Tell-It Tuesday: Training Day Part 2

And now Part 2 of the Potty Training Chronicles: Brock's turn.

(The undies on his head?  His idea, not mine.  Don't worry-they were clean.)

After our rough time potty training Jakob for six months, I was worn out, and was totally NOT ready to potty train again.  But time marches onward, so it had to be done.

Which, P.S.-poor Jake!  The first kid really is the Guinea pig, huh?  When you just don't know what to do, and so you flail around, and try all sorts of things, and then afterwards you figure it all out, and then it's a lot easier on the next kids.  If only it didn't have to be that way.
One thing I had learned is that I started Jakob on potty training too early.  He had no idea what was going on, or how to do things.  I think I started him so early because I didn't want the three kids in diapers, but then after I did it that first time, it's wasn't the worst concept in the universe to me.  So when I was pregnant with Ivy, I had zero drive to try with Brock until later.
Another thing: when I was training Jake, I brought up the fact that it was taking a million years to train him to my doctor.  He suggested having Jake clean out his own undies.  I was like, I can't do that to a 2 1/2 year old!  So I didn't ever try that with him.  But as I started contemplating training Brock, it sounded like a better idea to me.

Ivy was born in May 2008.  I started training Brock sometime in July 2008, so he was a little over 3 years old.  Hence, I did the three kids in diapers thing for a few months again.

Brock has always liked to be pampered.  He loves getting sun lotion put on him because it's like a massage.  He loves getting his back rubbed.  And, by extension, I think he really liked getting his diaper changed, because it was a form of pampering.  But I could tell he was aware of his diaper and his "system", because he'd pause while playing for a minute.  That was one of the signs I knew he was ready, but I knew I had to force his hand a little because of the pampering thing.

So, we started, and we did cold turkey, meaning just straight into undies.  I think because he was older, he did a lot better than Jake did at first.  I still had him sit on the toilet often, but I didn't do the hand in the warm water thing or the sticker chart.

I did, however, have him clean out his undies whenever he had a poop accident.  And he HATED it.  I'm sure most kids would, but he especially did because of wanting to be pampered and clean.  We would have him take off his undies, and put them in the sink, and rinse them out really good. 

There was one time I took him to clean them out, and he was shaking, and he just reached one little finger out and just...touched the poop.  I'm like, no, you don't have to touch the poop part, just the undies, but we need to make sure the poop gets rinsed out.

He did really great-it took about 3 weeks for him to be trained.  But after no accidents for a while, he pooped in his undies at my parents' house, on my birthday at the end of July.  I played the birthday card, so Pete ended up cleaning him up.  And to do it, he had Brock stand outside naked while he hosed him off.  A little cruel?  Yes.  Effective?  VERY.

A couple of weeks after that Brock had a pee accident, then two the following day.  I was like, dude, no WAY are we going to regress.  So I told him, "Well, we need to get you cleaned off because you peed in your undies."  I put him in the tub, turned the water on super cold, and started dumping it on him.  He totally HATED that, but while I was doing it, I said, "No peeing in your undies."  He was like, okay okay okay!  He's been great ever since.

Lessons learned this time around: making the kid clean it up works very well, wait until you see some signs (like that they are aware of their diaper and their poop) works, and kids hate cold water.