Potty Training Day 1

I am starting this post at 11:30 am and plan on continuing it for the rest of the day. I wanted to document our potty training. This is our third time trying potty training. The first was when Johnny was about 21 months old, he just couldn't hold pee, he just leaked all day, he wasn't physically ready. The second time was last month and we just tried cloth training pants, but he didn't care when he was wet. So this time Johnny and Mommy are not going anywhere all week and Johnny is going around the house half naked, which he enjoys.

All morning we have been going to sit on the potty every 15-30 minutes and sit there until something comes out or about 10 minutes pass, reading books and playing dinosaurs. Twice during our regular sittings he has peed on the potty! He realizes it and gets really excited, we clapped and yelled and made a really big deal out of it.

Johnny had to take his favorite two dinosaurs and his elephant with him, he held on tight so none of his friends fell in.

We wondered outside to water Mommy's plants and Johnny found his new little chairs and got comfy. He would have sat there all day, but there where lots of bees, see the dandelions! Daddy is going to take care of it tonight.

Once this morning Johnny peed while sitting on the floor and got up saying "potty" and we rushed to the potty, but he must have emptied on the floor...no big deal, I was so proud that he knew he needed to go to the potty. Just now Johnny peed a little on the floor, stopped himself and said "potty," so we ran to the potty and he peed a bunch! I was so proud! We clapped and laughed together and we hugged.

The Afternoon:
He peed quite a bit in his training pants at nap time and woke up angry about it, but once we handle peeing on the potty awake we will work on holding it while asleep. Then once out of bed he peed a little on the floor without noticing it, but Momma noticed it shortly after it came out and rushed to the bathroom. It concerns me that maybe he was leaking all morning and I just didn't notice it. But we hold the course steady, what else can we do? This is the point where Momma started to waver the last two times we tried, the afternoons seem to be harder, but I can't give up on him again, he is a smart kid and deserves to be aloud to grow up.

3 pm SUCCESS!! Johnny is eating his snack and asks me "potty?" I say "YES" and grab him...we sit down and he pees a bunch! Laughing and clapping the entire time! Then he even tried to push a little, so a poo poo might be on its way. He also seems to like to sit on the potty with Momma's undivided attention and lots of books! I like it too!!!

3:20 pm DOUBLE SUCCESS!!! Momma is sitting at the computer and Johnny is playing behind me, I hear "potty poo poo, Momma potty" and he went running for the bathroom!!! He got his little stool put it in front of the potty and climbed onto the toilet all by himself! Then peed and pooped!!!! That is my big boy!! He immediately got off to look into the potty and say bye bye to his poo poo! As sad as it makes me that he is growing up, I am close to tears with pride at this accomplishment!

4:30 pm another success!!! As I clean the floor in the bathroom he comes in and asks what I am doing, I tell him and ask if he wants to go potty and, there ya go, back on the potty and immediately a full bladder is empty!

I have learned to time our trips to sit on the potty around what he is doing, to catch him in between toys and not to put on any full length movies, (Land Before Time) but only shows with a break in the story line every 15-20 minutes like dinosaur train or Elmo's World. If you try to take him away from something he is enjoying to go to the potty he will just yell and not pee pee. But at this point in the afternoon he is telling me when he needs to go and stares at me blankly when I just put him on.

6 pm AGAIN! After an hour and a half of trips to try to potty and a couple false alarms we have yet another success!!! With NO leaks or accidents in between! This stream was long and I was scared to clap and congratulate him until it was done for fear he would stop. He told me "potty" we went to the bathroom, sat on the toilet and there ya go...again! I will be putting his training pants on him for dinner, because bare butt at the table seems unhealthy. Oh and he isn't fully naked, just bottomless, he has been wearing a T-shirt all day.

7:15 pm After an hour or so in the training pants they where completely dry when I took them off! And we sat on the potty again with nothing coming out. But he is getting tired since he didn't nap well having peed and been angry about being wet. So he is taking a bath now and then will go into a diaper for bed.

Shawn and I discussed that if the potty training goes really well this week that we will transform his crib into a toddler bed, so we can minimize night diapers and work on complete potty training, i e him getting out of bed to potty if he needs to. He does know and welcome bed time and even puts himself to bed when he can get into his crib alone. The only thing is, that I thought we would need him to still be contained in the crib when Lily gets here just in case she wakes him in the middle of the night. But we will see how the rest of the week goes. We have NO plans to go anywhere or do anything but pee on the potty!

Today was a very hopeful and positive start. I attribute some of this to Grams and Pops trip to the beach with the kids this past week end. They had him on the potty when ever they could and in his swim trunks with no diaper or little swimmer for a good deal of the time. They both say that they noticed every once in a while he would stop and spread his legs a little bit and look down, or even see the pee running down his leg and once while he was pooping in his diaper he told them and walked funny, obviously not wanting the poo there. He was perfectly ready to start this with momma today. We had so few accidents and I feel like he is really catching on. A couple more days bare butt and then maybe we will try underwear again.

One unrelated sweet story: while Johnny was in his dinner time training pants he was cuddling with me!!! Which is sweet and out of his norm anyways, but Mommy's belly was in the way so we talked about a baby being in Mommy's belly and he was catching on, even lifting his shirt to ask if there was a baby in his belly. Then he kissed my belly, it was very sweet. Mommy and Johnny had a few sweet moments talking about the new baby and cuddling together! He kept moving my arms to make sure I was holding him the way he wanted me to hold him saying "hold me." I will forever cherish these moments and this day, just Mommy and Johnny having a great growing day together. He really helped my Mommy self esteem today, he is a good and smart boy!