How I Accidentally Potty Trained Trevor

I had no intention of potty training Trevor until next summer when he was 3. After our major fail in April, I really wasn't holding out any hope of him potty training anytime soon but I guess I am not in charge of the timing of these things.

So here's how it went down:

Last April, Trevor teased me with a little potty training trick. If it was his idea, he was all for it. If it was mine, he battled me. After about a week (or maybe it was 10 days) I gave up. It wasn't worth it. So for the last few months if he wanted to use the potty, I encouraged him and rewarded him with a treat but I never suggested it. He would randomly go - it kind of went in waves from using the potty a lot to not touching it for weeks. I just let him call the shots.

Somehow I got into the routine of letting him run around naked after we shower in the mornings. I am not sure how that happened but it did. Then last Thursday he was playing by himself in the toy room while I was doing my hair in the bathroom and he came running in saying "Potty! Potty!" and proceeded to go in the potty. It got me thinking . . . "when was the last time he had an accident on the carpet?" I came to the conclusion that it had been quite awhile. A long, long while. Hmmm . . .

Then I thought: he does great when he is naked but as soon as I put undies on him, he has an accident. The feeling of having something on felt like a diaper and he would go. I was talking to Karen, my dad's wife, on Thursday and asked her what I should do about that because, obviously, I can't let him run around naked all day and he needs to get used to wearing clothes. She suggested putting undies on him right when we get out of the shower when he is used to being naked and using the potty and seeing if that helped. I also thought that maybe I just need to let him have a few accidents in the undies and keep putting new undies on him and letting him try again.

Friday I decided to try a little experiment. After our shower I put him in undies and explained to him that he needed to use the potty. I think about 10 minutes later he had an accident. So I cleaned him up and put new undies on him and told him to try again and to remember to use the potty. A little while later he started to go but then realized that he was wearing undies and stopped. We got him on the potty and he went - CANDY time!

After that he basically had it. He stayed dry the rest of the day (even during nap time) and used the potty! Woo Hoo! Friday night I put him in a diaper for bed but he was dry Saturday morning. Awesome!

Saturday morning I decided to continue the experiment just to see what would happen and he did great! About 10 am we had to go to a soccer game. I wasn't ready to trust his abilities yet so I put him in a diaper but at the game he told me he had to potty so we ran for the portapotty. I wasn't about to let him sit on that nasty seat so I tried to hold him up but he couldn't go. He tried so hard but it just didn't work. He said he had to go again when we were at the car leaving so I let him try to go on a tree. That was more fun and he was successful. We went home, put him back in undies, ate lunch and he took a nap and woke up dry. He stayed home with Hailey while I went to Kayla's soccer game late that afternoon and was dry the whole time I was gone and used the potty.

It was when I returned home and realized how well he had done that I realized I had just accidentally potty trained him. My experiment was apparently a success. I was in no way prepared to tackle this project right now but there was NO WAY I could put him back in diapers. That would just totally confuse the poor kid so, oops, we were potty training! I was committed.

Saturday night I put him in a diaper again. He woke up at 1:30 am, said he had to go potty, went potty in the toilet, went right back to sleep and then woke up dry! Sunday he did AMAZING again and I knew we had it. Sunday night he didn't want a diaper and slept in undies and was dry.

Since then he has done awesome! He did have a few accidents today with the babysitter but he has done good since I got home so I am not sure what happened there.

It's totally crazy. 4 days of no diapers. 4 days of lots of running to the potty. 4 days of giving him 1 m&m and me eating a handful every time he was a successful. 4 days of NO DIAPERS! Did I mention that? NO DIAPERS! I can't believe it.

I wish I could say that it was all me and I had some magical trick but honestly, it was all him. He was ready. He worked hard. HE did it.

WAY TO GO TREVOR!