We dabbled in potty training and big boy underwear in Houston over the past few months, but I decided I didn't want to really give it my all until we were settled in Korea so I wouldn't have to worry about a newly potty trained child on an airplane all day long. When Talton and I began discussing serious potty training a week ago, I had no idea what I was doing or how to go about it. It seems as though potty training is one of those things everyone does differently, so when a friend suggested I read a short e-book called "3 Day Potty Training", I thought it was worth a shot. After reading it, it seemed as though this was something I could do. It required me to give Connar my full attention for 3 days straight. And when I say full attention, I do mean I couldn't take my eyes off of him in order for this time and effort to be the most efficient and successful. That's when I decided I would have to wait until the following weekend when Talton would be home and could deal with Parker for Saturday and Sunday.
Well Saturday morning rolled around, and I took Connar's diaper off. I told him, "Connar, from now on you're not going to wear diapers anymore. You're a big boy now, and big boys wear big boy underwear. Babies wear diapers." And with that, he walked his last diaper to the diaper trash can.
He was so excited to put big boy underwear on! Talton and I got a real kick out of watching him walk around like a big boy. Saturday and Sunday were spent watching Connar like a hawk. I'm not exaggerating in the least when I say we reminded him every couple minutes, "Connar, tell Mommy or Daddy when you need to go potty. We don't pee pee in our underwear. We pee pee on the toilet. Okay, Connar?" Eventually, I could tell that he was tired of me saying that every 3 or 4 minutes, because he would say, "Yes ma'am" before I even finished what I was saying. :) BUT I continued saying it every few minutes to reinforce what we wanted him to do. He started catching on to what it felt like to have to potty after a few times of going in his underwear. At this point, he'd pee pee a little bit and quickly stop himself to hold the rest in, and then he'd tell us he needed to go to the potty as he ran to the restroom. Even though he did go a little in his underwear, this showed us he was beginning to understand what we meant by going pee pee in the potty. We were thrilled he was getting it! The first night was pretty successful... He didn't go potty in the bed at all! He did, however, get himself out of bed and stand at the door when he had to pee. Thinking he wasn't allowed to come out because he was suppose to be sleeping, he stood at his bedroom door and peed right there. This was a good learning experience for Talton and I, because this was when we realized we could no longer tell him, "Don't get out of bed" when we put him to bed at night. From now on, we knew we'd have to tell him, "It's time to go to sleep right now, but later if you need to potty, it's okay to get out of bed to tell Mommy you need to potty." Day 2 was better than Day 1 with less accidents. Night 2 was not as successful as Night 1. He pottied in his bed twice, so I was busy changing and washing sheets throughout the night. Day 3 was Monday, and Talton had to go to work. This meant I would have to watch Connar like a hawk while keeping up with Parker too. Day 3 was pretty good, I have to say, except for one little thing... Not having gone poo poo Saturday or Sunday, Connar really needed to do so on Monday. The problem was, he didn't want to do it in the toilet. I could tell he needed to because he tried hiding by going in other rooms or behind a curtain to be by himself....that's what he would do when he needed to poo poo when he wore a diaper so I was already keen to his little game. Plus, he was walking a little funny. I kept making him come back to sit by me (remember, he was to be my shadow for 3 days straight) and he continued trying to hide from me. I eventually got him to sit on the toilet to poo poo, and he did just a little. While he was "trying", he told me, "Stop looking at me, Mommy." Peeing on the toilet was no big deal, but this was a completely different ball game. Once he went, we called Talton at work and made a huge deal out of it. Then, about 15 minutes later, I saw him standing really still and could tell he wasn't done with his business. I picked him up and ran to the restroom to let him finish in the toilet, but it was too late. All I gotta say is thank goodness it was a ball. :) Other than the poo poo issue that day, his Day 3 was pretty good.
Since then, Connar has had really great days where he doesn't have one accident at all as well as a couple days where he had minor accidents. (There was one time he had an accident when I was in the other room getting Parker. I came back in the room to find Connar jumping in his "accident" all over the floor...yuck. This was a good example of why I shouldn't have taken my eyes off of him for even a second.) Night time has gone really great. We wake him up about 3 hours after he falls asleep to take him potty. Since we've been in Korea, he has been waking up a couple times in the middle of the night to come to our bed, so since he's still doing that, I quickly take him to the potty and then put him back in bed. It also helps that we stop giving him drinks a few hours before bed. We give him sips at dinner, but we don't let him have his own cup at the table in hopes of keeping his bladder as empty as possible leading up to night time. As far as poo poo goes, it's still a struggle. He does not like to go on the toilet. We did catch him just in time yesterday and got him to poo poo on the toilet, and then we clapped and gave him a big treat. :) Every time I bring up poo poo, though, he is still completely disinterested in even discussing it. "I don won go poo poo, Mommy."
Throughout this whole process, we've been very positive with him, even when it was difficult doing so. We never yelled at him or used negative words. Even if he had a tiny accident before catching himself, we'd scoop him up, let him finish on the toilet, and then praise him to high heaven for going on the potty. That has worked really well. We've also used a lot of different treats: a variety of candy, popsicles, celebratory phone calls, time on the iPad with his games, and stickers.
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| Here is one of the stickers he chose.... money! |
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| Another time he chose an airplane sticker as his treat. He immediately took it to his toy plane to compare the two. |
We started off potty training using thick, white training underwear. Then, I pulled out the super cute underwear.
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| His cute underwear collection consists of Thomas the Train, Cars, and Toy Story. When I showed these to him for the first time, he said, "Those are so cool!" :) |
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| I just love watching him walk around like a big boy with his new underwear on. I'm sure that sounds silly, but I do. It's just too too adorable!!! |
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| He was so proud of himself for wearing big boy underwear. Check out those dinosaur slippers too! Now that's quite the outfit. :) |
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| That is the cutest hiney I've ever seen in tiny people underwear! |
