Friday, August 5, 2011

Potty training boot camp

In my last post, I mentioned how we have been working with Mason on being a big boy. Well Sunday was a big day in our house. Mason said goodbye to diapers!!
But before I talk about that let me back track. Hello, my name is Mary and I am a procrastinator. There I said it. I owned it. I knew that Mason had to be potty trained to start school (umm on August 17th) and we have talked about doing it all summer. But something always come up... a trip to my parents, fifth's disease, birthday parties... you get the point, I was putting it off. We did try. On July 12th we began the morning in underwear and by 10:30 he was crying, begging for diapers and still had not done anything in the potty and I thought I can't do this, not today so we put back on a diaper. Well, I finally realized we had to really get started on this since you know school starts in less than a month. My plan was to start on Saturday- do the whole potty training in 3 days- no pullups just underwear, practice, practice, practice. This way I had two days with Steve to help before he went to work. Well last Friday, we got a letter in the mail that said the sweetest words, it said "we want our 3 year old class to be potty trained, but parents don't stress, it will happen." I took this as- "they don't have to be potty trained- you're alright in diapers." WOO HOO. On Saturday, we got up and ran errands all day, we didn't try- I mean you read the note, don't stress. Then on Saturday night, I got a call. A call that brought me back to reality. It was my dear sister, Mel, who asked how our potty training day went and I told her about the letter- knowing she would be excited too, until she said the most honest thing I needed to hear. She said, "you still have to try. it means it's okay if he has accidents but he still needs to be working on it." AND I am back to reality. So Sunday morning we got up, put on underwear and we haven't looked back.
Day 1- in his boxer briefs- I love them!

Showing off Wilson- his reward for trying all day. (this was his only reward for the week, but it got him sitting on the potty)

Mind you, Mason HAD NEVER gone on the potty. So last Sunday we pumped him full of liquid and waited to see what happened. He didn't want to sit on the potty so we offered a reward for the day. I said if you try to potty all day, it doesn't matter how many accidents you have, you just have to try then after dinner you can have Wilson (a clearance toy I had picked up a few weeks back that I was saving for a rainy day) We sat every 10 minutes on the toilet- it was a painful hour and a half, but once he went, he began to get it. Sunday was full of accidents- 9 pairs of underwear later we ended the day. Monday was better- 2 accidents. Tuesday-0. Wednesday-1. Thursday-1. Friday-0. We didn't leave the house until today and even then, I was a nervous wreck, but I realized at some point we would have to leave and if we had an accident in public I would deal with it.
The week was full of lots of tears-both Mason and mine. He has done great with #1, it is #2 we are struggling with. But everyday it is getting better and after a week, there is no turning back. We said bye to diapers and we are sticking with it.
today. showing off his underwear. and boots. Yes we are styling.
I love Mater on the bottom!
If you are working on potty training or about to start I would really recommend just going straight from diapers to underwear. It was hard, it was painful, but he got it. Yes we may still have a few accidents but there isn't any confusion. He is a big boy, he wears underwear.
No looking back.

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