The Potty Diaries

This is the beginning of a series of posts I would like to call "The Potty Diaries" We are about to embark on a journey and I thought I would bring all my readers along! You know for moral support, or maybe there is someone out there who will be encouraged by our journey, hopefully not the opposite. But who knows we don't know where this will take us.

Each day I will be documenting our progress and hopefully it will be progress.

Introduction:

Somewhere recently we decided it was time to start potty training Axel. But I knew when I got started it was going to be a LONG grueling process. But like many mom's I know it has been more about When? How? and Will it work? To me it seems like now would be better than later because at least right now he is relishing in being independent and showing interest in being potty trained, and we have a little more time to devote to him and this big step.

One day I was emailed this article from BabyCenter.com, which is about Potty training your child in just 3 days! When I read the title I thought, yeah freaking right! But then as I started to read the program and how it is laid out, I started to think about potty training, not just small children, but about how we trained our dogs too, and it really started to make a lot of sense, and the more and more I thought about this approach, I thought if anything works with Axel right now, this will be it.

That being said, if I have learned one thing about potty training over the many many years as a nanny, it is that every child is different, every child learns differently, and what works with one child may not work for another, but eventually they all come around to accomplish it in their own way. Case in point, Maddy had an imaginary friend tell her it was time to use the potty because she was 3, and Nicolas after every other attempt failed, what worked for him was telling him he'd only get Diapers for his birthday, and that cured him.

I really thought this approach would work great for us, because it really wouldn't be that messy of a clean up, because we have hard wood floors, vinyl couches, and linoleum through out our house, (ah the life of a dog owner!) So really it wouldn't do any lasting damage, so why not?

Some of you may be thinking we are crazy for even attempting this so young, and that's o.k, I too think this is possibly far fetched, and have been saying to myself all morning that I don't think it is going to work out, (my pessimistic attitude always seems to show itself when I am trying to accomplish something new). But I keep telling myself that we can do this, and we have nothing to lose! Kory says he thinks Axel can do it, and has been encouraging me to not give up. I am so glad Axel has a dad who is optimistic, and can really encourage us to try new things.

Day 1~April 18, 2011~

Getting started

I originally decided I would start this today a week ago, but then retracted that, and decided maybe we would wait until he was older, or after the baby came, because the idea just terrified me.

But then this morning I woke up with a terrible cough and sore throat, and it was raining, so I opted that today was going to be a day we just stayed home, watched movies, and napped our heart out. In my head I canceled everything I had planned for the day, grocery shopping, picking up diapers, and maybe a little walk in the afternoon. We were just going to stay inside.

At about 10 am I decided it was time for us to get out of bed. (Axel had joined me in bed for cartoons around 7:30 this morning) As I was getting ready Axel asked to take a bath. Why not? What else were we going to do.

So after the bath I wrapped him in his towel and put him on the couch and went to get his clothes for the day. When I brought them back he was climbing off the couch his bare bum sticking to the black vinyl. And I said "Axel we need to put your diaper on." to which he replied "No No NO" grabbing his boy parts and running into his bedroom.

That is when I decided, or rather he decided for me, that today would in fact be the day we tried this program out. So I grabbed his potty, pulled it in the front room, then rolled up our blue shag carpet from the living room and our green shag carpet from Axel's room and put them away, grabbed my computer, and made myself comfortable on our couch. All I had to do now was watch for him to "Show me signs" of him needing to use the potty. Easy peasy right?

The Goal of today is to get him to get a "Hit" on the potty as much as possible even if it's just a drop. Eventually after 12 "Hits" they say he will get it. (Not that you are done from there, but that the hard part is over...)

So I watched, and I watched and I watched. And nothing. So I pulled up messenger on my computer to chat with Kory about our day and what we were doing.

Then I hear it.

"PUUUFFF" I look up, Axel is looking up from his toys at me, an expression on his face only to be described as a dear in headlights, like "Whoa mom, did you hear that?", I run over to him to whisk him to the potty, and I am already too late. He had all ready pee'd on the floor. No poo, so I put him on the potty anyway and instructed him to "PUSHHHH the Poo out!" Making quite an embarrassing face, as I am sure you can all imagine. But he happily copied my expression, stood up, turned around only to be disappointed there wasn't any "stinky" or an "Ah sick" in his potty. SO off he ran to play, bare bottomed and all.

Disappointed that we missed this prime opportunity I followed him into his room so I could watch him, we went from toy to toy as he ran around playing with them.

Then we went back to the family room, and I looked away, kid you not for one second, and he began running only to stop for a second to watch a little more pee coming down his leg. But again, I was too late to put him on the potty to finish the duty. So we just cleaned it up and he went back to playing.

Kory came home at noon, like always Axel ran to him to greet him, he seemed extra excited today, I am sure because he was naked. One minute the floor was dry the next it was wet! But at least this time it hit the side of the wall of the potty on its way out. He was completely oblivious tho. Does that count as a hit? Probably not...

After we ate lunch it was time for a nap which meant putting a diaper on him. This time around he cooperated and allowed me to put his diaper on him. We snuggled on the couch until he fell asleep. While he was asleep I ran downstairs, threw some laundry in, then retired to my bed.

I don't know if I would call the day a success so far. The score is 3 misses and 0 hits.

Has it been hard? No

Has it been different? Surprisingly, not so much, A little, but not much.

Have I been disappointed? I am not going to lie, yeah, a little, but I am sure we will get there eventually. Hoping that after his nap we will be able to get some good practice in :)

What would I do differently? I think it would be nice to have Kory here while we do this to help and encourage and to teach, and to follow him around. But that is really not an option for us right now, so we'll do what we can and make it work for us.

The rest of the day

After Axel woke up from his nap at 4:45, we took off his diaper and had him sit on the toilet, and he tried with all his might but still no cigar.

Kory came home shortly after 5 and by then Axel had already had 4 misses. It was like every time I turned my back or looked down for a second he would pee. I followed him around all day and every time I would turn my back THAT was when he would pee. The rest of the night was similar to that. Only it seemed to be bigger pees, more spread apart. Which I think is a good thing right? Means he was learning to hold it in? Still wont pee on command, but he tries.

He did have one Hit, so yeah for us! Makes it all worth it right? I am not so sure. At this rate it will be more like a 15 day potty training not a 3 day one.

Tomorrow we get to leave the house without a diaper on...we'll see how I feel in the morning about that, I guess I should just make sure I have extra clothes for him.