All because two people fell in love...: Potty Training boot Camp

Well... Who knew potty training would be something I would be blogging about one day. In the pre-school world it is a hot topic - lemme tell you... *disclaimer, I will be talking about poop and pee, its common language in this house right now*

Months ago I had decided on a method, The Potty Boot Camp (link to amazon) and I decided on a "PT" start day, May 29th (the day after pre-school was out). Matthew and I made the decision to potty train Pax when we "knew he was ready". In essence, not worry about pressure from people asking to make sure he was successful and therefore less stressful on everyone.

For months leading up to PT day we had a lil potty in his bathroom and at least once a day we had him sit on it to try, especially before bath time when the water was running. If I checked his diaper and he was dry I would change it and encourage him to try on the potty and we just talked about it a lot and did a lot of modeling (being a mommy or daddy to a pre schooler will humble you). We let him pick out new underwear (bought like 20 pair), read books, watched potty time elmo and just started talking about it a lot more. We made a trip to the local library for the first time and checked out a bunch of new books knowing we would spend a lot of time sitting. He was in preschool so he did see some kids successfully using the potty too and I knew when he was dry for an extended period of time, waking up dry and able to communicate he was wet or dirty - it was time.

On PT day we had an exciting morning when we threw away ALL diapers and put on big boy underwear. I didn't put any pants on him and walked him to the potty and explained what I expected. Disclaimer: this is ALL the potty boot camp method btw. I set my phone for every 10 minutes and every ten minutes checked if he was DRY. THE. KEY. TO. SUCCESS! CAN. YOU. TELL. I. AM. YELLING? :) NO really, it's not about going in the potty (well it is but not in measuring success) its about keeping underwear dry. SO, every time the timer went off and he was dry he added a sticker to the dry underwear racetrack (picked a favorite theme and went with it) and attempted to use the potty. Within the first 30 minutes of the day he peed all over himself. HA - he freaked. I changed him and I made him clean up the mess (this is part of the method too - its gross - get over it). From then on, he had NO accidents - the connection had been made. To keep underwear dry you have to go in the potty. It worked. To this day he has had only one other accident ever.

Pooping was a different story. He feared pooping in the potty. We stayed consistent, never put a diaper back on. Resorted to prune juice and a laxative and finally, success. I'm not sure what he was afraid of but he was. It's a common thing and I knew it was possible he would feel this way and he did. But after a few gift incentives for forced poops (the method really urges against it unless your desperate and WE WERE DESPERATE) he finally realized that if he went he was ok. It was not easy and extremely frustrating at times, but after two weeks he was pooping like a champ and has had no problems since. Consistency was key, lots of time sitting and trying was key and believe it or not, privacy was key. Who would blame him, but he likes to be alone :)

I know this has been really entertaining (HA) and if you're still reading you are probably thinking "WOW - glad I'm not the only one" or "Lord help me when I have to do this" or "Geez, its not that difficult" Well, bottom line, every kid is different and there are so many ways to potty train out there. We all have our opinions and methods and this was ours. Maybe it will help you, or maybe you are laughing at me - either way, can we all just say that when a child is potty trained you feel like singing and dancing for not having to change diapers anymore?!? Don't you just love the little tiny underwear that now fills your laundry baskets? (am I weird for thinking they are cute?)

Its a big deal and a "right of passage" into pre-school hood. I am proud of my Pax and I am thankful we waited so he could truly feel successful!