Our Potty-Training Journey

Disclaimer- TMI

Yay! It happened.

Let me get into the details…

When Ayden turned 2, I wanted to potty-train. But that was the same time we were moving to a new house. There was already so much chaos related to packing, unpacking, cleaning, scrubbing, movers bla bla bla. And I remember someone told me to save potty training for a time when there was no other drama happening around #VerySoundAdvice

Nonetheless, I started talking to him about it, and so, he learned the concept theoretically, and would recite: “Don’t pee-pee in the diaper“, “Don’t poo-poo in the diaper“, “Big boys use the potty“. BUT we never really got to it practically because life kept getting in the way. Our weekends are almost never spent inside the house and so I could never be consistent with it. So potty-training remained a theoretical concept that entire year.

Time flew and before I knew it, he was a three year old. I knew we needed to get to potty-training right away. And one weekend I put him in an underwear and started taking him to the loo every 40 minutes to pee. I did this for a day and by the end of the day, we were at the stage where if I took him, he went; Otherwise (mostly) no. We kept at it. And day 3 came along, and Ay started saying when he needed to pee. That one was easy.

However there was the big one, poop training. Even when I knew he was going to start pooping and made a charge towards him to carry him to the potty, he would deny wanting to poop and run away from me and hide while he pooped. And off-course it was frustrating (and I am not blessed with patience in abundance), so this was hard for both him and me. However I had told myself many times that this was part of the process and I just had to deal with it. Somehow this part of potty-training needed some more time. And I spoke about it constantly with him. We switched back to pull-up’s because I was not planning to trash anymore underwear’s.

A week later, on a Sunday, after we get home from church, Ay tells me, “Mumma I want to go potty” and yanks me by the hand. I thought it was pee and took him, and I see he actually pooped (haha only a mum can talk so proudly about her childs crap, literally!).

We were thrilled and we showered him with a ton of praise and gave him five Hershey’s kisses to show him how excited and proud we were of him! I barely offer him even one chocolate and so FIVE chocolates at once for Ay meant it was a HUGE DEAL. And it was!

So he went to school in underwear too. And NO accidents of any kind. Yahoooooo!!!

And then came the week after, where we had no poop for 3 days. Because he started holding it.

“Why?”

I have no idea.

I realize (time and again) that nothing with toddlers is straightforward. And that there’s never a reason for some things that they choose to do. Ever 🙂

And so, as per pediatricians advice, I gave him the pull-up.

Soon enough, that phase was done, and he started using his underwear and all was well.

We recently did a NYC trip and the whole time he was in his underwear and we had no accidents. So I think it’s safe to say, we did it!

And now, we’re working on night-time potty training. Because I am ready to bid farewell to diapers. I have no idea what the formal process for night-time potty-training is or how it goes.

Ay drinks water during the night which I was sure would be an obstacle in night-time potty training. And so I told him that the Cops have asked me to tell him not to drink water at night (because somehow when I use the word Cops, he tends to listen), lol. I know, it’s probably a #NotSoProudMumMoment but it worked!

So for now, all we do now is, have liquids before 7pm and pee before bed-time at 8pm. I’ve lined the mattress with waterproof mattress padding as well. We’ve been dry for few nights in a row. So I think we’ve achieved this too.

Some tips from this first-time mom who has experience with just one kid (aka follow at your own risk):

I made sure that Ay had a good understanding, and could independently and quite easily dress himself up.
I was sure Ay had enough bathroom exposure (He has entered the loo with me since he was 4 months old so thats plenty, lol).
I bought a potty seat (the kind that can be placed on the commode directly). I would make him sit on it (long before we started training). Initially he was scared, but after a while I knew he had lost the fear of sitting on it. So the stage where they lose fear is a sign for when you can start the real potty-training process, I think.
I talked a lot about it to him, even before we started the real potty-training.
We watched a TV show. Daniel Tiger is Ay’s hero and he watched the potty episode and spoke about it. We together would sing, “If you wana go potty, stop and go right away.. Flush and wash and be on your way.“
We transitioned to underwear when we started the process to avoid confusion.
Put step stools in every toilet.
I followed a routine- to use the loo, wipe, flush and wash hands from day 1- it registers as a pattern in their minds.
Reward with tons of praise and candy (I bribed a ton!Another #NotSoProudMumMoment but I’ll take this too). His preschool teacher would always be amused with my bribing before dropping him off to ensure he’d not wet his clothes.
Be patient. Because it may take some time but rest assured, your child won’t go to prom wearing a diaper 😉

Thats the seat we have:

I bought it off Amazon!

Like everything else with kids, they’re all different and learn at different paces. The pee process is the easier of the two and they master that soon. I would say we took about a month before we accomplished everything a 100%.

… And inhale patience. Because there will be moments you where you sound or behave frustrated. And that’s ok, because we are only human. Nonetheless, good luck 🙂

The best part: I do not miss diapers and I do not miss changing pads. I am so glad we don’t need to carry around any of those diaper-related things. And I love the fact that Ay does not need to sit in his pee (diaper) for few hours before he’s changed.

Life now as I know it-

I constantly annoy Ay by asking, “Do you want to go pee pee- poo poo?“🤷🏻‍♀️
My smart watch is mostly used to set pee reminders for him 🙂 There are times Ay himself screams into my watch, “Siri can you set a reminder for Aydens potty” 🤣
Even if he needs to pee, he is a master at holding it, unless he absolutely has to go. So I constantly get “No pee-pee” even when there’s a fountain waiting to be released 🤦🏻‍♀️
Pee and poop in the potty is a big announcement in the house and we praise him a ton 👏
We have used every single public bathroom I think 🙈
I am always worried about the emergency “Mumma I have to pee now” SOS call, when I am at the check-out line. And I drop everything to sprint with him to the loo. Thankfully this has happened only twice so far 🏃🏻‍♀️
We are celebrating having candy at the end of everyday because more than anything else I’m proud of this lil guy for mastering this milestone without too much drama. He’s so excited (I’m the most excited one though 💃) when he’s accomplished another day without any accidents)

Life with toddlers is always an adventure. We always need something, right?

How has your potty-training experience been? Leave a comment if you feel the post has been useful.