adventures in potty training: week 1

WARNING: this is a LONG post about bodily functions. words like pee and poop maybe used. you've been warned!

i cant even believe that i have a child old enough to use the potty. really. when did that happen?

i knew i wanted to try to get parker potty trained before baby sis comes. and the last 2 or 3 months, he has been showing lots of signs of being "ready." always wanting his diaper changed because he was uncomfortable, finding a place to hide to poop, even sitting on the potty, (with nothing ever coming out). and he's been watching us go ever since he was mobile and could come follow us into the bathroom. TMI?

last monday i had a doctor's appointment (the dreaded glucose test, which i PASSED!) after we got home, i was looking through some bags of clothes for baby sis and out fell a package of underwear grandma allred had purchased for parker. they had all parkers favorite characters on them, woody, buzz, mcqueen, mike and sully. well parker found them and wanted to try every pair on. i wasnt planning to start until the next week, but i said oh what the heck and went with it. 

you guys, this was so spur of the moment, i had no candy to reward him with, no stickers to put on a chart, and no chocolate or dr. pepper, for my own sanity, in my house.

but like i said, what the heck, lets see how the day goes. off went the diaper and on went the underwear. we set a timer and ran to the potty every 30 minutes. of course there were a handful of accidents, which was to be expected, but he really did GREAT. way better than i thought. and he even went without getting any kind of reward/sticker. me jumping up and down and dancing and singing and praising was enough for him to continue to go. 

for the next THREE days, i pushed lots of liquids down his throat and we ran to the potty EVERY 30 minutes. although he was doing GREAT, by day three i was ready to put a diaper back on. not because he was having accidents, but because i desperately wanted to get out of the house and return back to normal life, but i was terrified to take him anywhere in underwear. day 2, 3 and 4 each brought 2 accidents but they all happened when i left his side for just a minute. 

we have now been accident free for 3 days in a row. today we ventured out to church. i was so stressed and worried, but he did great again. he went potty each time i took him, and stayed dry the whole time! i did bring his potty seat (minus the stool) so he didnt have to sit on the actual toilet and im so glad i did. that helped him a lot to be able to use HIS potty seat.

speaking of potty seats, here's the one we have. thanks to grandma allred who gave this potty seat to parker for his birthday last year.

  

i love the step stool and handles. parker can easily get up there by himself which is nice. i do think though, that this chair would work much better for a girl. it doesnt have the biggest lip, so if we dont point parker's tally wag down, well..... you know. heck, even if we point it down, stuff still goes everywhere. we will see how soon it takes for me to get sick of wiping up the floor. i might have to get one with a bigger lip.

we do still use diapers at night, although im not sure how much longer we will use them. he isnt waking up dry just yet, but he isnt soaking wet either. 

we are still working on going number 2. he usually wakes up and poops first thing in the morning and then comes in and wakes me up. i told jared if i wanted to win "mom of the year" award, id go into his room before he woke up so i could sit him on the potty to do his thing.... but parker wakes up anywhere from 5:30-6:30am so that would require me to be up by 5:00am every morning, so thanks, but no thanks. im sure before i send him off to school, he will be able to poop in the potty. 

oh another thing we are still working on is him telling me he has to go. out of the 10-11 times he goes, he tells me he has to go maybe two of those times. i usually sit him on the potty every hour/hour and a half and he usually goes each time. 

im so SO glad this has been such a positive experience for both off us. they do say that if your child is ready, they just get it. clearly parker was ready because it has been such a smooth experience for both of us. yes we both had meltdowns at some point, but thats to be expected running to the bathroom every half hour.

at times i almost felt like i had a nursing baby again, only worse. at least with nursing him it was every 3 hours, instead of every 30 minutes. 

it's definitely not something i want to do every year, but i really couldnt be happier with the results. i think the biggest keys are to make sure your child is ready, and to be consistent. those first three days were LONG running to the bathroom that often, but so SO worth it. 

im not really sure what it means to be "potty trained" because i feel like im going to be asking him and taking him potty for the next couple of months (maybe even years?), but for now we have mastered peeing in the potty. YIPPY!

here's some pictures from our week,

we have just been running around in our underwear all week.

and we have had to get creative with the things we do to keep us busy. being stuck inside in the summer time is no fun.

jared had won free tickets to the rodeo, which was another reason why i was going to wait to potty train. this was the night of day 3, i just put a diaper on him and kept telling him over and over again to tell me when he had to go. he never told me, and the one time i took him into the port-a-potty he screamed, and it was way to small and way to hot and way to stinky in there to fight him to go, so i just said, eh, whatev. it didnt seem to confuse too much because the next day we had great progress.

day 5 we finally ventured out in our underwear, just to ride our bike around our complex. he stayed dry the whole 45 minutes we were out there!

that night we also went to the fair. they were doing a free style motocross show that we knew parker would love. again i put him in a diaper and just reminded him to tell me when he had to go. he never did go on the potty, but eh, i still dont think it confused him too much.

he couldnt get enough of the  dirt bikes and tricks.

loving the petting zoo area. 

this week, im hoping to slowly get back to our normal life. im going to be brave and try taking him to some stores and playgroups and what have you.

wish us luck!