It's all about the Poop

This weekend has been devoted to one main purpose. Potty training J! Again. C and J both did this. They were potty trained once when they started using the bathroom on their own accord. Then for one reason or another a couple weeks later they decided they didn't want to do that after all so we let it slide and retrain later.

C first used the potty for 2 weeks at 18 months and then saw me changing J one day and decided she wasn't ready to give that up yet and since the last thing we wanted her to do is have a bad association with potty training, we retrained after she turned 2. J was a bit later first using the potty on his own for a few weeks right before he turned 2 then stopping by choice as well. Since I was expecting E at the time and we didn't want him getting confused by retraining before she arrived we put off the training again until now. Though he has used the potty several times along the way it was 9 times out of ten just pee so we hadn't tackled the big stuff yet.

What I've learned from my little man and potty training is 1)Boys are better at peeing in the potty than girls but worse about #2 leading into 2)It's all about the poop, and finally 3)Every child is different and this means they may need to be potty trained in different ways.

For C we trained with the timer method. We tried letting her just go naked first but that never clicked with her and the timer did. We set a timer and every time it went off she sat on the pot. We rewarded poops with stickers and when she had a day without an accident she got a watch (this was like the second day in) and the following day she started going on her own without the timer. If she had an accident at all we used the timer till she went in the pot again. She got it all very quickly looking back though those days seemed long at the time.

We've tried the timer and no clothes with J but it doesn't work for him. He would hold it through all that time and his sitting time and then when he stood up would go within a few minutes, or he would pee in the pot 5 times in one sitting but hold the poop in and still be ready to pee more once he stood up. For boys peeing is fun. Yes I said it lol. So when it comes to training in my experience, it's all about the poop.

So yesterday afternoon and all today were about finding what method of potty training worked for him. We found what works best is sitting and waiting and waiting and waiting and waiting. J has spent the majority of time the past couple days sitting on the potty. Reading books, playing cards, eating snacks (on a stool over him like a mini-tv table), all were done while he sat on his training potty. And sure enough this is what worked for him to the extent he moved to the real potty when he really needed to go in the afternoon today. He moved to underwear and is no longer sitting and instead just went to the potty when needed too (with a few reminders from Mom, Dad, and Ibu in between but still). He's got the pee and the poop and is recognizing the got to go feelings now.

I know we'll still be reinforcing these things this week but I'm hoping this continues to go well and I only have one little one in diapers by Christmas. Though honestly this makes me a little sad since it's another sign my baby boy is growing up.

He's so proud that he has his big boy pants on now :) (also note C wanted to sneak in the pic too lol)