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Potty Training Update

I've had a good number of people ask me lately about potty training Will and how that is going/went. A lot of my friends have little boys of their own and I think (like me) people want to know the nitty gritty of it all because one day, we will all be there. I figured that since I never wrote another update about him, I would do that in case anyone is interested as well as to allow me to look back one day. I know that having it written down with Kenzie was really helpful when it came to training Will because I could look at some of the things we learned with her (some of which I forgot) and try to use some of those same ideas with him.

All that being said, what they say about boys and girls being different was definitely the truth in this house. Kenzie was a pretty easy case. She just sort of got it. Now, I do remember for MONTHS needing to ask her every 20 minutes or so if she needed to potty, but overall, she was easier. Steven doesn't remember that part, but I totally do. Part of that is Will's personality versus hers and part is how different our lifestyle is now compared to when we were a one child family.

Will has definitely taken a bit longer to come into his own. He initially picked up on the idea super fast BUT we had a regression about a month in. Not uncommon according to our pediatrician, "especially with boys" as she said. It took us a week or so to work through it though and get back to a comfortable point. Prior to his regression, we were experiencing one pee accident a day. I asked our pediatrician about that too and she said that is entirely normal as well and could go on for a very long time but he can be considered trained even having that issue. Also (and I asked  about this too and it is super normal), he has a hard time with pooping on the potty. I don't know if it is partially developmental in that he may not recognize yet entirely that he has to go and to let me know before hand or perhaps that it is partially because he is always on the go and pooping requires sitting for longer periods of time, but it is what it is.

Now, about 2 plus months in, we are down to about 2-3 pee accidents a week and a poop accident every other day on average. The poop would be more but there are days he doesn't go and there have been a handful of days that we caught him and got him to go in the potty. We make a HUGE deal out of that so I'm hoping to capitalize on that success more and more until he gets it. I would say that 90% of the time he wakes up dry from a nap but we are keeping him in Pull-Ups for as long as necessary during sleeping times. (It took Kenzie about an extra 6-8 months in Pull-Ups at night before she was night trained. Though we left her in them for another 4 or so months before we nixed them for good.)

Like I said though, our lifestyle is far different now than it was 2 and a half years ago. We are much more on the go and we have 2 kids to work around so how we handled being "potty trained" has been different this go round. I still stand that, for our family and specifically our kids, Pull-Ups aren't the best option when full on training, but we do admit to using them as a crutch now sometimes.

Allow me to explain, with Kenzie, we literally used Pull-Ups in 3 instances: nap, night time, and on long car trips (over an hour). With Will, we do all that but also add in the use of Pull-Ups in some situations that it makes it easier as a clean up method and as protection (mainly for those around us or outside of our own home.) We use them at church (though he stays dry almost all the time while there) and at Disney (and this would be the same if we did something like we will tonight when we go to the fair.) We have learned that finding bathrooms in those situations can be difficult and Will tells us before he goes a lot but not always with enough time to find a bathroom in an unfamiliar (or large) place. We have done one Disney trip so far since potty training and he did remarkably well. He leaked twice but it wasn't much.... it was just that we were in a line and couldn't get out so he had to hold it longer than we would have liked and he had one accident while we were in Fantasmic though that was entirely my fault. He said he had to go and I told him we needed to wait because we couldn't get up and to the bathroom then back into the show in the dark. What we do when we use pull-ups though (most of the time) is put underwear on inside them. We do this for 2 main reasons. First, because they act more like diapers, they pull wetness away and we can't always tell if he has had an accident if it might have been a small amount but with undies inside, we can feel that they are wet. And second, it's because it makes him feel wet and he doesn't like that. He is more likely to want to use the potty if he has to feel wetness than if he is wearing a Pull-Up alone that is acting like a diaper. This is a trick that my mom used with my brother when he was little and it definitely works for us. Sorry, Rick! I totally just outed you. You were a hard one to train, I hear. I don't remember... but Momma told me. =)

One thing that Will learned really quickly (blasted smart kids) was that if he wants to get out of a situation or is bored or something he can tell me that he has to potty and 90% of the time, I stop what I'm doing and take him. So.... it's sort of like the boy who cried wolf a lot. The people that work at Kenzie's dance studio laugh at me because I walk back and forth to the potty A LOT during her 45 minutes class. The problem with that is that I sometimes find myself not taking him as often even though he has to go because I'm not sure if it is solely an avoidance tactic or serious. I would actually say that about half of the pee accidents he has are related to this issue. The other half seem to be more about him being a toddler. He likes to play. He doesn't like to stop playing (and now I have the Daniel Tiger potty training episode song stuck in my head... Great.)

Overall, it's been a longer process but I'm so glad we did it when we did. We have saved a good amount of money on diapers and Will definitely seems to like being a "big boy" like his big sissy is a big girl. He's done pretty well. It continues to be a learning process for all of us, but we make it work. It's still crazy to me how different our kids are. Will took to the process so fast that I, for sure, thought he would be easier than Kenzie but he is the one that had a regression and had to be re-trained to a point. Though he has done great since then. I remember calling my mom crying when that was going on because I was so frustrated and she reiterated that I couldn't go back now (not that I would have) and I'm glad we held on because it only lasted a short period of time.

P.S. I totally recommend letting them pick out undies they like. For Kenzie, we just sort of did it for her and she didn't care one way or the other. For Will, we tried to pick out some without his input and he was eh about it. BUT... once we got him his Mickey Mouse ones and showed him the boxer briefs (or his "cool Daddy undies" as he calls them) he was set. He hates messing them up by having accidents because then he has to be changed and I often purposely change him into the boring ones he doesn't care as much about. He is more likely to try to stay dry if he has the ones he likes on. Again, differences in kids. Kenzie couldn't have cared less but Will does.

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