Potty Training

Between traveling over the summer and being on crutches for 9 weeks, potty-training got put on the back burner for a while. But as soon as I got the cast off, I started plotting again about how I was going to get these boys out of diapers once and for all.

The boys had been completely opposed to the idea of using the potty for months now. There was simply no way they were going to voluntarily take off their diaper or pull-up and use the potty. So we went with the potty-training "boot camp" method where we just took their diapers off and refused to put them back on, no matter how much they cried and screamed. We put them on at naptime and bedtime and when we go out of the house- because I'm not yet ready to have them pee all over the floor at Target. So we basically stayed at home, inside for a week straight and had them naked from the waist down.

The first few days were a disaster. Sooo frustrating and I felt constantly on the verge of tears. I may as well have just let two un-housebroken puppies run around my carpeted living room all day. The boys were just peeing everywhere, on everything.... all the time. We had only one or two successes in the first couple days, and that was only when I forced them to sit on the potty as they sobbed that they didn't want to. We gave them candy each time they went on the potty, every couple times they'd get a new Matchbox car, and we'd call our family members and let Jack and Cullen tell them about their successes. These were all great motivators, but they still didn't seem to be getting it at all.

I had to pull up the rugs, cover the entire carpet with beach towels and I was probably doing 2 extra loads of laundry a day. The boys seemed to have no sense of when they needed to go, they just stopped where they were and started peeing. I would force them to sit on the potty every 15 minutes or so but sometimes, they'd get up from the potty and would be peeing on the floor within a minute or two. Those were the times I just wanted to scream. I confess, there were a few moments where I just went into the kitchen and started banging my head against the wall. I seriously considered giving up again and waiting a few more months. But I decided to stick it out for a week. If they still weren't improving, I figured that would mean they really weren't ready.

But on Day 4 or 5, we really started making progress. They stopped crying every time I made them sit on the potty and they even started going over to the potty and using it all by themselves (sometimes). We were still having accidents half the time, but at least it wasn't every single time. On Wednesday, they put on underwear and clothes and went out front to play. They stayed dry for nearly 2 hours and used the potty when we came back inside for dinner. And on Saturday (Day 10) we had our first accident-free day! I was ecstatic!

They still can't seem to hold it for more than a few seconds so I think it will be a while before we can leave the house in underwear, but I am just so thankful for the progress we've made so far.

Before we started, I had read many blogs and books and heard from a lot of moms who swear by this boot camp method. They said they potty-trained their kids in a weekend and were running errands with them in underwear after just a few days. They said not to give candy rewards after the first few days, to just expect the kids to use the potty without a reward. They talked about only have a handful of accidents the first day and none after that. I felt like a total failure at first because I wasn't seeing the same results. This was probably a large part of the reason I was so frustrated, because I was comparing us to other families.

But I'm so glad I stuck with it. Each kid is different and Jack and Cullen have always been a little slow to reach all their milestones. A lot of people say that 2 1/2- 3 years is the best time to potty train and that may be true but I think Jack and Cullen probably weren't quite mature enough at first to recognize when they needed to use the potty. By not letting them wear diapers, I think I forced them to learn a bit before they were ready. Maybe if I'd waited until next spring or summer, they would have been potty-trained in a few days? Or maybe not. We had (and still are having) a more difficult time potty-training but they're slowly learning and making progress. We're not going back now! If we can leave the house in underwear by Christmas time, I will consider it a huge success. For now, I'm happy if they can just continue to stay dry at home during the day. It's 10:15 a.m. and so far so good today!