Adventures in Potty Training

So last Thursday, after much waffling/worrying/fighting with myself, I started potty training Gavin. We did the 3 day potty training program recommended by my sister-in-law. I read the eBook and agreed with the approach and actually had been wanting to do it earlier but then we moved and had family for Thanksgiving and then I had my busy week at work so it got pushed back 3 wks.

But last Thursday was the day!

Day 1

It went good, considering I had been stressing about it for a week. The house looked really funny - every pool towel we owned was strewn on the floors and furniture as a barrier. We even put to good use the big blankets my parents dumped on us a few years back! :) We had a LOT of learning experiences (i.e. accidents) but I caught them ALL and Gavin finished each one in the potty. He loved drinking juice for a change, which he never gets because I don't buy it. He LOVED having Mommy's UNDIVIDED attention where the whole day we just played and had a great time. Unfortunately during his nap all that juice got to him and he had diarrhea that got all over the floor and his bed. Poor kid. But it didn't phase me and we cleaned it up and went on our way that day. Overall, he did really good.

Day 2

Again, another good day. LOTS of learning experiences but none that were more than little squirts on the carpet and furniture. I even caught Gavin pooping, although he did most of it in his pants but some got in the toilet. Nap time he stayed dry.

Day 3

Gavin had ONE DROP of an accident in the morning and then the rest of the day got ALL his peepee in the potty!! By the end of the day he was even telling me when he had to go potty! Unfortunately, during nap time we had another poop accident on the floor. Thankgoodness it wasn't diarrhea and was a little easier to clean up. But I was a little disappointed I kept missing them because he hasn't learned yet to poop in the potty.

Day 4

Absolutely NO accidents and Gavin is telling me everytime he needs to go. He kept saying in nursery (we thought it cruel to leave him in there alone on day 4 of potty training) that he had to go poop but each time we took him to the potty, only pee. This went on all day until our friend party at night. He snuck upstairs to do his business. On the up side, he went into the bathroom but had already finished pooping by the time I found him. Darn it!!!! A whole day of trying to catch it wasted!

Day 5

HORRIBLE DAY!

Only one accident during lunch and the rest of the time he is telling me when he has to go pee.

*side story that will make sense later - during the 8-10 minutes it takes for me to get ready in the morning so I can take Gavin to the park, Gavin went out in the garage. He can unlock anything and besides that there is a built-in dog door in that door that he can crawl through. Since we moved into the house he has gotten time-out every time he is caught going out in the garage without permission, but it doesn't phase him. Well, it was too quiet while I was getting ready and so I went looking for him in the garage. I found him 8-9 ft off the ground. He had crawled on top of a storage shelf! I about had a hard attack because if he had fallen it's concrete and there was a coffee table right underneath him*

Gavin is doing such a good job... and then I get him up from his nap and the horror sets in. During his nap Gavin decided to paint with his poop on EVERY SURFACE IN HIS BEDROOM!! He got it on all the walls, multiple places on the floor, his bed, his dresser, INSIDE his dress and on his clothes and on the baskets in his closet. Thankgoodness there aren't any toys in his room because they would have been going in the trash! I promptly gave him a bath put him in his time-out chair that buckles since obviously he can't be trusted to stay out of trouble even for 10 min! So I cleaned and he cried in his chair next to me for about 2 hrs. This was my 3rd time to clean up poop in his room in the last 5 days and I HAD HAD ENOUGH!! I called Jason and gave him the task of getting the carpets cleaned no later than the next day. He surprised me by getting them cleaned that very night by someone in our ward!

I HATE POOP!!!

(being pregnant doesn't help either cuz I am a crazy person when it comes to cleaning since I've been preggo, so you can imagine...)

Otherwise, he was potty trained by day 3 just like the book said he would be!