Potty Training

After looking into several potty training strategies, we decided to potty train Peyton using the 3-day potty training method. It was my first choice for strategies, and after reading a favorite blog of mine about a family with quads being able to successfully train all four of their kids with this method, I knew it was the best choice for us too. If they could do four, we could definitely do one. Right? We just never had three days in a row to devote to the training. Finally, our chance came over Memorial Day weekend.

Step one of the training is to buy lots and lots of underwear. The author of the method recommended 20-30 pairs! Yikes. So Peyton and I took a trip to the store on Wednesday so that he could pick out his own underwear. He chose some Sesame Street ones and some Cars ones. He was so excited about the underwear. He held on to them throughout the store, and even proudly showed them to the lady in line behind us. That was sort of embarrassing, but super cute too, and she played along with him, so it wasn't that bad.

Step two of the training is to throw away all of the diapers in the house. It seems like overkill, but this step is more for the parents more than the child, because it leaves the parents with no crutch, nothing to fall back on. It forces you to stick out the potty training without quitting. When we got home from the carnival on Friday night, we made a huge deal about throwing away all of the diapers. We let Peyton throw them away. (Ok, I'll be honest - we only "threw them away." I had bought a huge box of diapers not that long ago and I wasn't going to waste them. We put them in a box and put them in Hunter's room.) Peyton knew that in the morning he would only be wearing big boy underwear, which he was so excited about!

I woke up with Peyton on Saturday morning. We took off his last diaper ever(!) and put him in some big boy underwear. The plan is to only wear underwear and a t-shirt. Here's Peyton modeling his new underwear.

The overall concept of this method is to catch the child each time they have an accident, and then run them to the bathroom so that they can finish their business on the potty. The child can't wear pants because that makes it harder to see if they are having an accident. We purchased a huge plastic drop cloth and put it in our living room so that it would contain all of the accidents. And my, were there a lot of accidents. It was just accident after accident on Saturday. He absolutely no concept of being able to tell us when he had to go to the bathroom. A key point of this method is to NOT ask the child if they have to go potty. You need to say "Tell mommy or daddy if you have to go potty." It makes them feel like they're in control. I think over the weekend, Kyle and I said that phrase, oh, a million times. (Um, we're still saying it a hundred times a day!) Saturday was really exhausting since we had to keep an eye on Peyton at ALL times. We couldn't even get on the computer or anything because that took focus away from Peyton. It was such a long day.

On Sunday, Kyle got up with Peyton. Sunday was even worse than Saturday. I think Peyton went through most of his 20 pairs of underwear. We even had to do some laundry too. It was more of the same though - lots of pee on the floor. Luckily, he didn't poop in his underwear at all. Kyle and I were incredibly frustrated by Sunday evening. We had to take turns calming each other down. Another key point to this method is to stay positive at all times. That was REALLY tough!

Monday morning, I woke up with Peyton. He still had lots of accidents but peed/pooped on the potty a few times. He was still no where near being fully trained though. He knew that when he had an accident that he was doing something wrong though, because he would get a really embarrassed look on his face and then apologize profusely to us. I guess that was a step in the right direction? Anyone who said this method works in three days is a liar. Haha. By Monday evening, Peyton was having so many accidents in a row that I had a breakdown. I'm sure it was largely in part due to my hormones. But I started crying and just couldn't stop for an hour! Peyton was in the other room, and I heard him saying things to Kyle like, "Where's mommy? Mommy is so sad. Why is mommy crying?" It was cute (now, looking back on it... but not at the time!) Kyle explained to Peyton that mommy was sad because he was not being a big boy.

We decided to keep Peyton home from daycare on Tuesday so that he could have one more day of training. We knew that daycare really wouldn't be any help. On Tuesday, it definitely did click for Peyton and he went on the potty so many times, telling Kyle that he had to go each time. They would call me at work so that Peyton could tell me all about it. He was so proud. We had a sticker reward system in place all weekend. Each time Peyton went on the potty or woke up dry from nap or bedtime, he would get a sticker. Once he filled up his sticker chart, he got a prize.

I think he's had an accident each day since last weekend, but he tells us all of the time now whenever he has to go to the bathroom. He also wakes up dry every morning and after his naps. So we are completely diaper free! It was a really stressful four days, but it was definitely worth it to have Peyton out of diapers. Now if only Hunter could be born potty trained...