3 Days Diaper Free

WARNING: This post discusses potty training in great detail and uses graphic terms like "pooper." If this is not of interest, please read no further. :-)


So, as I posted here, after a very long time of not even being able to get Gabe to sit on the potty, much less go, we had a couple of days in April where we made some strides. They were a bit traumatic, though, in that he definitely knew when he needed to go, but wouldn't and ended up holding it and being miserable until it just came out, at which point he was still very upset. We took a break, particularly since that was my birthday weekend and he was having an overnight in Rockford.

So, six weeks later, I realize that I am probably slowing the process more than he is and decide I just need to tackle it. Monday, after changing him when he woke up in the morning, decided sort of spur of the moment to not put a diaper back on. He seemed OK with it, and we had the "tell me when you need to go" talk, and away we went. We also pulled out the candy stash (a random combination of leftover Valentine's and Easter candy).

Sure enough, a little while later, he tells me he needs to go. I put him on the little potty and get him the bag of candy so he can pick something (and partially for distraction to get him to sit there as long as possible). After a couple of miutes, he looks at me and smiles and says, "I'm doing it!" And sure enough, he was! This was a big change because he wasn't at all nervous about it and seemed very proud of himself! We had a big candy and clapping fest and I was so thankful for the "breakthrough"! This repeated itself throughout the day and he only had one fairly minor accident outside when he told Dan he needed to go, but had already gone a little bit. Also, no poopers the first day, so I was a little worried about how that was going to work out (no pun intended). I did put a diaper on him that night and explained that we weren't wearing diapers anymore, but this was just in case he didn't wake up if he had to go. I went and got some pull-ups for the next night so we can just avoid diapers all together from here on out.

Day 2: He woke up dry and went right away in the morning. I was gone for part of the day, but he went for Dan and my mom no problem, but still no poopers. I got home around 2:30 and a little bit later he came in from the porch and told me he had to go. When we got to the bathroom, I noticed he had a little streak (sorry, is this too much detail?) and his pants were also wet. He sat on the potty, though, and was a little sad because he wasn't peeing, but had no problem doing a pooper! I was glad to have that over with.

Day 3 (today): He woke up dry again, went all day on the potty without any problems, but did have one little accident with a pooper. Tonight outside he told me twice that he needed to go, we came in, he went right away, and off we went.

So, I think this is it! He's doing really well just telling us when he needs to go. We really don't have him sit on the potty unless he says he has to go, and so far he's been right on. There have been a couple of times where he says he needs to go, we sit, he says he can't go, and then we decide to try again later. However, I feel like that may be him working he system a little bit to get some candy (which he gets everytime he tries or goes).

There are still a few things that we'll need to learn, like traveling, etc., but I feel like it's been actually really good so far. It did take a while to get here though; it's true what they say about them just getting to a point when they're ready to do it! I'm just very proud of him and, even better, I think he's really proud of himself. :-)