Potty Training in a Weekend – Success!

If you recall, a week and a half (or so) ago, I had written that I was going to be venturing into the potty training territory with Emmett. I was SUUPER nervous, but he was showing signs that he was ready, and it’s not fair for me to hold him back because of my worries, or because I don’t want him to grow up. 😉

Since, it’s been about 13 days, I wanted to provide you with an update on how things are going. I’m sure you’ve all been dying to hear more about my son’s potty habits, right!? 😛 (PS: This is a long post, but I hope you’ll stick around.)

Did We Succeed?

In a word, YES! Emmett is officially potty trained, but please know that it was not easy.

We followed the method that Becky Mansfield writes about in her book, Potty Train in a Weekend. The book is great! She goes into incredible detail about things like how many potty chairs you should have (yes, you should probably have more than one, if you follow this method), which potty chairs she prefers, and then what to look for as you begin your journey.

Emmett’s my first child, so I was clueless, however, after reading Becky’s book, I felt VERY prepared.

So here’s how it went…

We started on a Friday… The second I heard Emmett start to stir in his room, I went in to get him up and out of his diaper. I plopped him on his little stand alone potty chair (we love this potty), and he kind of just sat there for maybe a minute, and stared at me. He knew it was a potty chair, but not what to really do in it.

After a bit of him sitting there, I declared it breakfast time. Now, he was bare bottomed all day, and actually in the book, she recommends them being completely naked. However, we live in Buffalo and it’s chilly, so he had a long sleeved, tight fitting shirt on, and warm socks. You need to be able to see when they start to pee, so that you can rush them onto the potty. This is critical on the first day!

Friday was hard. We couldn’t leave the house, because I needed to watch him, so that I could rush him to the potty as soon as he started to pee. We pulled out every possible toy we could think of.

By 11 am, he still hadn’t peed, in the potty or anywhere else. I was starting to think he was holding it in, or resisting potty training. (I was feeding him loads of fluids, too.) Around 11:30, I noticed him start to leak a bit, I picked him up and immediately put him on the potty and told him to “Go Pee.” He did it! He went pee pee on the potty!

This was our song after the first time peeing on the potty!!

For the remainder of the day, I kept putting him on the potty every 20 minutes (I set a timer on my phone, so I didn’t forget). He peed several more times throughout the afternoon, but he had definitely gotten it. He wasn’t telling me he needed to pee, but he knew when I put him on the potty what he needed to do.

We ended the first day with only ONE accident! And, that was really my fault, I had left the room to put the dishes away from the dishwasher, thinking he’d be okay for 10 minutes since had just gone, but I was wrong. No big deal, though! We cleaned it up and kept on truckin’!

The Second Day…

Saturday went even better than the first. I left him without anything on his bottom for half of the day, until after nap time (I’ll talk about nap time and bedtime, in a bit). I wanted him to get a little more practice, with me watching him like a hawk, before we put him in undies. Undies can occasionally be confusing to a toddler because they think they’re wearing a diaper.

However, once Emmett was in undies, he did great! We put him on the potty every 20 minutes, even if he resisted, told him to go pee, and then waited a few minutes, before taking him off.

Another thing I want to mention, is that we did not have a poop at all on Friday, so I knew at some point on Saturday, he’d need to go. So, in order to entice him to sit on the potty longer, I allowed him to have his binkie, blankie, and tablet while sitting on it. It worked like a charm! Around mid-morning, he was sitting on his potty when he went poop! He was so proud of himself, we were proud for him and we all did a little poopie dance. He also got a very cool surprise, a toy Hot Wheels tow truck.

After nap, we put him in his undies and didn’t have a single accident! We kept taking him to the potty frequently. I think we spaced it out to every 30 minutes, and then as the day wore on, we did every hour. We were even able to go out to dinner, and to Trader Joe’s without an accident Saturday night. We just took him to the potty when we got to wherever we were going, and then again before we left.

He definitely wasn’t peeing each time, but he would some of the times, and that kept him from going in his undies! We couldn’t have been more excited, and proud of our little man!

Sunday…

If I’m remembering correctly, I think we had one accident first thing in the morning, but other than that it was an accident free day! He wore undies and pants all day, and used the potty just like a big boy.

Success! I wasn’t skeptical of whether Potty Train in a Weekend would work or not, I knew it would at some point. I was just unsure of whether Emmett was ready, but he clearly was.

Day Care

Emmett goes to day care 2 days a week, and I was concerned that he’d have lots of accidents there. One, because he’d be distracted playing with all of the toys and two, because there are other kids and I worried they wouldn’t get to Emmett in time.

However, I had NOTHING to worry about… E’s been to day care 3 times since we started training and hasn’t had a single accident. I’m SO proud of him! (Though, even if he’d had an accident or two, it wouldn’t have been the end of the world.)

Sleep Training

You’ve probably guessed by now that Emmett is not sleep trained, yet. The book recommends that you hold off on sleep training, until they have day potty training down, and until they’re in a toddler bed. Emmett is still in a crib, and probably will be for a few more months. We will eventually, get him into a toddler bed, but I want that to happen after our move.

So, at nap time and at bed time, he wears a diaper. He often wakes up from nap time dry, and we run him right to the potty. Bed time he’s still waking up quite wet, which means his bladder isn’t ready to hold all that pee overnight. We’re fine with this, we’ll get there. 🙂

In Closing

As you can see, this method works! It isn’t easy, and takes time and dedication on the parent’s part, but IT WORKS! I’m SO glad we went this direction, and despite how rough Friday was at times, I wouldn’t have changed it for the world. I got to spend a lot of time with Emmett just cuddling, playing and listening to him talk. I think I sometimes take for granted how quickly he’s growing up!

If you’re interested in purchasing the book for yourself, you can do so by clicking here: Potty Train in a Weekend.

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Is Your Toddler Ready for Potty Training?

Your Turn!

Have you tried potty training your child and struggled, or possibly went back to diapers? What finally worked? Or, if you’re still not potty trained, how can I help?

Share in the comments below!

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