Potty Time
Cooper has continued to show interest in the potty, that he received for his birthday, using it about once a day. Rob and I talked it over and decided we should take advantage of Cooper’s excitement for the potty and think about potty training. After minimal research online and a look at our summer schedule this was the weekend for us to do it. We opted to try the three day method of potty training. Day 1: Wear nothing on the bottom and don’t leave the house Day 2: Wear pants, but no undies and stay close to the house for a quick afternoon activity Day 3: Wear undies and pants and do something in the morning and afternoon.
Day 1 Summary –
The day started at 6am by taking off Cooper’s overnight diaper and telling him he was going to have a pants and diaper free day.
Used gate to block off stairs and front room/dining room area and picked up the rugs. He could still run circles around the kitchen pantry and head down the hallway to the bathroom. His trainer toilet was placed by the slider near our kitchen table.
The key to successful potty training is to make sure he drinks a lot so there is lots of pee practicing. We put out 3 water bottles including two of Mamas that he loves to drink from and ate meals on the floor, picnic style.
The day started with 5-10 accidents, some just 10-15 minutes apart. We started the day setting a timer to ask Cooper if he has to go potty every 20 minutes, then shortened it to 10 minutes after some accidents. By the end of the day it was closer to 45 minutes before we asked him.
At 10am Cooper used the potty one time by himself without either of us asking or helping him, we were distracted talking and he stopped playing at his kitchen to walk over and go on the potty.
He had only 2 accidents after 10am, one around 11 and one right after we talked about how there hadn’t been any accidents for hours at 6pm. We put a diaper on him for his afternoon nap and overnight.
The day turned out so much better than either of us had ever expected. We all really enjoyed getting to have so much focused family time in a small space. We loved watching Cooper’s naked buns run like crazy around the kitchen pushing the shopping cart. We found another reason to love our laminate floors. At the end of the day we agreed that it was successful and we would continue potty training the next day.
Day 2 Summary –
Today we started the day by bringing Cooper downstairs with shorts and no diaper on.
We put out the other potties so now we have one in the kitchen and both the downstairs and upstairs bathrooms. We still hung out in the fenced off space all together and ate our meals on the floor again.
He has definitely figured out the routine. In Cooper’s words… Go pee on the potty, clap clap hooray, then dump it in the big potty, flush it and wash hands
This afternoon we played outside in the backyard (accident free) for an hour and today he even went on demand twice when Daddy went with him.
He had only one tiny accident and we asked him every hour or so about going potty. We still used a diaper for afternoon nap and overnight and plan to do this for a while. He has woken up from both consistently dry, but we aren’t ready to make the big leap yet.
We love this little guy and can’t believe what a fun weekend we had potty training together. Cooper you continue to amaze and impress us every single day!
The next test begins tomorrow when Daddy heads back to work and Mama tries this on her own.
