Potty Training Weekend

We took Hunter out of school on Friday so that we could start our potty training weekend early. Let's just say Friday morning was pretty discouraging - I think we had about 4 accidents in 3 hours. I realized later that he was sitting on the cold tile and going almost immediately. Then he woke up dry from his nap (shocking) and had back to back successes after that, so it was a little more encouraging. And yes, I took a picture of his first TT in the potty because he LOVES the camera and I knew he would know it was a big deal if I took a picture of it, but I decided not to put it on the blog. I also decided the first poo poo in the potty probably wouldn't be great on the blog either....

I also forgot to take a picture of his "Potty Day" cake before we cut into it. The cake and probably the salted almonds (we usually do unsalted, but I was trying to make him thirsty so that we had more incidents to practice with) and the anxiety of the big day all culminated into an upset tummy during the evening and completely tossing his cookies right before bed. Poor kid - he never throws up and this was just a horrible way to end the day, but is also probably why he slept so soundly that night.

The rest of the weekend was kind of a mixed bag. We had quite a few times Saturday where he would start to go in his big boy pants and then would finish on the potty. Then Sunday, he actually told me 2 or 3 times that he had to go and when I sat him down, he went! This was a huge success in my eyes.

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This was all cold turkey, by the way. We didn't do pull ups - well, I guess we did Friday night, but he went in the pull up just like he would a diaper, so I decided that wasn't the best approach for Hunter. We're strictly big boy pants now. And Saturday night worked out really well because I woke him up around 5am and he was dry and went TT on the potty when I sat him down on it, and then went back to sleep. Unfortunately, he then proceeded to do both number 1 and 2 between that time and 6:30 when I thought he had just woken up. I think his persistent cough is waking him up - especially last night. I went up there 4-5 times last night and he was soaked every time. Poor kid. So I'll be trying to wake him up before I go to bed tonight to see if he's wet or dry and sit him on the potty to try to empty him out. Might wake him at 5 too, just to be sure.

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So our method was a mixed bag. We started with "Potty Training in One Day" with Potty Scotty. Hunter liked the doll and celebrated with him when he TTd on the potty, but the whole "practice runs" thing was NOT for us. So we continued with asking "Are you wet or dry?" and that took quickly. A few times, he would answer wet and was just barely wet, so he would finish on the potty, and I think Sunday, he answered wet one time before he had actually gone, so we sat him down on the potty and he went. The wet/dry thing was definitely a good thing for us. And repeating to him constantly that he has to tell us when he needs to go so that we can get him to the potty before he actually makes the mess. Now if we could just get him to do that during the night!!

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Hunter went back to school today. I was SO nervous about how it was going to go, even though I had heard his teachers were really good with potty training. And his head teacher was out today, so I was even more nervous. But Miss Dali and Miss Rupa exceeded my expectations - he only had 2 accidents all day!!!!! They said normally they have 4-6 accidents the first day, so we were pretty happy with this. The only thing I didn't ask was whether any of his successes were self-initiated, because based on the report, they were taking him every hour. Hopefully I will get some more info tomorrow when his head teacher is back. Here is his daily report - note all the smiley faces are all of his successes. Yay for Hunter!!!

I have to thank my friend Pam yet again - I wouldn't have made it through the weekend without her. I also want to thank Brent for doing everything I couldn't do this weekend. Breast feeding a 10-week-old while also potty training a 2-year-old isn't ideal, and he totally took up all the slack. Thanks also to my neighbors Marie and Kristi for their advice, tricks and tips. And to all of the family that we called when we had successes, for making it a big deal for Hunter and thus, encouraging him to continue.