Day Three of Three

So I've had several emails/comments from people who are watching how this program worked for us. I would recommend trying it to anyone. If you don't want to dig back through my rambling, it's Lora Jensen's 3 Day Potty Training, available as an eBook for immediate download. It's not very long, I read the book in about 20 minutes even with Mason climbing all over me. I have also referred back to it several times. I only wish I would have found this sooner and I will continue to gratefully thank the co-worker who referred me.

I also apologize for the delay in getting up the information from our house on Day 2. I worked through most of Day 3, so I'm posting them together today. I also need to thank my husband who took up the reins for day three. He hadn't read the book, but after being home with me on the first day, he was a seasoned pro. He did this as well as getting our concrete pad up to snuff with gates so the dogs could go back outside instead of being on leash.

His report from Day 3 was much the same as Day 2. The boys did get playing at one point, and Mason forgot to report his need to go potty, so there was one accident. But Mason woke up dry and stayed that way the vast majority of the day.

By the end of Day 3, we came to realize how much independence our guy usually has. It isn't that we don't play with him, but at a few points during the day, we retreat to our separate corners sort of and do our own things. With this program, you stick to your child like glue for all three days. There is no taking a break to fold laundry (and what three year old is going to help with that?! Mine will just throw it all on the floor) or anything else that could be considered a distraction. I hate to admit that it will be nice to get back to normal. I love to color with him, I love to play trains and trucks, and so on. But I also like to have a clean house, which sometimes require me to make sure Mason is playing well on his own so I can do the dishes or vaccuum. And I'll admit, I take a few minutes a few times a day to catch up with email, blogging, etc. It will be nice to get back to some semblance of normal.

The bottom line is this: I recommend this program. She says there will be no accidents, but I have accepted that they happen. It's not a totally perfect process, but I think we're much better off than we were three days ago in terms of Mason being potty trained. I feel much more confident that he will be totally ready for preschool when the time comes, because potty training was the biggest setback he was having. And I also feel confident that, when it comes to Mason at least, we won't need to buy any more diapers or Pull Ups, which will be a huge break. Until we get to start all over again.

Day Two of Three

The second day of our potty training program worked out much better than the first day. Mason stayed dry all night (YAY!), which we chose to focus on. Alan and I had been in the habit of locking Mason's bedroom door; I'm sure I've mentioned it before, but Mason started climbing out of his crib when he was just shy of 18 months old. At this time, he could also reach the lock on the front door and open the door to go outside. As a result of getting a bed so young (because he was so likely to hang himself on the crib with the way he was getting out), and being able to access the great outdoors on his own, we felt locking his door was warranted at the time.

However, obviously, with the potty training thing, we have to start leaving the door unlocked so he can get out if necessary during the night. Well, this first morning, Mason didn't believe us that the door was unlocked; he didn't come out, and after stepping out his bed he had an accident. We focused on the huge accomplishment of staying dry all night; I will admit that I've started restricting his liquid intake about two hours prior to bedtime to help with this. It means I've been more timely with dinner as well, which is not a bad thing.

Otherwise, Mason was relatively accident free. He was very good about telling me every time he had to go the bathroom and getting there before we had a problem. Also, one of the previous rewards we had (which we have used all through the three days) was a bag full of trucks. They were cheap Matchbox trucks from a large pack; I think all told, I spent about $20 on them at the recommendation of Alan's co-worker who's little boy had potty trained in no time flat for trucks. Well, the majority of day two was spent by Mason trying to convince me to cough up another truck. Good luck explaining rewards for increased performance to a three year old.

Day One of Three

So I feel like I went from nothing to post to lots of things to post, but this is the one I've been the most excited/frustrated/overwhelmed with so I wanted to get this one up first.

I was recently telling a friend of mine at work (with very active nearly four year old twins) about difficulty potty training Mason. So much of what I had heard was that I would have to wait until he was ready. Between having a new baby enroute and having paid a fair amount to register him at a preschool, I wanted to make more headway than that. We had tried a couple of approaches, and Mason responds well to Daddy to a point, but then nothing. As I was telling her about my frustration with it, she nodded in understanding and referred me to Lora Jensen's 3 Day Potty Training Method.

The first thing that caught me about it was her saying the first step was having your child assist you in throwing away diapers, Pull Ups, and anything resembling them. She instructs you to clean out your car, the diaper bag, that one bag you carried around six months ago that still has a diaper in the bottom. She said Pull Ups and padded underwear are a crutch. It was the exact same thing I'd been thinking as we used them, because we were getting no further than using a Pull Up instead of a diaper.

I'll spare you the gory details, except to say it's copyrighted information and you have to purchase it; it's an eBook available for immediate download. You use a very positive, reinforcing approach, and you can start as early as age 22 months.

So we started Day One yesterday. After four or five accidents, I was telling Alan that I thought we might've made a mistake and I didn't feel like this was going to work. It was the first time I had left Mason's side all day. Alan's valid point was that we had no choice but to continue through the night because dinner was cooking and we had already chucked all the diapers. I headed inside, resigned to the fact that I had a few more hours of mess to clean up, and what did I see? Mason sitting there, going potty. He had been playing, recognized on his own he needed to go, and went. All this had occurred in about three minutes. We had a couple of other bumpy experiences until bedtime, but I felt like we had at least turned a corner with it.

Today is Day Two; I'll be back tomorrow to let you know how that went. As for the moment, all I can say is check it out. I'm waiting the full 72 hours to make a full recommendation or dismissal, but so far so good.