Ok, three yeses is enough for me! Here goes! Grab your favorite beverage and sit back and enjoy! Just kidding! :)
First let me say we have been talking about potty training for at least 8 months. For Pearson's birthday in August he received a new Fisher-Price Royal Step Potty that sings, new big boy underwear, and an Elmo potty book that makes noises. I knew we would need these items so I put them on his wish list. Thanks to fam he received all his wishes (and Mommy too). So over the past few months we have sat on the potty with clothes on, clothes off and just talked about it a lot.
Next let me preface to say I have a public library addiction! Brian loves to tease me about this. The elementary school teacher comes out in me when we get to the library! I can't help myself and have to check out a ton of books! I love, love, love our library system here and hope the next town we move to has a fabulous system too! I love that I can search for the books I want online and then put them on hold and a sweet librarian somewhere pulls them off the shelf for me and puts them all in the "hold" area for me. We have read 3 -4 sets of potty training library books over the past year. I found them to be very helpful.
I also like to read mommy books for me and then take what makes sense with my parenting style and use it. I really didn't follow one particular technique in any one book. Although these two books were my favs! Easy reads and practical
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I also have to credit my other mommy friends and my sister who have been where I am by giving me words of wisdom and encouragement. Thanks, Jenn H and Tammi!
So I decided I wanted to potty train Pearson while we are living in an apartment as I am not too concerned about the carpet here as I would be in a home we own. I felt like he was ready as he is a smart guy and is very verbal and I just felt like he was ready, call it mother's intuition.
So I decided we would begin on a Monday and not leave the house until Thursday. I used a calm, consistent approach. I told him he was going to wear big boy underwear and learn to go "pee pee" in the potty. So we took off the diaper early that morning and started wearing big boy underwear. I kept him in a t-shirt and undies. Now I will say, day one was terrible. Accidents all day all over the house! It took a lot of focused attention! I had to remember that his little body did not have a sensation to go and he would trickle all day. So a lot of cleaning went on that day. I learned to put wet undies in the sink with a cleaning solution(thanks, Jenn for this tip!) I would just remind him that we go pee pee in the potty and tried not to get upset with him. I stayed very positive and upbeat. I would say, "That's ok, we'll try again," I also set a timer for every ten minutes to sit him on the potty to try. We would read books together, sing, and talk during this time. I kept a basket of books in the bathroom with us. I even had a book for me that I had been wanting to read. :) Even if he didn't want to go, I would still take him there. At the very end of day one at 7:45pm he finally went pee pee IN the potty! I was so excited! We even called Nana and Papa and had a big pee pee celebration!!!
During naptime of day one: he was worn out!
Day 2 went much better! I learned his triggers this morning and knew when he danced/jogged around the house and yelled "I not need to go, Mommy!" That he did in fact need to go! I started stretching the timer to 15-20 minutes and he did so much better. Only three accidents this day! I also learned on this day that he needed an incentive, so we used m and ms. He receives one m and m for pee peeing in the potty. When the m and ms in this dish are gone, then they are gone.
Day 3 even better! No accidents all day and wearing underwear all day! He even started saying "I need to potty, Mommy!"
Day 4 we went to MOPS and he went there too! Wahoo!
Then on the weekend he started standing up to pee pee, which they say is important to teach boys soon. Also, I put him in pull ups when we first left the house just for safe measures. Also, I put him in pull ups and naptime and a diaper at nighttime just to be safe. I will tackle "night time" training later.
Now, the pooping in the potty is a whole other story, but it will come! I am trying to be very patient with this too.
Where was Aaron during all this??? I am sure you are wondering. Well thankfully he is a happy, go lucky little brother. Some of the time he was taking a morning nap, reading books in his bed, or sitting in the bathroom with us. :)
I don't write all this to toot my horn in any way, please know that. I am just one proud mama of my boy! And grateful to those who helped us! I hope some or any of this will help my mommy friends who have the potty training journey ahead. Take what works for you and leave the rest.
