed on the toilet more today then he has in his whole little life combined. Whether it was a big pee or a small pee we were just as thrilled. One less diaper to change in the future.

Putting stickers on the chart in the bathroom after his first pee on the potty.

Funny thing. It was only pee on day one. Our little man who poops multiple times a day did. not. poop. all. day. Was he holding it in? I have no idea. I just know he did not go in his underwear or the toilet.

So at the end of day 1 we were at the point where if we caught him at the point where his underwear were only damp with pee he would finish on the toilet. So it is still us initiating going to the bathroom. I thought we had made some progress until right before bed he was brushing his teeth and literally emptied his whole bladder on the step stool. The day ended with me up to my eyeballs in frustration.

Stay tuned for days 2 through 7!