Potty Training Boot Camp - Day 1

Caiden started potty training today - whew!

"The Plan" (based on others who have successful potty-trained their kids):

-carve out at least 3 days to just be home completely focused on this all consuming task

-once you start BE COMMITTED none of this "you can have your diaper when you want to poop" or "you can have your diaper when we go to the store" stuff. stick to your guns! do NOT give them the diaper!

-either let them run around naked or in underwear (no pullups either)

-every 15 minutes make them sit on the toilet (set the timer - thank you iPhone apps)

-give them lots of liquids

-pullups for nap time and night time ONLY

-if they scream when they have to go poop, just hold them and kiss them and tell them you know they are scared but it's okay they don't need their diaper they can go in the toilet and just keep putting them back on the toilet/potty chair whenever you can tell they are getting the urge.....DO NOT GIVE THEM THEIR DIAPER. (haven't experienced this one yet)

-if they poop in their underwear, immediately take them to their potty chair and put the poop in it and make them look at it so they know where it goes and that they will survive their poop going into the potty chair/toilet.

-and when you do decide to leave the house (I'm definitely not at this part yet!) put them in their underwear and just bring an extra outfit and make sure you are close to a potty and make them sit on it ALL the time. Do the dry underwear check often and stash some treats in your purse to hand out if they still have dry underwear and when they actually go potty!

"The Reality":

We started out the day in our "Cars" underwear and pounded Gatorade like there was no tomorrow. After peeing through 4 pairs in about 30 mins I switched to the nothing from the waist-down approach and turned up the thermostat a bit :) Caiden was pretty heart-broken that he got Mack and Mater "all wet" - it was really cute

We also tried the little potty seat and the small seat on top of the regular toilet - Caiden hated the regular toilet so we stuck to his little potty for now and even ended up moving it out to the playroom to turn down the pressure

I think overall he peed in his potty 5 times and had about 7 accidents (not bad for day 1). Definitely one of the hardest things is figuring out how to balance the message that it's not okay to pee on the carpet and keeping him from becoming distraught over it.

I got a road border and a bunch of car, truck, etc stickers from a school supply store and that turned out to be a big hit (little stickers every time he tried and big stickers whenever he was successful) - the boy likes his trucks! He was so excited to show Logan his first fire truck sticker on the wall when Logan got home from work! The excitement started to fade after that. I think it was a pretty exhausting day for Caiden.

Caiden woke up with a huge dirty diaper so we haven't ventured into the world of poop yet, but I'm guessing that fun will come tomorrow. He's done really well and seemed so proud of himself the first time but I have been a little surprised at how much sitting down and trying seems to unnerve him every once and awhile. I'm still working on figuring out how to support and encourage him but not let him give up when he's scared.

All I can say is thank goodness for nap time, bed time and a husband who took over when he got home from work :)

Hopefully he sleeps well tonight and tomorrow brings even less laundry and carpet scrubbing!