So I bought Cooper a potty when he was about 18 months old. Everything I have always read said that is the earliest a child will be ready for potty training. We didn't do anything with it, just put it next to our potty and were able to relay its purpose with various books. I started inviting him with me when I went so he could get used to the idea.
He was really interested at first. In fact, he kept diapers dry for a whole weekend. But at the time, he was in a classroom that wasn't focusing on potty training and to be completely honest, I am not sure I would've gotten the partnership necessary for being quite successful, plus he was really young.
We stopped for the most part after that. If you have ever read anything about potty training, although there are many different theories and ways to be successful, every single one stresses the importance of keeping it exciting and not putting ANY pressure on the child. It just wasn't Cooper's time. He ended up getting really sick after that so it actually worked out for the best. It would've been pretty difficult potty training in a hospital room hooked up to machines all the time.
Fast forward 8 months...
Over the past several weeks, Coop started showing all the signs. He was waking up from nap dry almost every day and only going in his diaper 4-6 times each day, sometimes lasting 4 hours in between. It just so happened, this weekend we had no plans so it seemed like this was the time.
That day, I talked to his teacher about coming up with a plan and really encouraging him to sit every diaper change. Coop only wet 3 diapers during school that day. As soon as we got home he went in his potty!
Friday, I brought some potty treats and a potty chart for his teacher. Together they had a mini potty party, hung up his chart in the bathroom and talked about the treats. He sat on the potty but it was clear to his teacher that the potty was a little scary. She said he acted like he might fall in and suggested I bring an insert for it.
Friday after school, Rick and I took Coop to target to pick out his potty seat. He was pretty excited and upon arrival home carried it all around the house. We pulled out the underwear we had gotten back in February, showed them to Coop, hung up his potty chart and checked out the potty treats. We talked about how tomorrow was going to start our Potty Partay No Pants Day! Needless to say Coop was excited.
So I guess I should get to the theory. The theory is the 3 day potty training method. We varied ours a little, shortening it to 2 days instead of 3 official days being that Coop had 2 successful days of "holding it" at school. We also didn't stay completely naked. Saturday morning Coop was really sad after he WENT POTTY that he couldn't put a diaper on so we had to make a minor adjustment. I whipped out his rock star elmo underwear and suggested we put the diapers away for good and wear his big boy pants instead. Thankfully, Coop was excited and that was that.
Over the course of Saturday, Coop had 1 #1 accident and 1 #2 accident. Both were back to back and in the morning. During his #1 accident I thought he was going to cry because he hated it on his legs and feet and underwear. (This being a good sign to his momma!) He stayed dry, going in the potty every time until bedtime. Right before bed, he had another very small accident during story time, in fact I am wondering if he started to go and then stopped because it was so little. Not too shabby for Day #1!
After polling other moms, we were unsure what to do for the night. He stayed dry during nap, but as I mentioned before he has been dry after nap for weeks. We got some waterproof training pants meant to go over Coop's underwear but he HATED them, and I really can't blame him, they are awful. We opted for continuing with the underwear and just used a mattress protector that snapped to his bed rails.
Coop was SOAKED when he woke up. We cut off liquids around 7pm and he went right before bedtime which is usually 8:30pm. Rick and I quickly agreed we would be going with night time pullups for awhile.
Today, I was super nervous. I have heard that others who have tried this were met with insane resistance the 2nd day. I really had no idea what to expect and honestly was exhausted from being excited about peepee all day the day prior but Coop did wonderfully. He started to tell us when his 15 minute alarm went off no potty mommy. When he actually had to go he would get really excited and race to the potty.
Today, Coop had 1 #2 accident. But ALL of his peepee ended up in the potty. Even after he got his pjs and "nighttime pants" as we are calling them, he went 2 more times before he actually went to sleep. Halfway through today, he would go to the potty and wouldn't even ask for his sticker or treat. We had to remind him and his response was "oh, yeah sure!" like it really wasn't that important.
Throughout the day, Rick and I just kept looking at each other, like is this really happening? I was pretty confident he was ready going into this weekend, but I really had NO IDEA it would go so well.
Thankfully, I warned his teacher last week that if this weekend went well, I would be packing him a basket full of laundry and underwear and we would be going cold turkey. She was totally on board so that definitely helped with our momentum this weekend.
So we said bye bye diapers. We will see them again when the new baby joins us. And hopefully that is far enough away that Cooper won't revert back when the baby comes, but we know that is definitely a possibility.
Don't get me wrong. Coop isn't 100% potty trained. He hasn't gone #2 in the potty since February. And I am sure we will have some accidents tomorrow and the next day and probably over the next several weeks. But all of the success stories I have heard and witnessed were cold turkey, so here we go.
So here we are about to embark on the school week. I am super nervous but as everyone is reminding me, he is super cooper, he will rock it out!
I want to point out we didn't really do anything special. Cooper was ready, and we are just responding to the signs he was sending us. I do know that window of potty opportunity can come and go (I have potty trained a few 4 year olds in my day) and we wanted to give it a shot. Just like we let it go when he showed us signs he wasn't quite ready back in February. Wish us luck! The work is far from over! :)
[Other variations: We didn't leave the house at all on Saturday. We did take him outside Sunday afternoon in the backyard, but the deal was he had to go potty first. This is supposed to teach them to pee on command,and associating the importance of peeing before leaving the house.
We also let him wear pants over his underwear on day 2. He is going to have to wear pants to school. We opted for sweatpants. I only packed him pants that don't need to button for school tomorrow, and he may live in those for the next few weeks, which is totally fine with me.
And by no means are we going to follow that part about keeping him naked for the first 3 months following this weekend. I am pretty sure the moms of his classmates wouldn't appreciate that.]
