Potty Training a Monkey - Day 2

Still no picture of the world's cutest tushie in Mickey Mouse underpants...maybe tomorrow. I was still on full alert for pee pee accidents, so the camera didn't even cross my mind. We got Finn up at 10:30 p.m., a couple of hours after he had gone to bed, to try and pee. We've found that it helps to do this in the first few days/weeks/months to help them stay dry over night. With Cassidy, Joey would get her up right before he went to bed around 11:00 p.m. and then I'd get her up after I'd nursed Lily at her 4:00 a.m. feeding...this lasted for months. Lily hardly needed any help and within a couple of weeks was waking up crying when she needed to go in the middle of the night. It usually takes a couple of days to figure out what time(s) that specific child needs to get up and go...last night we missed the mark. Two hours was too long and he had wet the bed. We changed the sheets and got him back into dry underpants...and when he woke up at 7:00 a.m. he was still dry! HOORAY! This means he only needs us to get him up once in the night, which is completely fabulous!!!

We had a couple of dribble accidents this morning mixed with some successful trips to the potty. We ventured out to my parents' house for lunch - a definite no-no for potty training, but we have some family friends who are moving to Ohio this week and wanted to see them one last time - and of course Finn decided that was the perfect time to pee all over the floor...THEIR FLOOR. Fortunately they love us so we will probably be invited back.

From that accident till bedtime he had NO accidents. He even took a 3 1/2 hour nap and woke up dry, asked to go potty a few minutes later, and took care of business like an old pro. Here's what I learned today:

1. Boys' anatomy definitely has its advantages in potty training. Prior to starting this process I was focused on the challenges - sit or stand?, controlling the direction of the pee, etc. But the huge plus is that it's totally FUN to pee with boy parts. It's like your own private fountain. Finn is completely fascinated with the stream flowing from his body that makes bubbles in the potty water. And who wouldn't be? It's just plain cool. My point is after the initial fun of getting praise and treats wore off, I had a lot harder time on Days 2 and 3 with the girls. I think they were getting bored of sitting on the potty, but with Finn he gets to "play" with his own personal squirt gun and then get candy and stickers afterwards...there's NO WAY he's gonna get bored with this! (And, yes, as of today he refuses to sit on the potty unless he feels like he needs to poo poo...so I'm going to have to cart a step stool with me everywhere I go from now on!)
2. My son is a private bathroom user. We had some resistance and tantrums this morning and finally we (well, Joey) figured out that he wanted us to GET OUT OF THE BATHROOM. Now we get him situated, walk out, crack the door, and wait in the hallway. Within 10 seconds we hear a steady stream and a little voice calling, "Look, Mommy! Look, Daddy! I doing it!" I guess maybe I'd have a harder time if someone was in there staring at me and my parts, too. And - so far - he hasn't peed all over the room. He stands straight and goes right in the potty...SCORE!!!

Poo Poo still eludes us. Joey thought he had gone this evening, but when we got him up there was no poop in the potty. Joey was so sure that he'd heard it come out that he practically stuck his head IN the toilet to look for it. It's gotta be coming...he hasn't gone since yesterday so he can't hold it forever. We'll start supplementing his high fiber diet with fiber gummies in the morning to see if we can't get through our first poop tomorrow. And, honestly, I'm not at all worried. Peeing is the bigger obstacle to me because they do it SO many times a day. Poop usually only happens once or twice...messier, but a lot fewer clean-ups. And I went through a year of Lily purposely holding her poop, so nothing fazes me anymore.

Good day. Praise God for answering our prayers and making this whole process so easy!