Dum DaDum Da! Potty Training Day 1. FYI, I was/am/are terrified and pretty much only started this because Noah showed a lot of signs he was ready.
Here is my Getting Started Post. I decided I'm going to be positive and happy and excited even though inside I.Am.Terrified.
The night before, when putting Noah to bed I let him know that he was going to wear big boy underwear in the morning and we were going to throw away his diapers! Then I got to setting myself up for hopefully a successful day. I put the Baby Bjorn Potty in the middle of the living room on a towel, looking like the throne that it is (hilarious right?) with the potty books nearby. I took my $15 worth of stickers and put all the good ones in a sticker bag for successful potty attempts. I put the plain ones within easy reach for potty attempts with no action. Two pairs of underwear in my handbag; two pairs in the car along with a cup. (Girls have a lot of advantages, but the ability to pee in a cup is going to trump many of them & Noah is working on mastering this skill in the bath tub pretty often). I still need to open up my car potty and figure out how to use it and I still need to get a (and again I'm grossed out by this) foldable potty seat for my ... handbag (ICK!). But I figure that we aren't leaving the house the first day so I have a few days to figure this out.
Here we go! When we woke up I pumped Noah up with our plan again. Right out of the crib we were trashing the diapers. Noah helped me put them in a trashbag and he talked about how the garbage man was coming to pick them up outside. I'm not really trashing them. First of all, these things are like gold as far as value. Secondly, I need a back up plan! We replaced the diapers with Pull Ups. I read a lot about doing night and nap training all at the same time. But honestly, I'm not ready. This kid pees through a nighttime diaper once a week as it is. Maybe this is a mistake, but it isn't my first parenting mistake and it won't be my last. I told Noah that pull ups are for nap and bed time only and that it's time to pick out his big boy underwear. He picked out Thomas (shocker!) And we went downstairs.

I read about juicing the kid up and we are kinda anti-juice. No real reason other than why drink juice when you can drink water? The Editor and I only drink water, coffee/green tea, and alcohol. But when Noah hadn't peed once at 9am I was ready for juice. So 1/2 of a juice box with about 5-6oz water. He finished it by 9:03am. At 10am he peed on the potty after I initiated asking him. He also got the rest of the juice box mixed with another 4oz of water. He finished the 2nd cup by 10:04am.
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| Juicing up |
10:15am- our first accident (he already did one successful potty time). He started going and I heard it. So he stopped and I ran him to the potty and he finished there. Lots of, "It's okay!" I took off the undies and said, "We have to keep Thomas dry, we don't want him wet." Noah looked pretty down on himself. But I kept it cheerful. I said that Thomas was wet so we can't wear him and let him be naked for a few minutes. After about 5 minutes he told me he was ready to wear Thomas again, so we picked out a new pair. The next time he had to pee, he initiated and said as he sat down, "Keep Thomas dry." I was so happy he got it!
I kept a log of when he went. Very reminiscent of the feeding chart that went on for about 2 months and the napping chart that I had for about 2-3 weeks in month 4. Basically a white piece of notebook paper with my scribbling on it. Time he peed with who initiated it (me or him).
We had a little routine. He initiated almost all the other potty times by saying, "Pee Potty" and we would run over. I tried to get him to pull the underwear down, but this kid can't put on or take off his Crocs, sometimes his socks so it's not happening yet. After he peed he got to pick out a fun sticker from the bag, whatever he wanted. Then we flushed and I let him go on about his day. I cleaned out the potty, wrote down the time, and then appeared with one fruit snack. I just said, "Here you go" and moved on. I read (but didn't read why) to just give the snack, not to announce it as a reward. If he sat on the potty and didn't actually go, I gave him a small plain star sticker.
By lunchtime, Noah had peed 6 times and only had the one accident! I tried not to get too cocky but this was going better than I anticipated. I mean, I read about a family that went through 46 pairs of underwear on the first day! Let's just say at lunch time I exhaled and felt a little more at ease.
Nap time didn't happen... again. Noah pooped in his pull up. So the other thing I read a lot was to only sit on the potty for 3-5 minutes. I'm down with this for peeing. In fact, if Noah doesn't have to go he gets up quickly, if he has to go he goes quickly. But pooping. It can take him 20 minutes on a good day to poop; it can take over an hour on a bad day. Seriously, it's painful to watch.
So out of the crib back to big boy underwear and downstairs we went. I decided on no juice in the afternoon because Noah is usually really wet at his 4:30pm diaper change. Since we were homeward bound, we did some art project stuff. Talk about stressful. This is worse to me than potty training. In 5 minutes we had to change underwear twice because Noah split the water for his water color paint all over himself. Then somehow we got green Play-Doh ground into the carpet. All the while, I'm asking Noah every 15 minutes if he has to pee on the potty. Resounding Nos. All afternoon! I saw some dancing, I put him on twice while he cried and he didn't go. I think he wanted to initiate. At 4:40pm he finally did initiate and went.
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| Crayons are fun |
When I asked Noah in the bath tonight who my big boy was he responded quickly, "Daddy." This kid is funnier than me (imagine!).
In the past couple of weeks Noah has occasionally asked to use the potty during bedtime story time. Usually around when I say, "Last book, then songs." I think it's a stalling tactic. He's never once used the potty at this time, but I always run him over and sit with him for a few minutes. I feel a little stuck, because I want to offer him the potty if he's initiating asking for it but I don't want to be a sucker for a few more awake minutes, though they are spent in the bathroom...
Day 1 Progress Report:
Pairs of Underwear: 4 (but two were water craft accidents) So really only 2
Accidents: 1
Fruit snacks: 1 bag (I ate 4- they are so good! 4 pieces not bags)
Stickers: 8 good ones, 4 small stars
Mommy Stress Level (10 being highest): 1 Of course, we haven't left the house yet.
Tomorrow I think we are supposed to leave the house for an hour in the afternoon. Dum DaDum Da...