Potty Training - Part I

Well, we finally took the plunge. We've tried potty training several times without much success and giving up fairly easily. (I looked back in Nate's baby book - aka the bunch of post it notes I have thrown inside his baby book- and there are notes about how he was going poo and pee on the potty in September...of 2007.) But this past weekend we dove into potty training and we're not looking back!

Since we've tried this in the past and did not get very far, I decided that we should try something different. There is a book about "Potty Training in One Day". The basic idea is that you have a big party for your toddler and focus the whole day around potty training. So the night before we started training, Ken and I decorated the bathroom with streamers and balloons, wrapped up the new doll that Nate was supposed to train to use the potty in the morning, got the treats and surprises all wrapped up, and laid out the potty videos and books we got at the library.

Sunday morning we hear Nate start talking so Ken and I muster up all the enthusiasm that could possibly be had at 7:30 am and rush into Nate's room and tell him there is a surprise for him downstairs in the bathroom. Now, the book said as long as you are excited about the doll, the child will be too. Nate tore downstairs and could care less that there was a wrapped present inside for him. All he wanted were the balloons that we had used to decorate for the "potty party". He finally opened the doll but really could care less. I ended up naming the doll Pete for him. We were supposed to start watching potty videos and reading potty books and getting Nate and Pete both excited about being big boys. I was thinking this would be great because Nate loves to watch TV. We had Elmo's Potty Time and Bear in the Big Blue House Potty DVDs along with some potty video from Huggies. Nate unenthusiastically chose Elmo to watch and five minutes into it, he was complaining that he didn't want to watch it, he wanted to watch Blue's Clues. We convinced him to leave Elmo on for awhile.

The next step is that the child is supposed to teach the doll to use the potty. So Ken and say that Pete has to go potty and Nate should show him how to go on the potty. Success! Nate buys into the whole thing about the doll going pee on the potty. After Pete went on the potty, we picked out a sticker to go on Pete's potty chart. Then the treat. The book explains that the child will pick out a treat for the doll and if the child promises to use the potty "someday" then the child can have the dolls treat. So Nate picked out a treat for Pete but then wanted to pick out a treat for himself. We were very, very near tears and a total meltdown as we tried to explain that the treats were for using the potty and Pete has used the potty. I think he had picked his least favorite treat to give to Pete and was looking for a good one for himself.

After another 30 minutes or so of trying to get Nate to train Pete to use the potty, we gave up on the concept. It just wasn't working for Nate. So out came the new big boy pants for Nate and on they went. We spent the rest of the day running to the potty and practicing going. Two big wet accidents the first day and couple of little ones. But there were several successes along with two poos on the potty! Today my parent's came over and watched Nate with about the same amount of successes and accidents as the day before. Tomorrow my sisters are tag teaming since I have a doctor's appointment at 3:30 and then Ken and I tour the maternity ward at the hospital in the evening. We are so lucky to be able to have family pitch in like this with the training. We're hoping to have Nate trained well enough to go to the sitter's on Wednesday or Thursday without too much back tracking.

So this is the last of the three big hurdles I wanted to have tackled with Nate before the baby arrives. The binky fairy took the binkies at the end of the summer. He started sleeping in his big boy bed a couple of weeks ago. And now potty training. Is his third birthday really only two weeks away?!?