Golightly thru Life: 3 day potty training

We attempted a somewhat modified 3 day potty training plan over the weekend.

I thought I'd put it out there with every detail b/c I've read about potty triaining in books or on sites and I always have questions and want to know the experience step for step. I know every kid and their readiness and each situation is different so I'll give you a little background on how we got here and this is just our experience.

Nicholas is 2 years 2 months. He was fully potty trained once before at about 17 months. He basically trained himself, it was so easy. He goes to DC with his 2 cousins who are 1 year and 2 years older and they were training so he basically watched them and just picked it up. We went 1 full week in big boy undies, no accidents. He wore diapers only for sleep and would wake up dry most times. Then we went on vacation. Dun dun dun. My niece who was just turning 1 at the time was "the new baby" in the house and Nicholas was jealous. After 1 day he refused to go on the potty anymore and went back to diapers. (I completely blame my sister for this. I don't know why she couldn't have her child trained by then to avoid conflict.)

So here we are again. Nicholas can go on the potty when he wants but is mostly stubborn about it and only goes if he feels like it. I decided to just do it when he brought me a clean diaper and said "I'm peeing. New diaper."

Using the 3 day weekend, I figured we'd give it a shot.

*I went diaperless. Nicholas was basically naked from the waist down all weekend. I've tried just undies before but he still looks at is as something to pee in so I figured we'd give naked a shot.

*I set an alarm on my phone. I figured he'd get more excited about hearing "The Hot Dog Song" or "Spongebob" when it was time to go rather than a ding on a timer.

*I set the alarm for varying times depending on when he last went. I know he goes at least an hour in between pees most times so if he just went I would set it for 45 minutes or so. If he hadn't gone in a while I would set it for about 30 minutes.

*I gave him 1 M&M for sitting and trying. 2 if he actually peed, 3 if he pood, and I would have given him the whole bag if told me he had to go and actually went (not really but I would have given him a lot)

*As a reward for going I gave him a "sticker" to put on the wall. Nicholas loves stickers but he loves to put them on something, pull them off, repeat until they're not sticky anymore. So I made our stickers out of Post-it notes and drew a star on them. Then he could stick them on any wall in the house and take them off as many times as he wanted

*We stayed close to home most of the weekend only going out for about an hour at a time and he wore Pull-Ups then and when he slept for nighttime and naps.

*I pushed fluids more than normal. I gave him lots and lots of diluted juice a little less diluted than normal just to entice him to drink

Here's the schedule of how it went

Saturday 05/29/10
Woke up. Took his diaper off and we went to the potty. He said NO! He didn't want to sit on the potty at all. Dribbled on the floor right outside bathroom. We sat and he did go eventually. 6.22AM

Nothing
7.32am

Nothing
7.37am

Nothing
8.13am

False alarm, thought he needed to go before the next alarm went off
8.37am

Dribbled on kitchen floor during breakfast, finish on potty
9.15am

Nothing
10.16am

Nothing
10.59am

Dribbled laying on couch, finished in potty. FYI, when a little boy is laying on the couch nekkid and pees it goes straight up in the air and shoots a long way.
11.07am

By this time he was working on his 3rd cup of diluted juice.

12-2.52 nap
Woke up dry. Tried and nothing

Pee & poo on potty, he told me he had to go without an alarm. Total success!!!!
3.06pm

Nothing
4.01pm

Nothing after dinner at alarm. Went for bath started peeing in tub. Put on potty nothing. Back in tub started peeing again put back on potty and finished
4.56pm

Nothing
6.00pm

Nothing twice within 10 minutes after he asked to go. Then he dribbled on the floor while sitting in timeout (the timeout was completely unrelated to the pottying)
6.39pm

Nothing
7.02pm

Nothing
8.01pm

Dribbled on couch, finished on potty
8.12pm

Bedtime wearing a diaper
8.20pm

Sunday 05/30/10

Woke up dry, I missed getting him on the potty before he wet the diaper. My fault, I moved too slow getting out of bed.
6.52am

Nothing before leaving the house to go to the store
7.45am

Total success notified and went pee with just a lil dribble!
8.59am

Nothing before leaving the house to go to the beach
8.45am

Nothing after returning from beach
10.01am

Poo accident on floor finished on potty
10.14am

Nothing
11.00am

Nothing
11.47am

Nap 12 – 2.30.
Woke up from nap wet. Nothing after trying anyway

Dribbled in kitchen 3 minutes before next alarm. Finish on potty
3.01pm

Nothing
3.46pm

Poo on floor 2 minutes before next alarm, finish on potty
4.28pm

Nothing
5.06pm

Nothing
5.36pm

Nothing
6.15pm

Dribbled on kitchen floor. Finish in potty
6.26pm

We had unexpected friends visiting for the rest of the evening. Wore a diaper.

Monday 05/31/10

Woke up wet, took diaper off and dribbled on floor right away. Finish on potty
6.55am

Nothing before leaving for beach
7.45am

Nothing after returning from beach
8.46am

Total success. Alarm went off, ran to potty and sat but nothing. Got up but sat back down again peed on potty. No accidents on floor
9.04am

Nothing
9.52am

Nothing
10.31am

Wanted to go in to the bathroom to try by himself. He didn’t want me to go. Nothing
10.35am

Nothing
11.16am

Nothing but 2 minutes later dribble on floor. Finish on potty
11.50am

Told me he had to poo, went on potty, no accidents
12.18pm

Nap 1-4
Woke up dry. Tried. Nothing

Full accident pee on floor but he told me he had to pee while he was peeing. Too late to run to the potty and finish
4.12pm

Nothing
5.00

Nothing
5.32pm

Dribble on floor finish in potty
5.44pm

Tried to go because I went, Nothing
6.05pm

Pee on potty before bath
6.16pm

After bath I decided to put him in big boy undies just to make him feel special and get him a little excited about it to see how it would work.

Nothing
7.27pm

Perfect! Went on potty no dribble
8.05pm

Bedtime
8.20pm

Tuesday 06/01/10

Woke up dry, tried to go but nothing. Put undies on, he had an accident before leaving the house.
*A couple of things I learned and will do differently.

Nicholas was having most of his accidents a few minutes after we just sat on the potty. He needed to sit for longer. I pulled out some books last night and it helped him sit a little bit longer.

I would cut back on the juice starting the 2nd day. I went full force on the liquids all 3 days but it made it hard to judge when his next scheduled go time should be because he was going a LOT more than normal.

So there you have it. I'm so tired of thinking about pee I don't want to even hear any words that start with the letter P today. We still have a long way to go. Mostly it's getting Nicholas excited about it and him wanting to do it. We'll just keep trying.

He looks thrilled doesn't he?