Accident Free!

Sheridan hit a few big milestones yesterday and today... the biggest one: he didn't have a single accident today! Not one!

The biggest changes on Days 7 & 8:

1. Last night (Day 7), on his last trip to the potty before bed, Sheridan actually tried to pee (and was successful).

Why is this significant? Because all of his successes until that trip were about catching him when he's ready to pee. Meaning, putting him on the potty in regular intervals in hopes that he would have to pee when he was on the potty - or catching him early in an accident (or you think he's about to have an accident) and hoping he would finish on the potty. But he wasn't controlling it. He wasn't holding his pee (it just came when it came) and he couldn't pee on the spot when you wanted him to (again, it just came when it came).

But last night he tried and tried and tried to pee (I actually thought he was going to poop the way he was "pushing"), and all of a sudden he peed. I was so excited, but also a bit disappointed that this breakthrough happened right before bed. So we didn't have time to practice it a little more to try to solidify this new skill. I wasn't sure he would continue it today. But he did... all day!

Look at his Potty Board: 12 pees, 1 poop, and only 6 "Good Trying"

A huge difference from the past few days. In fact, he missed doing his "Good Trying" magnets so much that he wanted to put the pee and poop magnets up :)  He peed more often rather than waiting until his bladder was full. So, it was in smaller amounts requiring more opportunities to empty his bladder.

2. Depending on how much liquid he drinks, he's going much longer between pees. Sometimes he has to go every 20-25 minutes (but that only happened a could times), but often he can stretch to 40-45 minutes (and sometimes longer). We do still put him on the potty, but depending on his fluid intake and how much he peed during his last trip we stretched him as long as up to 45 minutes or more before putting him on. But it's still a gamble :)

3. Late this morning Sheridan looked at me and sort of waved at me and said what I thought was "bye bye." But it wasn't his typical wave or way of saying bye bye. And then it dawned on me, "Sheridan, do you need to go to the potty?" He smiled, turned toward the bathroom leading the way, and once we were inside he closed the door (he likes his privacy), and stood in front of the potty waiting for me to help him. Within just a few seconds of sitting on the potty, he peed. I was so incredibly proud of him.

That means that he recognized he had to go (all other trips we just do "Potty Time" and tell him to try to pee), communicated it to me, HELD IT long enough to get to the bathroom and get on the potty, and released it on time. That's HUGE.

It only happened once, but I'll be honest that I didn't expect that to happen until later down the road.

I won't rely on that :) but it's nice to see that he's making those connections.

I know we still have a road ahead of us... I don't for one moment believe that we are accident free forever :) but on Day 8 - to see the difference between earlier this week and today - it's great to see the progress I knew Sheridan was capable of making. I should never doubt the boy :)

Things we are working on:

1. I have him help me pull up his underwear and pants, but I do 99% of the work. So, eventually we need to add greater independence in that area of self-help.

2. Again, I do 99-100% of the undressing, especially because he likes to take his right leg completely out of his underwear and pants. Eventually we'll work on the pulling down, and leaving his clothes on :)

3. Of course, we need to work on him communicating his needs more so we can rely on that. I haven't figured out how to do that yet, so I figure even if he just naturally does it occasionally he'll get the hang of it. And as we increase the amount of time that he goes between trips he'll have to work on that skill.

4. The big one, of course, is consistency. We had a phenomenal day today... I hope it continues (but I'm prepared for accidents). Eventually I would LOVE to be able to leave the house :)  I'm fortunate in the sense that I timed this when I had some time off - so I could devote literally 100% of my attention on his bodily functions. I have no idea what I would do with other children, other responsibilities, and a houseful of carpet ;-)

Renewed Faith in the Potty

Remember when I said I knew we would have better days and worse days? I didn't realize the worse days would happen so quickly. And so roughly.

I've had a lot of requests from people asking me to post updates on potty training, so for those who are not interested - and especially for those who are eating dinner in front of the computer - I suggest you move on. Potty talk isn't pretty...

Day 2 of potty training went really well. For the second day in a row he pooped on the potty and went first thing after waking up in the morning (and, by the way, I haven't had to change a poopy diaper since Saturday - that's worth it!). Then he had a few accidents, then a successful trip to pee pee on the potty. Then more accidents. A total of about 6 accidents. But then, all of a sudden, at 11:30am we hit our stride. He went from 11:30am all the way to bedtime with no accidents. Well, not entirely true - he had half of an accident... He walked into the bathroom and started to pee on the floor but I quickly placed him on the potty and he finished there. But still, 11:30am-7:30pm with near 100% success? I was really excited.

Until Day 3.

Day 3 was rough. R-O-U-G-H. Nothing but accidents most of the day. Only 3 successful trips to the potty the whole day. I was frazzled. I knew we'd have back and forth days, ups and downs, difficult days, but this? It sucked. I started to question my method, wondering if we're ready... I somehow made it through the day. I was whooped by mid-afternoon. Gratefully Gary is an awesome husband and dad - he picked up dinner, swooped in to help me out, and let me have some much needed relaxation that evening. I had no idea potty training would turn me inside out.

I wasn't frustrated with Sheridan, though. But I did start to question if this was going to work. But once again, truth be told, some of those accidents were my fault. Not taking him when my gut told me (thinking he could make it a few more minutes), or sending a quick work email (it'll only take a minute - yeah, and Buddy only needs 20 seconds to flood my hallway, so you do the math). Or, sometimes you wonder if he's doing something and it's a "sign" that he has to go. Sometimes you put him on the potty and nothing, so other times you decide not to put him on the potty and, well, puddle. He's still learning (obviously I am to), so his cues aren't going to be consistent. But I can be consistent - and that's what I decided to do. 

And I started thinking about the silver lining in Day 3: Sheridan understood when he was having an accident. He would freeze, look up at me, stare for a few seconds, then look down and watch the pee, and look up at me. He definitely understands what's happening (when he was in diapers he would never even acknowledge he had peed). This awareness is HUGE in potty training. So I had to chalk that up as a success.

Day 4: honestly, not much better than Day 3. Four successful trips to the potty. Lots of accidents (some my fault - this is really hard for the parents, too!). But I remained consistent. And after a much-needed pep talk with my friend Natalie who's been through this with her boy recently, I decided I would add a couple things to our potty routine repertoire. 

Sheridan LOVES the stickers he gets when he goes on the potty. So, I did a sticker shopping spree at Target. I really wish you could have seen the look on his face when I showed him the cupcake stickers (he chose the pink cupcake after peeing this afternoon). So, stickers are great motivators for him. 

Today, we also added one Annie's Organic Berry Bunny Snacks (gummy bunnies) to the mix. So, when he is successful he gets 1 sticker and 1 gummy. 

I also made a board for him to put magnets on even when he just tries to go. So, every time he sits on the potty for potty time, but he doesn't go, we tell him "Good trying, Sheridan! Good job... we'll come back and try again in a little bit." When he walks out of the bathroom, he goes to the board and puts a magnet in the "Good Try!" area. So, he's rewarded for each step, really.

The magnets are really small, but I guess the fine-motor workout is an added bonus!

We've been using the Poop and Pee areas of the board to track what he's doing. We were letting him put those on, too, as a reward. But decided it was too much going on (his OT mentioned that it might be too much - too many rewards can be confusing). So, he just gets his sticker & gummy when he is successful and a magnet when he tries. 

And how did today go? Day 5 was good. An upswing. He had 5 successful pees/poop on the potty, and only 4 accidents. And you can see for yourself how many trips he made to the potty and gave a good try... it's a lot!

As you can see, little hands on the board all day make it tough to read. So, tonight I will recreate this with permanent markers. This will be our Potty Board for life :)

We are really proud of him - and us. But, at least one of those accidents was our fault again :) We just keep doing the best we can.

And, just FYI, we're not training for nap/night time. He wears a diaper for his nap (he goes to the potty right before nap time, then I change him into his diaper for the nap - as soon as he wakes up we go straight to the bathroom for the potty). For 3 of the 5 days we've been potty training, though, he was woken up from his 2-2.5 hour nap DRY. And he pees on the potty as soon as he wakes up. 

We do the same at bedtime. He goes on the potty before his bath (sometimes he still pees in his bath), then into a diaper for bed. As soon as he wakes up in the morning we start the process all over again :)

So that's where we are. I have renewed faith in potty training, and I know that bad days are inevitable. And I need to not feel defeated and especially not question myself (easier said here than done during the day cleaning up pee). And we just have to keep learning together. 

Oh, and an update on underwear... I had a few people remind me of the fabulous things you can find on Etsy, but because handmade underwear are so pricey, I decided to give a few new store-bought brands a try (although the stuff on Etsy is WAY cuter!). As a reminder, I don't want pull-ups or anything with padding/absorbent material - Sheridan was in cloth diapers and I think that would mimic his diapers too much. So, straight big-boy underwear is what we're after. Size 2T/3T is about all you can find in stores, but I found two brands that run small - small enough that if washed on hot, after coming out of the dryer they are perfect for little man. I found these boxer briefs (by Hanes) and these briefs (by Handcraft) at Target. But you can find them anywhere, and obviously online.

We Survived Potty Training

...well, Day 1, anyway ;-)

In case you are wondering... he's a boxer briefs kind of guy.

As for the potty training itself... we put him on the potty as soon as he woke up (had a big success on that trip!) and then right into underwear. He wore underwear all day (we do put him in a diaper for nap and nighttime).

Sheridan had many successes throughout the day, going pee pee and poo poo on the potty a total of 7 times today! Here's evidence of his success:

He did have a handful of accidents (5 or 6) - so grateful for a house full of tile! But in full confession, many of those accidents were our fault - taking too long to get him to the potty (I was trying to quickly finish a phone conversation) or not leaving him on the potty long enough or not trusting my gut that I should take him right now even though it "wasn't time."

Today was our first day, our very first time trying this. So, we plan to see how it goes. We expect timing will become a little better for both Sheridan and us - by the end of the day he was signing he had to go (not every time, but he did ask a couple times).

I think our "pre potty training" helped a lot... we would put Sheridan on his potty (and sing to him, of course) when we knew he had the best chance for success (right before bath) just to get him used to the potty (which he loved right away) and help him be successful. So, he actually likes the potty - but at times his patience got a little worn at the end of today from being on so many times today (we used a timer and took him every 20-30 minutes).

I know we'll have days with more success, and days with more accidents. So we just need to be consistent.

We did have to bring back out his size 18 month pants. I knew his cloth diapers added some bulk to his body (he typically wears size 24 month or 2T pants), but I didn't realize just how little my lil man really is. Size 24 month pants sag WAY too much!

We still have a lot to learn :) but overall Gary and I think Sheridan did a great job on his first full day of potty training!

P.S. if anybody happens to know where I can find size 18-month underwear, please let me know! He's a little guy, and some of his underwear just slides right off his little butt (I can only seem to find size 2T/3T in the stores and online). But I'll tell you, plumber butt never looked so cute! ;-)