Well hello! Exhausted mama here reporting in at the end of day 1 of potty training. I’m thrilled to say the day went far better than expected (the kiddo is rocking it!) But man, oh man. The hyper vigilance (which was 90% unnecessary by hour 3) will take it out of you. My kid, typical champion sleeper, of course woke up earlier than he ever has today and only took a 45 minute nap.
I am, as they say, le’tired. (Do they say that? I don’t know.)
For context, the tot is pretty much exactly 2.5 years old. He’s a wild child who almost never stops moving. I had my doubts about this process, but like I mentioned earlier — it went far better than expected. I’ll break down how I prepared for this blessed day and what I found to actually work.
How to prepare to potty train a toddler
Wine. Lots of wine. No, wait. Sorry. Wrong notes. I won’t lie. The whole concept of potty training has freaked me out my entire parenting journey thus far. And up until today, it’s always been a future Joey’s problem. Well, future Joey wants to smack past Joey upside the head for stressing out about it so much. Because just like with most things in my life, I can do anything for X amount of time. And so can you. And I can also pretty much guarantee you that YOUR attitude and “vibe” will set the tone (and the success rate) of the experience for your kiddo.
What I bought for potty training
- This potty chair
- This toilet seat insert; will eventually install one of these and leave the insert at my mom’s house
- This step stool
- A bundle of Pete the cat books (they’re his favorite and I figured a handful of new books couldn’t hurt)
- A pack of paper towels
- A bag of skittles (proud to say these remained unused — but I had them just in case)
- Oh crap! Potty Training! By Jamie Glowacki (I didn’t technically buy it — the audiobook is included in the premium subscription of Spotify)
What method to use for potty training | Day 1 experience
I believe potty training is much like skinning a cat (is this something people do often? Because I swear people talk about skinning cats far more than anyone actually skins a cat…but I digress). There’s more than one way to do it. And all roads lead to the same destination — you just have to ask yourself which route you’re most comfortable with. My mom, she’s a scenic route less-cars-on-the-road kind of lady. I, on the other hand, want to take the express way. We both end up in the same place eventually.
I took Jamie’s advice to heart. That being said, that’s really the only advice I consumed. I tend to get overwhelmed easily and fall into analysis paralysis. And when it comes to something like potty training — something that has to be done — I figured it would be best for me to just pick a lane and stick with it. So I opted for the Oh crap! Potty training method.
There are plenty of gimmicks out there — most of which claim to have your child potty trained in 3 days, some even less. What I appreciated about Jamie’s advice is that she doesn’t track the process by days. She tracks it by blocks. And those blocks might align with days. They might not. Every child is different. Where this process tends to go off the rails is when the parent(s) put a little too much pressure on the situation. C’mon little Johnny!! It’s day 2! You should be doing this on your own by now!
Little Johnny isn’t going to perform under that kind of pressure. Could you?
You’re taking your child from: clueless to “I’m peeing” to “I peed” to “I have to pee.” And it takes as long as it takes to from one phase to the next.
Here’s what I did for potty training day 1
That boy was naked. All. day. long. He did occasionally ask to put a shirt on, which I allowed, but it inevitably got soaked either playing at the water table outside or with this sink inside and it would come off. We went through 3 shirts today.
The potty chair was nearby at all times. I explained to him what it was and that big kids put their pee pee and poop in the potty. He’s been following me into the bathroom since the dawn of time, so I referenced that, too, in my explanation. I asked a few times “where does your pee pee go?” and he would point to the potty and say “right there.”
The first urination. The first time he started to pee, he did what he’s been doing since he was born: he just started peeing. I quickly interrupted him and said “Oop! Pee pee goes in the potty!” at which point he quickly stopped his stream of pee and ran over to the potty and finished his business.
I resisted the urge to offer a reward. My kid does well with bribery. I use it for far more than I should, but mama’s gotta keep her sanity around here. I have skittles on hand just in case, but I decided not to pull them out unless things got desperate. It turns out he enjoys feeling proud of himself and that was incentive alone. That, and the fact that he got to pour his pee pee into the big potty and flush it. He thought that was pretty cool.
I set 30 minute reminders on my watch. I have a tendency to hover and overdo it with things. My husband might use the word nag. It was my intention to prompt him to sit on the potty every thirty minutes. In reality, I didn’t really have to do this. After that first pee, he had one little dribble incident where he stopped himself and ran to the potty to empty his bladder. From there, I think he became obsessed. He would run over to the potty every so often on his own. I wasn’t sure if I could trust this or not, so I did still intend to prompt him at the 30 minute mark, but more often than not he’d already do it himself. He did pee during one of my prompts, though, so that was reassuring.
I still used a diaper at nap (and bedtime). I’ll be honest, work and life are just a little too crazy right now for me to give up any more sleep than I already do. (If you don’t know, I wake up and start working crazy early in order to get most of my work done for the day before the kiddo wakes up. It’s a season of life. It won’t last forever. But I’m tired.)
Day one final verdict
I would say he’s graduated to phase two. By the end of the day he was going onto the little potty by himself to pee. Poop, on the other hand, scared the actual sh!t out of him. I expected that (thanks to Jamie’s extremely long and super informative chapter all about poop), so I didn’t let that derail the day.
Tomorrow, we enter block 2: he’ll get his pants back (or shorts, because let’s be honest it’s already 90 degrees in NC), but he’ll be going commando. Here’s hoping day 2 goes as well as day 1!
If you’re embarking on this journey, take a deep breath, mama (and maybe grab an extra bottle of wine or two to have on hand). You can do this. And so can your kiddo!
Until next time! XOXO
0 Comments