Ok so Khyri and I embarked on a journey Wednesday December 21st. We started potty training. Now I've said to my friend Dawn that I think potty training is the hardest thing a parent has to adjust to/learn. I can lose sleep waking up to nurse, I can change sheets from diaper blowouts or spit up, I can vacuum up thrown food over and over - but potty training!?!??! This joint had me scuuured.
I don't know what made me decide to jump right in and start the week before Christmas. I guess one night me and the Hubs were downstairs watching a movie and Khyri nicely announced to us that he had pooped. At that point - I knew he was ready.
Last weekend I stayed up reading everything I could get my hands on about potty training. There is a TON of information out there. I focused mostly on some tips that I received from my friend Danielle and also an ebook that I found online. It was good to arm myself with information, but I noticed that most of it was geared towards potty training girls - well no that's not true, the information just wasn't focused on potty training boys. They don't talk about how you should put the boys on the toilet. I've heard mixed reviews - some say face them forward, some face them backward so that its an easier transition to standing up. I figured I'd just starts and see what worked best for us - learn as we go right!?!? There wasn't any mention of teaching them how to aim in the bowl. A relative told me about using cheerios to help little boys aim. Besides missing little nuances of the training, all of my research was pretty conclusive in two areas - patience and consistency.
I decided that Khyri was going to enter potty training boot camp. The plan was to spend 4 days with him at home. No distractions. Just focus. First step - getting underwear.
The 3 day technique that I decided to use said I would probably need about 20 pairs of underwear. Monday afternoon my friend Jennifer and I went to Wally World to get some. I got 2 packs of the plain navy, gray, and white undies and then I let Khyri choose between Thomas the Train or Mickey Mouse for his 'special' pairs. He went with Mickey and we came home with a total of 27 pairs of underwear. I prepped each bathroom with toilet paper and potty seats. I made sure all of the step stools were in place. I was ready to go.
Khyri went to school on Tuesday; His last day in diapers *sigh*. Wednesday it began. When he woke up and came into the room around 8:30am I said "Khyri today is a big day, we aren't going to use diapers anymore. Let's throw this diapers in the trash (blasphemy - you never throw away cloth!) We are only going to wear underwear." He actually smiled and we high-fived! (I went back and got that diaper out the trash.. hmph) Sounds cool doesn't it!?? I used positive words and I tried to give him control "Khyri please tell mommy when you need to potty." "You let mommy know when you need to use the potty." I knew there would be a lot of accidents. I was prepared. I had already laid the Resolve out ready to scrub out any mishaps. There were clean underwear in each bathroom. I put the gate at the top of the stairs so everyone was trapped up top and the pee would be contained hahahaha.
The technique says the first day I was supposed to be focused on watching Khyri and his clues for when he needed to pee. So I watched. and watched. and watched. His first accident was at 10:48am. Nothing major. The ebook said when you see water pick him up and rush him to the potty. So I did. I scooped him up and plopped him on the potty seat. I felt accomplished. Not so bad. This might just be easier than I thought. wrong. The next 11 times, yes, 11 he was spraying left and right up and down all over. It was ridiculous. I jotted down a few of the times 12:14pm, 1:18pm, 2:01pm, 2:11pm, 2:25pm... my head started spinning. At one point I got on the floor and literally started crying. I was so overwhelmed. By the way I was breaking a BIG rule of potty train, never let them see you get frustrated. Whatever. I was boo hooing for all I was worth. It was quite cathartic. ahhahahaha. Of course Khyri breaks my somber mood by climbing on my back saying "Khyri's riding" over and over.. fool don't your see I'm crying!?!? arrrgggghhh.. ok regroup.
I decided to revamp the technique a bit. Let's back up - the ebook said that I needed to keep giving Khyri liquids non stop to make him go to the bathroom more. Well it was just too much for me. So instead, I went to liquid every hour. This meant that on the half hours he should need to pee. MUCH better technique. We went from peeing every 20 minutes to every hour or so. By 7 pm on day one I was beat. I seriously contemplated giving up and waiting a few more months, but I resigned to forge ahead and more through with day two. Khyri went to bed with a pull up on.
So Thursday came and I woke up with renewed interest and dedication. I didn't put him in underwear
I just let him go commando. I could tell he was getting more control, but I was really frustrated by mid morning so I tweaked the technique again. All of the research says that you are not supposed to punish or chastise the toddler while trying to potty train. Well I decided to scrap that by rewarding for good behavior, but also reprimanding for bad behavior. If he made it to the potty I clapped, danced, and gave him an m&m. If he wet on the floor, I popped him on the leg and put him in the corner. I got to this point because he was holding his pee. If I saw him start a stream I would grab him and take him to the potty - but he would stop his stream and hold it. Then literally if I turned my eyes off him for 2 seconds he would pee on the floor. He knew what he was doing. It was time to get real serious. Now I am not big on hitting at all, but Khyri needed a wake up call. He is a very playful boy so everything is a game. Me giving him a stern talking to after he peed on the floor wasn't cutting it. I needed to step it up a notch. I made him stand in the corner for the entire time that I had to clean up his pee and then once I was finished I turned him around and told him again where to go pee and that it was not ok for him to pee on the floor. We hugged and I said "Let's try again". Tough Love at its best (Well my best hahaha)
I think day 2 was the turnaround day. Auntie Netta said the popping is probably what snapped him into gear - "Oh lord! she done lost her mind. I guess she isn't playing games anymore" hahaha. I don't know what it was exactly, but something definitely clicked with him. By the end of Day 2 when I asked Khyri "Where does pee pee go?" He would answer "In the potty". At 4:58pm we had a major breakthrough. I scooped him up in enough time and got him to finish in the potty. We happened to be in the bathroom without the potty seat so I had to keep him standing up. Whooo hoooo! He still had his undies on though! (*side note* you'd never think it but peeing with the underwear on keeps the stream from going all the way to the back of the toilet seat. I actually kinda like him peeing through his undies ahahha wayyyy less cleanup!) Celebration time. Even Kielle was clapping. Progress! We had to work through our power struggle on Day 2 to get to Day 3 and it was worth it.
Day 3 came and I added one last modification. I switched up my language by saying "Remember Khyri pee pee in the potty only." This is similar language that I used during our 'crayon/marker exploration period hahaha. I always say "on paper only". I figured by using similar language he would be better at following directions. Oh and I also removed the potty seats. Apparently that was an issue for Khyri. Not only did he want to stand up and pee, but he didn't want to look at Dora, Cars, or Sesame Street. hahahha. Now we were cooking with gas. I just kept saying periodically "Khyri remember pee pee in the potty only"
At 12:09pm Khyri and Kielle were playing with blocks on the floor and guess who jumps up says "uh oh" and runs into the bathroom up the stool looks at the toilet and pees! KHYRI! all by himself! I didn't even say "Khyri do you have to potty or Khyri please tell mommy when you need to potty" I guess he said - I got this boo! hahahahah. The undies were still up, but I was soooooo happy. We did a full out potty dance - I took it back old school the wop, the cabbage patch, and the snake. I was gettin' it! Khyri was jumping around too saying "Mommy's dancing, Mommy's dancing!" "That's right becuase Khyri went pee pee in the potty!"Three full days of lock down I was seriously celebrating. Could there really be a light at the end of the tunnel? hahahahah. I followed the ebooks suggestion and pretended to call people and brag about Khyri on the toilet. He just kept saying "pee pee on potty only" looking at me like - if you would have just said that from the beginning we'd be well past this point by now.hahahahaha. The rest of the day he was just getting better and better. When he needed to potty he would go. At night I put him in a pull up on top of his underwear. He woke up bone dry :-)
Today is day 4 and I'm feeling kinda cocky hahahha. We did have a slight mess up this morning when Khyri went to use the potty and Daddy was in the bathroom. Poor baby looked so confused. hahahah. I also noticed that he only likes the upstairs bathrooms. He doesn't take too kindly to the half bath downstairs. Maybe its too small of a space? I don't know. So we need to work on that. Day 3 and 4 progressed so well that I took a leap today and we all headed to Babies R Us. The books say to stay away from the house no more than 20 minutes. We stayed out 55. Khyri hadn't been out in 3 days and he LOVES to be outside. He needed a good bit of fresh air. I prepared for the outing with an extra pair of pants in tow and I put towels in his car seat (gotta protect the Cam at all times!). Extra precaution, but it wasn't needed. He did great. I did remind him when we got home to pee pee only in the potty and he did so about a half hour later.
We still need to work on pulling down the undies in time and we haven't embarked on poop yet - that's the final frontier. But I am so proud of Khyri. This is a big Big BIG step and he's doing well :-) He will be going back to daycare on Tuesday in undies only. We'll see how it goes in a different environment. These past 4 days of lock down have been full of lessons. I learned that Khyri doesn't like potty seats, likes to pee standing up and prefers not to tell people when he pees. So really.. who's training who?
