Kate

Kate Potty Trains

Katers,

After constantly telling me when you were going potty and requesting to be changed as soon as you pooped, I knew it was time to say see-ya later to diapers! We had a weekend that was pretty plan-free so I removed the diaps and let your sweet checks fly. We followed the same methodology as we did with William. Let you run naked so you would start to learn the sensation of when you start to pee. You had 3 mini accidents, one with a little poop and then two when a little pee came out but then were able to pee one the toilet successfully 3 times. You were pretty scared and there were LOTS of false alarms. A Lot!

That evening we were going over to Uncle Joe’s house and you peed on the potty twice but also pooped in your undies. The next day you only had once potty accident, and really had to poop but refused–I think you were scared. The next week, while I was at work, you really didn’t cooperate at all for Daddy. You pooped in your undies many times and wouldn’t really pee for him either, so we went back to diapers. For the most part, you were telling us when you needed to pee so it wasn’t like you were really using the diapers except for pooping.

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Two months later, memorial day weekend, I thought I would give it another whirl since we had 3 days. First day went pretty good and you popped once or twice for me. The next day, you came down with some diarrhea, which made me very skeptical on progressing with this process, but you told me every time you had to go and I think the softness really helped teach you how to go on the potty verses pushing out something more solid.

Giving you a hug while on the potty was another little trick that really helped you. If you had to go, you would request huggie and I would squeeze your little torso, rub your back and tell you, it’s OK–just push your poopies into the potty. Lots of Good Job Kate, Way to Go, but it helped give you the confidence you needed.

My favorite was the way your eyes would twinkle when you actually went. You would look at me and say ‘Dood job mommies! Treat!

This weekend was definitely a turning point in the potty training journey for you. You’ll have a couple of accidents here an there but for the most part, are always wearing underwear (outside of naps and bedtime).

You will only go on a little kids potty seat. I’ve tried public restrooms a few times and one would have thought a stranger was trying to rip you out of my arms in the way you reacted. Hopefully, you’ll become more accustomed to them otherwise you’re going to be in a lot of pain holding it or it is going to be really inconvenient for all of us.

Three cheers to almost being diaper-free for us!

Love,

Mama

William

potty training round dos

William, where do I even begin this long journey with you?

Is it here? 

Potty training technically began with you back when you were still in daycare. Mrs. Essi would have you go and sit on the potty while the other kids went. You would always sit on the potty but never actually go.

Fast forward to the July and I thought things with Kate were going pretty well and you seemed to kind of understand it, let’s give it a shot. Especially while it was warm outside and if he had accidents outside, not that big of a deal. Day 1 was a hot mess with 10+ accidents but thought that’s how it was with Lexi too. Day 2 was another hot mess. Day 3 there was no progression made so we reverted back to diapers. I think I attempted this on two separate occasions.

Somewhere In between all of these attempts, you were trying to get to the bathroom sometimes but sometimes not so I knew you got the concept of it but thought you were just too lazy to actually care. You also started to refuse diapers at this point so I knew we really needed to buckle down. We broke out the sticker chart and I tried the drink lots of fluids, keep you on wood floors method, and this helped you learn the feeling of pee. You could feel it was coming but had a hard time getting to the bathroom, getting your pants down and getting yourself on the toilet. There were lots of accidents on the floor in the bathroom, but you got it.

The hard thing was pooping. You would poop your pants 5+ times a day. Not an entire load, but enough to make a mess. The hardest part was, you didn’t seem to care. You would just sit and play with it in your pants and act like nothing happened. There was no consistency in the time of day that you went and you didn’t seem to mind if you were around people or not. I tried to watch you like a hawk, but the moment I turned my back to make lunch or nurse Kate, you would have an accident. With all that said, you would poop on the potty, but it wasn’t anything sizable. You would push out these these tiny little rabbit turds and for a kid that would regularly poop 3-4 times a day, I knew there was more in there.

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We tried to bribe you with a spiderman toy, all the treats in the world, threaten diapers, gave you a little potty to sit on, I talked to every boy mama I know, sought advice on social media on two different occasions, read the book, oh Crap! Potty training and nothing seemed to resonate with you. After a month and a half of this, Daddy raised his hands and said, ‘That’s it, I’m done.’ He has to go back to diapers. I can’t clean up any more messes. After being without diapers for almost two months, I just knew we couldn’t do that to you. Initially, when I read the book Oh Crap! Potty Training, I thought you were already past some of the key stages as we had been at this for several weeks and you were doing a decent job with the pee situation. But desperate to figure out something that worked. I went back to the book and decided  to start from square one.

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I knew you understood that you were going to the bathroom so we skipped step 1 and went to step 2. I sent Daddy out of the house with the two girls so I had no excuses to be distracted by anything. I set my phone out of sight, promised myself not to do ANY housework, got you naked and started to pump you with apple juice. We sat and played trains and cars and the first time you started to poop, you didn’t even notice but I saw it and we ran to the bathroom. The laxative from all the apple juice helped it be more than a tiny little turd. We went back to playing and the next time, it started to come out, you noticed it and said, ‘I feel the poopy’ so we ran to the bathroom and you went. This happened two more times that day and it was the thing you needed to get you over the hump. You had a couple of more accidents, but you finally started to poop regularly and could identify the feeling of needing to go.

In hindsight, it felt like such an easy thing to do once I really focused and sent Daddy out of the house with the distractions and wish I would have done that from the beginning. We could have reduced a whole lot of stress and messy clean-ups. But none-the-less, you are now pooping and peeing on the toilet 80% of the time. The other 20% happens on the floor in the bathroom as you just can’t get everything down fast enough. BUT considering you’re two and a half and most boys don’t do this until 3, I’m going to give you that grace 🙂

Love,

Mama