Hellobee

I have been dreading potty training for as long as I can remember. I used the excuse of the new baby to put it off  — I didn’t want to potty train Wagon Jr. only to have him revert to wanting a diaper when he saw the new baby’s diapers. And we have so many other transitions to make, such as moving Wagon Jr. to a different bedroom and converting his crib into a toddler bed. But when Wagon Sr. took the second half of his paternity leave, since we are still pretty housebound because of our newborn Lil Miss Wagon, we decided to have a go at potty training. If it was an epic fail, we’d go back to diapers. Daycare starts up again next Monday and Wagon Jr. will be the youngest in his new class and therefore probably the only one still in diapers… so we knew that would probably push him to want to potty train if we failed this week. FYI: Wagon Jr. is now 2 years and 8 months old.

We read up as much as we could on potty training (mostly following Mrs. Cowgirl’s post on her experience with 3 day potty training) and stocked up on the following items (many of which can be found here in Mrs. Bee’s Potty Training Accessories list):

• underwear featuring Elmo, Cookie Monster, and Oscar the Grouch
• potty seats for the toilets (this Mommy’s Helper stepstool and seat for downstairs, this BabyBjorn toilet trainer and a small stepstool for upstairs and traveling)
• flushable wipes
• a board book about potties (that Wagon Jr. picked out at the store)
• Hellobee potty training printable rewards chart and stickers (small ones for pees, large ones for poops)
• M&Ms, mini marshmallows, and gummy fruit snacks for rewards (1 for pees, 2 for poops)
• juiceboxes, popsicles, salty and sweet snacks
• a big, fun toy (a gift he had received for his 2nd birthday that we hid away)
• Elmo’s Potty Time video
  
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Day One
In the morning, we made a very big deal of presenting Wagon Jr. with all of the potty training stuff and his big new toy. We told him in a very excited, celebratory tone that there would be “no more diapers!” and we would go “pee and poop in the potty like a big boy” from now on. Since we have been putting him on the potty intermittently to try and get pee and poop in the Bjorn potty seat for months now (with very limited results), he was familiar with the idea. But he was pretty resistant to it initially, avoiding the bathroom talk and instead checking out his new toy as Wagon Sr. began to build it.

Checking out his new big boy underwear.

Nevertheless, we put a pair of underwear on him and left him pantless, then spent the morning putting together his new toy and playing in the kitchen (hardwood floors are easier to clean than the rug and foam tiles in the living room). This arrangement worked out pretty well because Lil Miss Wagon and I could spend the days in the living room where her swing and bouncy seat are (and couch and TV for nursing sessions), and Wagons Sr. and Jr. could spend the days in the kitchen going back and forth from the hall bathroom in between the two rooms.

A big present for a big day!

Well, the entire day (day 1)  was a pretty bad disaster. Everything we had read said that Day 1 is just horrible and to forge on ahead, so I was prepared to pretty much keep the washing machine running all day (and night!) long. Wagon Jr. didn’t have a single successful pee or poop in the potty all day long. He had several accidents and we had him help clean it up, and pointed out that it was an accident, and even though accidents are ok, they’re yucky and bad and we want to do it in the potty instead. Wagon Jr. wouldn’t listen to us, was goofy all day long and really resisted going into the bathroom at all. The times Wagon Sr. got him to sit on the potty, he’d sit there for a long time, watching videos, reading books, and holding it all in until Wagon Sr. gave up and let him off. Then he’d pee in his underwear or on the floor. The one poop he had that day he also did in his underwear. We dumped it into the toilet and showed him that’s where poop is supposed to go. He did stay dry through his nap, probably because Wagon Sr. let him pee in the shower right beforehand. (If we let him stand in the tub and spray water on his wee-wee, he goes pee almost every time!)

Passing the time in the kitchen

We also learned that Wagon Jr. doesn’t like juice. What!! What kid doesn’t like juice?? Luckily he’s still totally addicted to milk so we kept that going all day long.

We made cloud dough to play with in the kitchen!

That night we put him to bed in his underwear (after another shower pee) with the intention of waking him twice to go pee. When we went to get him around 10:30pm, he had just peed and we had to change his sheets and his clothes and rinse him down. He went back to sleep without a problem, and when we woke him at 3:00am, he sat on the toilet and peed almost right away! This first victory got us so excited that despite all of the accidents of Day 1, we were excited to go ahead on to Day 2.

(I should also note that even though people have commended me for being brave for potty training with a newborn in the house. It actually works out for nighttime because every time we got up for a nighttime feeding, we’d get Wagon Jr. up for a nighttime pee as well.)

Day Two
On Day 2, we decided to leave him naked from the waist down, so no underwear. The morning was more of the same of Day 1, being goofy and not listening, and spending lots of time sitting on the potty watching videos. We finally just let him off, knowing he’d pee right away, and sure enough he peed on the ground right in front of the potty. We spent a long time cleaning it up and talking about the accident, and I think this was the turning point. After we stopped forcing him to sit on the potty, he started saying “I have a pee again” and running to the potty on his own. On Day 1 it was like pulling teeth to get him to even enter the bathroom, but for some reason, on Day 2 he was running back and forth all day. Our family motto became “run to the potty.” We must have said it about five thousand times a day. Most times he didn’t go, but we praised him every time he ran to the potty, and then he finally had his first successful pee in the potty, followed by his first successful poop on the potty! We were so excited that we kept giving him more and more M&Ms as a reward, and he shoveled them down two by two like it was his paid job to do so. He had been eyeing them every time he was in the bathroom, and now he was finally allowed to eat them! We also made a very big deal about putting stickers on his chart.

After he was pretty consistently running to the potty, we let him put his underwear back on and he didn’t have another accident all day. I went out and got him a strawberry banana smoothie, and he was so cute, holding the cup with both hands and sipping from the straw. Every now and then he’d hold it out to me and say with big eyes, “you wan’ some, Mommy? You wan’ some?”

Staying hydrated.

That night we woke him around 10:00pm and he peed successfully and went back to sleep in his crib. At 3:00am we woke him again, and this time he didn’t pee for a long time, so Wagon Sr. kind of cheated with another shower pee and put him back to bed.

Day Three
On Day 3 we went back to underwear all day and he continued to do really well, running to the potty every now and then and zero accidents. After a successful morning pee in the potty, Wagon Sr. took him to the park for about an hour (diaper bag stocked with NO diapers but lots of wipes and extra underwear and pants, hehe). While they were there, Wagon Jr. told Sr. that he had to go potty, so they got in the car and went home (Wagon Sr. lined the carseat with a changing pad just in case), and when they got home, Wagon Jr. peed AND pooped in the potty!

Then when we put him down for his nap, he even stood up and called for us, saying he had to pee in the potty. Wagon Sr. went in and brought him to the bathroom where he peed instantly! He then stayed dry thru his nap again, and had zero accidents that afternoon.

I still can’t believe he stayed in the kitchen for almost 3 days straight.

That night, after another shower pee, Wagon Jr. went down for bed easily and we planned on waking him around 10:30pm again to pee. Instead, he woke up crying at 9:00pm and said “I have a poop.” We rushed upstairs because we figured he had wet the bed, but he was dry. Wagon Sr. put him on the toilet and he peed, and went back to bed easily. We didn’t get him for the rest of the night, and he stayed dry until morning.

On day 4 we actually went to visit my workplace and he didn’t have an accident. He was even able to pee on the potty in the men’s room. We have a separate potty bag that we take with us when we leave the house, and it contains:

• change of clothes, including underwear
• BabyBjorn toilet trainer
• flushable wipes
• antibacterial wipes
• pack of post-its (to block the sensor on automatic flushing toilets)
• a few rewards (such as stickers or fruit snacks)

Final Thoughts
It seems like Wagon Jr. pees about twice in the morning, twice in the afternoon, and is able to hold it all through the night. He poops once a day, usually mid-morning. So far, he has followed this pattern pretty well and until Wagon Jr. started daycare, we were 6 straight days accident-free! It is great sending him to daycare without any diapers or wipes. He has had a few accidents at daycare, usually when he’s outside on the playground and gets too busy playing to realize he has to pee. He’s also having trouble aiming, so he comes home with 1-2 soiled outfits a day, even if he didn’t have an accident. But he had his first successful poop in the potty at daycare, which is a great sign. During the weekend he had another few accidents, but for the most part he’s doing great, and he’s staying dry all night which we consider a miracle.

Overall, potty training has been stressful, but we’re so proud of how well Wagon Jr. is doing and we’re so glad to be completely rid of his diapers!

When did you potty train, and how did it go?