Potty Training, pt. 2

So I said I would explain why we started training when we did. I read a post on domanmom.com that made a lot of sense and resonated with me, so I decided to give early potty training a try. I was also emboldened by talking to my mother-in-law and her mom who both potty trained their kids pretty early, with almost all the kids being trained well before the age of two. Genetics was on my side!
Basically I wanted to catch him while he was still very aware of his bowel movements and before he would be unwilling to stop his playtime to use the potty. We seem to be entering that sort of transition right now so I think I caught him just in time.



So today we started by sitting on the potty, with no results. Then I put him in his new cloth training pants. He seemed pleased. However, after three accidents in the space of 30 minutes, I needed a new approach. He was very upset when he wet himself, so that was good, but to get repeatedly upset wasn't what I was going for. I don't want this to be agonizing for either of us.
Approach #2 was the naked baby method, so he was wearing a shirt and socks but no underwear or pants. Additionally, I put him in the kitchen to play where he would be right by the bathroom. (It's an old house, weird layout.) That worked so much better! He went an hour with no accidents. When he needed to pee he quickly crawled to the bathroom and I helped him get on his little potty. He went twice in that time and had a couple false alarms.
Things fell apart when I had to put him in his playpen for a minute (fortunately I had a towel under the sheet left from when he had the flu). He peed in the playpen and then he had a series of accidents that made him really upset. He also didn't want to use the potty. It didn't take me long to figure out the problem: he was tired and needed a nap so I put him down for one and we let the potty training take a rest for the day. He didn't ask to go anymore, so I didn't put any pressure on it and I just kept him in the Easy Ups for the rest of the day.
Tomorrow we'll work on it again, but I'll start right off with the naked baby method and I'll get him into a pull-up before he gets too sleepy. I'll also try to keep the training up throughout the whole day as long as he seems receptive to it. Because he had already been coming along so well before we all got sick, I'm optimistic about this next phase. Watch for updates!
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