Potty Training

Early December I decided that when I was off over the holidays I was going to try potty training withe Carter. When he first got his potty seat from my mom over the summer, he used it once or twice and we thought he wanted to do it more, but it never went anywhere. So, after lots of chats with other fellow boy moms, I decided I would take the plunge and see what happened. Little did we know...

It was pretty darn easy!!!

We went cold turkey on diapers on Sunday the 29th (DEC) and have not had a diaper on since. We even decided that we did not want to do pull ups, we wanted Carter to go full force (day and night) and see how he does. We opted to reward him with suckers for pee and a toy (or Popsicle) for poop (we needed good incentives on the poop part).

The first day he did great, he only peed once (and that was because I was in the shower).The next day he did have a pee accident on himself in the morning, but other than that he even slept all night without having any accidents. He loved pushing his race car button (the flusher) and then he loved dumping (with mom and dad's help) it down the toilet and flushing the big potty.

 Fast forward a few days and we struggled with the bowel movement part of potty training. He had the peeing part to a science and would go without hesitation. But the poop part was just too much for him, it literally gave him anxiety. He would start to go in his pants and then sit on the pot and finish. Or he would sit on the pot and just say " I can't do it, I can't do it." So, I did a little bit of reading and saw that kids are afraid to poop on the pot, because (no joke) they feel like they are losing a part of themselves. So, finally, I opened up the Elmo potty book my mom gave him and we read it together one night. I told him it was ok to poop on the potty and that we just needed to get the poop out and he would feel so much better.

Well the next day he went, and was so proud of himself. We called the grandparents and my sister so he could share the big news, and boy was he excited!!  He has had one poop accident at the sitters, and when we were at my brother in laws for a birthday party he went twice in his pants (not sure if this was because he was too busy playing, or if he was to scared to go on Sloan's potty). Which I thought was a set back, but it wasn't, I think he was just nervous. Since then (Jan 4th) we have had no accidents and he now knows when he has to poop and he goes.

I know a few other mom's working on potty training and I know all kids are different, but,  the one piece of advice that I went into this with was to have alot of PATIENCE and let the KIDDOS be the leader. I never got mad or upset about any poop in the pants, or pee in his bed, (not that it was not gross or stinky) I just kept telling him it was ok and that we would keep trying. He took charge and has done so great. It cant be frustrating those first couple of days when they want to sit on the pot all the time, or if they don't want to poop. You just have to let them take the lead and go with it. Their little bodies are learning how to control, so it takes time.

I am shocked as to how few the accidents were for Carter, and how well he did at learning how to goon the potty and better yet, how he finally decided to poop on the pot. Two weeks ago, I had a few people tell me he wouldn't be able to do it, or that it was too soon. And now here we are not a worry in site on the potty training!!! This has been so rewarding for him and for us too!! We could not be more proud of Carter for taking on such a giant leap of learning/letting us teach him how to use the big potty.

 It is also a sigh of relief, that we now only have one in diapers!!!