Aiden is potty trained!! I’m glad to report, it was really easy too. Though Aiden first showed an interest in potty training at 28 months when one of his best friends was potty training, his body wasn’t quite ready for it. His bladder capacity then was only about an hour, he could still have accidents even right after a success, and he began to fear the potty for the ‘other’ reason. So, we backed off. It was a hard decision at the time, but I’m glad that’s what we did (for him and for the pregnant / postpartum period for me).

Big boy underwear

About a week and half ago, he asked again to start wearing underwear after he had a big success on the potty. He’d been going pee on the potty on and off for a while (particularly at preschool, where they have 2 scheduled breaks), but we didn’t think he was ready for the ‘other’ part – both emotionally and physically he was having issues.

I’m glad to say, my fears over that are gone. We gave him lots of bran for the first week (new cereal made it interesting for him again) and I’d say he’s even more regular now, even without the bran. It’s possible he’s properly listening to his body now, which is interesting. We’ll see how that progresses.

As far as the potty training method, it wasn’t hard. He already had the skills from our previous attempt, it was more about understanding what his body was telling him and actually being willing to listen to it. He resisted the latter part for 2 days, having a few accidents, but then has been nearly accident free since then. He’s only had 2 accidents from not listening to his body’s cues and no accidents aside from that for a whole week – yay!

We gave Aiden candy for his successes until the bowl of it ran out. He forgot we had candy when we were out of the house and I didn’t take any to Victoria – that has mostly nipped the candy-request to a minimum. I gave Aiden a new book after 3 days of no accidents and that was a great motivator for him to stay dry – he was really looking forward to his present.

I know that potty training kind of snuck up on us once again (I was planning on waiting until Damien could sit), but I am beyond proud of Aiden. He has done SO well in mastering this new skill and in listening to his body, even when he really doesn’t want to stop what he’s doing. I think the fact that we could take him on vacation just one week into potty training was really quite amazing.

The bonus of Aiden being closer to 3 is definitely the improvement in undressing skills, the ability to hold himself on the toilet, the lack of fear of public toilets and a reduced fear in the whole process. He’s even able to nap (when he does nap) and not have accidents!