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| The night before potty training boot camp. Obviously he's ready! |
Sweet baby Day isn't a baby anymore and we have a new baby on the way, so it was time for little man to start potty training. Dayton had shown some interest in going potty - wanting to sit on his potty, asking to use the potty now and then, and best of all asking to wear big boy underwear.
There are probably a million ways to potty train out there and after talking to a few good friends, I decided on the two/three day naked method. There is a book on this potty training method and you can download it or buy it from Amazon here. Honestly, I didn't have time to read a book, so I read this condensed version from Lucie's List. It's not exactly the same, but it's pretty darn close as far as I know. This summary was perfect and worked like a charm.
Items we bought to help with potty training:
organic apple juice - The "special juice" helped our little guy drink more often and also helped have more opportunities to go to the bathroom more.
Potty book - We read this book quite a few times before we started potty training. Dayton loved to "read" it to himself as well while he was going potty.
Munchkin Potty Seat - I bought this at Target. It fit our potty well and doesn't move, but comes on and off of the potty easily. It also has the little boy "guard" in the front to help with beginners.
Summer Infant Lil Loo Potty - I bought two of these from Target about eight months ago. We put one in each bathroom so that Dayton would get used to seeing them and would sit on them now and then. We wanted him to feel comfortable sitting on them and imitate mommy and/or daddy. Half of kiddos learning is imitating! Now that Dayton is potty trained, we keep one in the house and one in our car. This has helped cit out accidents and we've avoided gross public restrooms because of this little thing.
Graco stool - We bought this stool for our bathroom for two reasons: 1) so that Dayton could climb on and off of the potty himself and 2) to wash his hands after using the potty.
What we did:
We started out on a Wednesday and planned to spend three whole days at home. Plus I would then have a little extra help throughout the weekend with the hubs home. I was 34 weeks pregnant and starting to get a little uncomfortable, so sitting on the kitchen floor wasn't the most exciting thought, but I wanted to try this potty training thing before baby #2 showed up.
Day 1:
Dayton and I spent all of Wednesday in the kitchen. I gave him "special juice" (water and organic apple juice) so that he would drink more, therefore pee more. Like clockwork, we went to the potty every 15 minutes to try. We ate breakfast on the floor, snacks on the floor, lunch on the floor, and even dinner on the floor when daddy got home. Dayton stayed naked all day. No clothes, at all.
The first few times that he started to have to pee, he would start to pee and then realize what was going on and he would hold it and we would run to the bathroom to finish. Luckily, Dayton's bathroom is about three feet off of the kitchen, so it was a quick trip. We read books while he was on the potty, we played games, and sang songs all to keep him on the potty to try. Poop was much harder, which I knew it would be. Little man accidentally pooped on the floor twice. Now you know why we stayed in the kitchen. Tile floors = easy clean up. By the afternoon, he was kind of getting it, but I knew we had a long ways to go.
Day 2:
Day two started out about the same. I felt like we were starting completely over. We did go about every 30 minutes instead of every 15 minutes. By 9:30 am, both Day and I were over it. We decided to take a "break" from the kitchen and went to a neighbors house to play outside. I brought his portable potty with us and asked him every 30 minutes if he had to go. His normal answer was "no", but we tried anyways and he didn't have an accident! Whew! Talking to a few of my mommy friends about potty training gave me hope as well because when we got to our play date, I was starting to think this would never work. Mommy friends saved me that morning.
We got back home and had lunch and then it was nap time. I took this opportunity to take a nap as well and refresh. When Day got up, it was like it had clicked. He was telling me he had to go potty, he would run to the potty, he pooped on the potty, etc. It was working. Woohoo!
Day 3:
Day three started out a smidge shaky, but we got right back on track in no time. Day three was our lucky day. It all came together and little man was seemingly potty trained. I did continue to take him to the potty every 30 minutes to an hour to encourage no accidents. We stayed home most of the day, but we did venture out one time with the portable potty in the trunk.
Thankfully, day three was successful and I was one happy mama. Little man was pretty darn proud of himself as well, as he should be!
The weekend and following week:
The following week, Dayton did great with peeing on the potty. He did have 3 poop accidents, but I knew it would happen as it is all so knew. All three of his accidents happened at the gym daycare, so I didn't feel too bad about it. I knew accidents were going to happen as this is a process and not a three day fix. Overall, I was very happy with the three day method and plan to use it with babe #2!
Good job Dayton Thomas We're so proud of you!!
