PTC: Day 1

As I mentioned in the previous post, I woke up Monday morning really dreading this whole week (I know, I know, my attitude wasn't good) of being stuck inside the house. But, at least I had a game plan after talking to my sister and some other mom friends about what they did to potty train their kids. Jack seemed to be willing to at least try, so I figured I would give it a full-throttle effort this week and then re-evaluate after 7 days to see if I should keep going or stop and pick it up again at a later date.

Mistake #1 was using up all the coffee the day before and not buying anymore at the store before this week started. I pretty much need at least one cup of coffee before you can ask me a question and expect to get a response (two cups to get a coherent response), let alone have the mental clarity and patience to put a toddler on a potty multiple times a day. I was not a happy camper to open up my kitchen cabinet and realize there would be no cup-o-joe early that morning, and since I was going to potty train Jack in underwear, I REALLY didn't want to risk running to the store to get more.

My sister mentioned she thought that taking the plunge into underwear was the way to go so that the potty training wasn't prolonged with pull-ups, so that's what we did (mistake #2). I washed all of his underwear the day before and as soon as he got up that morning we put him in underwear. We had breakfast, I waited about 30 minutes and then put him on the potty upstairs. He was able to go, so I had my first taste of success. That eased my concerns that maybe this wasn't going to be so bad...

...until 5 minutes later when then first accident happened, so I changed his clothes and underwear, cleaned the carpet, and let him try to go again with no luck. Then another accident happened again about 10 minutes later downstairs in the laundry room followed by a repeat of the steps above. By this time I was starting to get a little worried that I was going to be cleaning up accidents every 15 minutes for the rest of the day and that maybe he really wasn't ready to do this just yet. The thought depressed me because I had mentally adjusted to the thought of only one child in diapers...I didn't want to go back to two in diapers!!

After climbing back upstairs, I tried him again on the potty, he went, and we headed downstairs for a snack. Then another accident happened. Uggggg. After three accidents in about an hour and a half, I needed some words of encouragment to keep going, so I called my husband and my mom, who both said something along the lines of "Use the pull-ups!!" Hmmm, now why didn't I think of that??

After switching Jack into a pull-up, the day went along a lot smoother. At least I wasn't anxious the entire time waiting for him to have an accident, so we could go a little longer between bathroom trips (which was getting exhausting to walk up and down the stairs...more on this later). I also asked my dear mother if she could bring a cup of coffee over to me, which she graciously did. She also hung around through lunch for moral support and offered some suggestions for rewards for Jack. I had M&M's, but that was quickly going to get to be too much sugar, so I switched to stickers and a chart instead. After 10 stickers, I planned to let him go to the dollar store to pick out of toy. That got him pretty excited!!

Now about the stairs...I started potty training him upstairs because we have a bathroom right by the game room, and I figured I could keep Anna penned up in there while I took Jack to the potty every 30 minutes. At this point he was only going on the little stand-alone potty and wouldn't go on the portable ones that just fit into a regular toilet seat (which we had for the bathrooms downstairs), so every time he needed to go I rushed upstairs with him (and Anna!). Yeah, that got old really fast. While I was cringing at the thought of spending money for a second potty, I finally broke down and asked my mom if she could grab another stand-alone one for me that I could put downstairs. This turned out to the best decision I had made thus far (after switching to the pull-ups)!

Bob finally made it home from work later that afternoon, which helped so that I didn't have to keep an eye on both Anna and Jack. Jack was still getting used to sitting on his potty and had some more successes, though he was still having accidents in his pull-ups between trips. Overall I was slowly feeling a little bit better about how things were going, at least enough to keep with it for a week.

So here's what I learned from day one:

1) Don't forget the coffee!!

2) What works for some moms doesn't work for every mom (duh)....My sister had quick success with underwear with her son , who is only a few days older than Jack, because his temperament is much different and he was a lot more ready to train (being the second child and watching his sister go). And when I say different...Nate is two and a half and can already make it in the potty standing up without, ummm, hitting the seat.....amazing!! I needed to try a different route with Jack because he's very different than Nate, and that's ok!

3) Call friends, family, whoever for moral support if you need some encouragement.

4) Relax your standards...at least for my perfectionist self, I had to give up on the idea that Jack would be perfectly potty trained in a week. Instead, I made it my goal to 1) just get him used to this new process, and 2) to begin to recognize when he feels like he needs to go.

Next up, Day 2....