Heaven help me....there's no looking back now.

Today is the beginning of hell...lol. J/K And I will warn the weak stomached that I will be graphic in this post, and that it has to do with poop and pee...

The time has finally come to potty train Kayler, and I have been dreading this day since the day he was born. Let me give you a little of my potty training history-such a vivid and I'm sure very interesting topic to all my readers.

Hallie was potty trained at 20 months-not by my choice. She had kidney problems, and one Dr. suggested that potty training her would alleviate the problems. Well, it did! BUT-despite her maturity and what a smart good little girl she was at that age, it was still SUCH hard work with many tears shed on both our parts.

Gavin didn't talk much, and showed NO interest in potty training. I waited until 2.5 years, and surprisingly, he did very well. Of course the few accidents, crying, pulling your hair out...(on my part) went on, but as I look back, he did very well.

Let describe my method that I "used" to do with potty training-which of course is actually Parent training for the first few weeks to be persistent and not give up:

Step 1: take them to the store they get to choose the following items: a potty seat (the ones that fit on a regular toilet) a step stool, a few packs of underwear, 2 or 3 new books and toys, and 2 or 3 treats.

Step 2: Bring them home and set it all up VERY excitedly....hoping nobody is watching how silly and fake I am being.

Step 3: Throw away ALL diapers....NO GOING BACK. I was a hard core cold turkey kind of potty training gal- But, if you go back and forth between diapers, pull-ups, underwear, it is VERY confusing to the poor little tikes.

Step 4: put on their new underwear-hide away their treats and books

Step 5: Every hour we went to their new "potty" place. We would sit on the potty, read a book play with a toy etc...just make it fun. If they go-we have a "potty party" and they get a treat, sticker, small toy, etc.

Step 6: When an accident happens. I would have to ask them, "where does pee or poop go?" They would sadly reply, "in the toilet." Then we would take their pooped or peed undies and clean them out (together) and start alllllllll over again.

Step 7: Usually after a few days, they were so excited about the treat or book or whatever that they would just hurry and potty or poop so they could get the reward, and then WA-LAH, it had clicked, and we were good to go, except for the few occasional accidents that happened in the months (even years) after.

And by the way-I did not make this up all on my own. It is what I came up with after reading many books, attending workshops at PT4K, trial and error, etc.

Ok, now speed forward 3 full years since I have done this potty training thing to my sweet Kayler, who is MUCH different than either Hallie or Gavin. I know some reading might think I am crazy for starting to train him, since I am having difficulties with him in other areas but>>> He goes on demand in the toilet, tells me when he has to go, takes his diaper off to go...except he goes just wherever he might be, and he now thinks getting his diaper changed is "gross" Since he is a different boy, here is going to be my method.

Step 1: Get rid of regular diapers-bye bye my beloved Huggies. :(


Step 2: try Pull-ups for awhile. I will still remind him once an hour to go, but at least if he has an accident, it means less hell for me to go through cleaning it up all the time.


Step 3: The ultimate goal


SO, I might not be blogging near as often these next few weeks as we figure this out. I am actually very sad to have to take this step with him. This means that he really won't be my baby anymore since he can feed himself, bath almost by himself, dress himself (sort of...lol), and go potty in the big toilet. But at the end of the day, no matter where he "empties out"- He will always be my baby boy. (told you it would be a graphic post!!!) Have a great day!