Potty Time!

With only 9 weeks (or less!) until Lauren gets here we were getting a little worried about this whole potty training thing. I really don't want two kids in diapers and the thought of having an infant and trying to potty train Brenden scares me to death.

Not long ago I ran across a conversation on Facebook between my friend Heather G. and my other friend Heather M. (My brother Darryl and my other brother Darryl, anyone?) Heather M. had mentioned that she potty trained her son, Brody, who is 3 days younger than Brenden, using the 3 Day Potty Training method. I checked it out, talked to Tim, and decided it was worth a shot. Not only had it worked for a friend, but having never potty trained a toddler before, we were having trouble sifting through all the different trains of thought.

We had to wait a few weeks until we had a weekend free and I tried my best to hype up throwing away the diapers to Brenden. I have no idea if that helped, but I do know that he was super excited to get his hands on the potty candy that has been sitting on the counter since Christmas.

Day 1

I enjoyed the final morning of sleeping in until 8:30 am. I knew that once he had to start getting up to go that sleeping in was not going to happen. Our first order of business, throwing away the diapers! I didn't think Brenden would enjoy that as much as he did, but he happily chunked a few in the trash and danced off to drink his milk.

I waited, and waited, and WAITED for the first accident to happen. That's one of the main points of this training method, to embrace the accidents as learning experiences. No yelling, no getting upset...just a calm setting where the child figures out how to know when they feel the urge to go. And boy, those accidents happened. Eventually, after rushing back to the bathroom when I noticed he had started going, he peed in the potty and wow...he was proud! He pumped his fists and yelled, "I did it! Potty candy!" Of course we called his dad and his grandmas and bragged like crazy.

Eventually the most amazing thing happened...he told me BEFORE he had an accident. And that same time he also managed to poop in the potty, something that I was nervous about. I had heard so many horror stories of kids that were afraid of it or refused to even try. I was relieved to find out that he wasn't going to have that problem.

My biggest fear was how he would do at night. Another important part of this method is potty training them during the day and at night at the same time. I had no idea how that would work out and I don't think I slept at all. Much to my surprise, after an accident at 8:45 pm, Brenden stayed dry all night.

Day 2

Saturdays are my day to sleep in (Thank you, Tim!) so Tim was on potty duty by himself for awhile. It ended up being longer than just that morning. My soon to be sister-in-law invited me to go wedding dress shopping with her and Tim was nice enough to say that was okay even though we had agreed to both stay home. While I was gone Brenden had a couple more accidents but eventually he told Tim, twice, before he had to go! He went back and forth between telling us and forgetting but since it was only the second day I counted it as a success.

I didn't sleep well, again. I think this time it was more because I could hear him every time he even shifted on his sheets and I woke up thinking he needed to get up. Around 1 am he woke up, although I don't think he was completely awake. I ran in to see him sitting up and when prompted he said he had to go potty. We ran to the bathroom and sure enough, he went! He didn't wake us up again until 6:30 am, automatically saying he needed to potty. Tim took him in there and again, he went! He wasn't very happy about laying back down but we didn't want to get him used to getting up so early. I ended up having to lay in bed with him and he stayed that way until 7:30 am. Again, he said he had to potty and again he wasn't lying! An entire night staying dry and clean...the best Valentine's Day present EVER!

Day 3

We're on day 3 now and just 5 minutes ago he finally told us he needed to potty. He didn't make it all the way to the bathroom but he did tell us and we are very proud of his progress! I know that we'll have setbacks. I know he'll regress when the baby gets here. I'm just glad that we are well on our way to having a potty trained toddler and that it didn't involve any screaming or tantrums.

One completely unexpected side effect is how easy nap time and bed time has been the past 2 days. After "trying" to go to the bathroom before we laid him down he crawled into bed without any fuss. I'm not sure how long that will last or if it really has anything to do with potty training but I'm going to enjoy what I can! (Especially since sleep isn't something I'm enjoying much of right now.)

So a big congratulations to our big boy Brenden! We are so very proud!