Potty Training

Oh the joys of potty training!  But now that he has been potty trained for about a month now, I can calmly sit down and write rationally about it!  Ha!

Well, it all started with Pinterest!  Oh a wonderful place!  I found a link that said "Potty Training in One Day."  She explains everything really well.  She has used this technique with all four of her kids. I liked the sound of that, so that night I went and picked up supplies and the next morning, before I could change my mind, we hit it square on!  

Supplies:

Snacks, Kool Aid, Juice, Sweet and Salty things

Underwear

Apron (to hold the snacks for going potty)

Potty seat for toilet

And I downloaded a few Potty training apps on my phone

(Carl's personal favorite was Potty Training Time by Two Little Hands)

Scooby Doo (for Carl to train and to use as an example)

Dropper for Scooby Doo to go "pee pee" in the potty with

Something to clean the "oops" with

Timer

And treats for me!

Rules:

No interruptions! Full attention is on Carl.

How it worked!

We started our day out like normal.  We ate our breakfast and I showered.  Then I showed Carl his Scooby Doo with underwear on. "Oh look Carl!  Scooby Doo is such a big dog! Do you want to wear underwear too?   We put his underwear on... (AND NEVER WENT BACK!) Scooby Doo went on the potty, then Carl had a turn... I set a timer to go off literally every 15 minutes so we could go "POTTY TIME!"  Then we did the whole potty routine over and over and over until you could see that little light bulb go on in his head!  Yes, there were several accidents and definitely times where I wanted to pull my hair out and stick a diaper back on him, but I am so glad that I resisted.  

All day we pumped him full of juice and treats to help that urinary system kick in gear.  We even tried to call a few people to share our 'big' news!  Though that got to be a little awkward... so we ended up "Calling Rachel" from the app I got on my phone!  That was seriously Carl's favorite and most motivating!  (Thank you Rachel wherever you are in this world!)  Carl also loved the treats from the apron.

By the end of the day, both of us were seriously sick of anything that might even rhyme with "pee pee" or "poo poo" and I was losing motivation to keep that energy up!  But, that was very key to his success.  By the end of the day he was doing awesome...

though I was seriously scared to death about bedtime. Yea, I have to admit that I dreamt about potty training ALL night long.  Remember when you have a newborn and you hear every movement that they make throughout the night?  That's pretty much what it was like.  Though, I have to give kudos to Carl, he has got a bladder of steel.  To this day he has only wet his bed once (and that was our own fault).  

After that, the days just got better and better.  Slowly.  I went through the phases where I didn't dare go anywhere because what if he wouldn't go on the potty there to "Let's go get some miralax cause it's been about three days since he's pooped!" to "Oh crap, we didn't think about nursery!"  

Now, our little man is a pro!  He kind of looks like this:

All is well and I can honestly say that I am so glad we are done with potty training.  Good bye diapers...for a few months!