Poop Goes in Potty...Not on Floor
An unfiltered peek into the first 3 days of potty training!
Day 1. To me, getting hyped up about potty training is important. I wanted Little Maple 2 to feel special! He just had his second birthday and was growing into a big boy (in more ways than one - those one size cloth diapers were getting a little snug haha) and today was all about him. We went to Walmart where he got to pick out his own underwear - Paw Patrol of course. I made him wait to open them so by the time we got home he could barely contain himself. Before we put them on I explained that he was a big boy now, which means, "no more diapers." We went to his bedroom, grabbed all the cloth off the change table then one by one we took each of them to the garbage and we threw them in. DON"T PANIC - I quickly retrieved them from the clean garbage bag as soon as he wasn't looking ;) Now that those diapers were "gone" we had no choice but to get into those underwear! Once in his new underwear he strut around the house feeling pretty proud with himself for the next 5 minutes or so. We then quickly found out that as excited as he was to get into those underwear, he was just as excited to pee in them. We did some rethinking and decided that maybe some naked time was best so he could see exactly how all those parts down there function.
Getting that pee out on the potty for the first time is hard! After several failed attempts I was starting to second guess myself thinking maybe I jumped the gun and he just wasn't ready. Then, I was standing in the bathroom while he was on the potty and Little Maple #1 called me from the other room. I told Little Maple #2 I would be right back. In about 5 seconds I heard from the bathroom, "Mama pee! Mama pee!" Apparently he was just a little pee shy and some privacy goes a long way! Fast forward to bedtime 6 hours later - 4 accidents (two on the bathroom floor so I give him credit for that) and 4 pees in the toilet! Not bad considering he had never even sat on the potty up until today! Back in a diaper for nighttime since night training is a whole other ball game. We will see what tomorrow brings! I predict Little Maple #2 will encounter the dreaded #2 tomorrow.
PS If you have ever potty trained one of your cloth diapered littles before, you know how bittersweet it can be! I was in pretty rough shape thinking that this could possibly be the last time I have a child in cloth diapers full time. BUT since we were planning on venturing out of the house the next day I grabbed three Applecheeks Learning Pants and began to prep for the next day. This made me feel a bit better about the whole thing!
Day 2. No luck with a pee first thing in the morning, but I have a feeling he let loose in his diaper the second he woke up. An hour later he ran up to me (naked of course) and said "candy!". This was huge! He was asking to go to the potty! Okay, okay, I need to come clean. We have definitely been rewarding every pee on the potty with one skittle. Little Maple #1 was a sticker fanatic when we potty trained him and that seemed to work well. Little Maple #2 gets super excited about candy so we decided to just roll with it. Things went well all morning, but I like to get the kids outside every day. I was nervous - I knew something messy might go down in Little Maples #2's snow pants. Oh well, we gotta learn somehow! On went the underwear, the pants, the snow pants, and winter gear. After a fun snow filled 30 minutes the boys wanted to go inside. I told Little Maple #1 to go in and help #2 take off his snow gear while I finished shoveling the walk. Two minutes later I hear out the door, "Mom! #2 pooped in his underwear....and everywhere!" Well, can't say I didn't see it coming. I went inside to check the damage. Poop in the snow pants, the pants, underwear, and down the legs. The kinda poop that you can tell has been held in for a while. Yikes! Determined to make this a learning experience (a stinky one at that) I stripped him down and started saying what I call the potty training mantra, "poop goes in potty, not in underwear/on floor."
I took poop covered Little Maple #2 to the bathroom along with his underwear. I kept repeating, "poop goes in potty, not in underwear," over and over again. I dumped as much poop as I could into the potty then I sat him down on the potty for a couple minutes just so he could get an idea on how things should go next time.
Once we got the first poop episode cleaned up things continued to go well with the pees. Later on when we started to get ready to take Little Maple #1 to his hockey practice I was kind of glad that we had already gotten that first poop out of the way before we took our first diaper free outing! We did a quick pee before we left and got into those Applecheeks Learning Pants - which might I add have an impeccable fit! Once there, with a bag of skittles in hand I took him to the bathroom and told him that there were potties here just like at home in case he needed to go. Like clockwork about thirty minutes into practice he shouts from across the room, "candy!" Success! A proud mamma moment for me, his first pee on a public potty! I went to bed that night wanting him to slow down and stop growing so fast - a feeling that only other mothers can understand. But I was so excited that my baby boy was doing so well with this huge milestone!
Day 3. I woke up with optimism. He was doing so well! But, let me tell you, getting that poop in the potty can be tricky. We had planned to spend the whole day at home. Since there was no #2 yesterday I watched him like a hawk in anticipation. Right after a fibre filled lunch I was doing dishes and noticed it was quiet...too quiet. I went into the living room to find Little Maple #2 standing behind his children's recliner, peering over the back of it, in deep concentration. I ran over, scooped him up in my arms, and started saying the mantra, "Poop goes in potty, not on floor!". I put him on the potty, set the skittles up where he could see, and told him if he put his poop in the potty he would get two skittles. This got him really excited. He shouted, "Candy! Momma out!"
So I went out of the bathroom to give him some privacy. After about 3 minutes I went in and asked him if he was all done. He said "Momma out."This continued on for about 15 minutes - he was determined to put that poop in the potty! After 20 minutes I said okay it's almost time for your nap, all done on potty.
I lifted him off the potty and holy s#!t, poop in the potty! So exciting! We did some dancing in the bathroom, savored those candies, and made sure he felt like a big boy for the rest of the day. While I am sure there will still be some more messes to clean up, and lots of pants and underwear in the laundry, I am one proud momma to say that Little Maple #2 is well on his way to being fully potty trained!
