Project: Potty Train in Three Days

Yes, you read that correctly, it only took us three days to get Sophia potty trained! I finally had a day off from school and I decided we were going to start working on potty training. At first I had no clue how to even go about starting this process. Sophia had used the potty before, but it never “stuck.”  The only thing I did know was that I needed to dedicate at least one whole day to potty training. I found an awesome pin on Pinterest about potty training in three days. (You can read it here). Well fancy that, we had three full days coming up of nothing to do nothing that couldn’t be re-scheduled.  So I thought we might as well give this a try…and whatdaya know, it worked.

I followed the tips she offered pretty closely, but I did mix a few things up for what would work for us.

DISCLAIMERS: Potty training is physically and emotionally draining, I don’t know why, but I was more tired the first 2 days than I had been after an all-nighter of studying. Ever. So you may want to keep that in mind when you decide it’s time to potty train. Also, yes, Sophia is “barely two” and I understand that people think this may be too early and others think it is too late for training; however as her mother I felt she was ready. I NEVER forced Sophia to use the potty, it was surprisingly a calm weekend and she set the pace of things for the most part. Had she broke down and refused to use the potty after two attempts of me asking, Project Potty would’ve been shut down. Thankfully she’s a strong-willed little lady and she was just as eager as I was to ditch the diapers.

    Here are the top things that worked for us:
1. We devoted TWO FULL days to potty training. We stayed within 30 feet of a bathroom in our house at all times.
2. The housework (laundry, dishes, cleaning) was done on Thursday night so that it was not a distraction over this three day project.
3. We went potty every 20 minutes, in those 20 minutes we were with Sophia most of the time playing with her so that we could see that she needed to go potty. (This is probably more difficult to do with multiple children in the house, as you can’t devote all of your time to only one child.)
3. We knew that accidents happen. Remember that saying, “Prepare for the worst, and hope for the best.” Yeah, do that. Be prepared for cleaning up accidents, and hope that you have fewer accidents to clean up the next day.

 

Okay, so here is how Project Potty went for us.

 Preparation:

Sophia’s potty basket on the back of the toilet. Inside the basket we had:

Punch cards. We used punch cards for every time Sophia sat on the potty, whether she went or not. Why punch cards? I didn’t want to feed her an M&M every 20 minutes, and by using the punch we worked on some fine motor skills while we learned to use the potty. 

Potty treats. Sophia got one M&M when she went potty on the potty.

 

New potty books! We read books while we waited for her to go potty. Generally we read one book per “sitting.” 

I highly recommend them all. Here S is reading “Princess Potty Time.”

 

An accident cleaning caddy. Included in the caddy was: washcloths, carpet cleaner, and a scrubbing brush. This way we didn’t have to make a scene when there was an accident by running around looking for where we last left the cleaning supplies, we simply grabbed the caddy and cleaned it up.

Extra clothes. We found this stepping stool at Target that conveniently has a storage area in the top. This is where we put Sophia’s extra clothes so that they were easily accessible without cluttering the counter.

We were ready to go!

Here’s a summary of how our days went:
Day One and Day Two: We set the timer for 20 mins. When the timer went off we would stop what we were doing and go potty. Because we were going potty so often, I sat and played with Sophia all day. Literally. No chores were done, no computer, nada. I loved this for two reasons: (1) it made the day all about Sophia which I think really helped her to feel “special” being a big girl and (2) I just love spending a whole day playing and making crafts with her.
At first she wasn’t going potty a lot and we spent a lot of time just sitting on the potty and reading a book. Then it “clicked” (I’m a nursing student, I should have known this from the start) that more fluids=more pee-pee. DUH! So we tried to push lots of fluid mid-morning/afternoon. During nap I put her in a pull-up, and for bed I put her in a diaper.

Day One - timer set every 20 minutes
7:15	Undies on. Sat on potty
7:35	Went pee-pee on the potty
7:55	Sat on the potty
8:50	Sat on the potty
9:10	Sat on the potty
9:15	First accident - Peed in undies
9:35	Sat on potty
9:50	Told me she had to go. Peed.
10:20	Had an accident while we were playing outside
10:45	Went pee-pee
11:00	Had an accident
11:15	Sat on potty
11:20	Ate lunch
11:35	Made it to the potty and went pee-pee
11:45	Made it to the potty and poo-d
12:10	Told me she had to go. Peed
12:30	Down for nap
3:00	Woke up dry. Went pee
3:30	Went pee-pee
4:05	Told me she had to go. Peed
4:30	Sat on potty
4:55	Sat on potty
5:25	Went pee-pee
5:50	Sat on potty.
6:20	Went pee-pee
7:00	Went pee-pee
7:30	Down for bed.

Day 2 – timer set every 20 minutes
3:30 AM	Told us she had to go potty. Went pee-pee.
7:15 AM	Went poo-poo on the potty.
7:45 AM	Sat on potty
8:30 AM	Had an accident in the playroom –pee.
9:15 AM	Sat on potty
9:45 AM	Sat on potty
10:15 AM	Told us she had to go potty. Went pee-pee.
10:35 AM	Sat on potty.
11:05 AM	Told dad in car that she had to go potty. Made it home in time and went pee-pee
11:15 AM	Said she had to poo. Sat on potty.
11:30 AM	Told us she had to go poo. Made it to the potty.
12:00 PM	Told us she had to go potty. Went pee-pee.
12:15 PM	Told us she had to go potty. Went pee-pee.
12:45 PM	Down for nap.
3:00 PM	Woke up wet.
3:30 PM	Told us she had to go potty. Went pee-pee.
4:00 PM	Sat on potty
4:15 PM	Told us she had to go potty. Went pee-pee.
5:00 PM	Told us she had to go potty. Went pee-pee.
5:30 PM	Sat on potty
6:25 PM	Told us she had to go potty. Went pee-pee.
Day 3 – No timer
8:00 AM	Woke up dry. Went pee-pee on the potty.
9:00 AM	Went pee-pee on the potty.
11:00 AM	Went poo-poo on the potty.
12:30 PM	Went pee-pee on the potty.
1:00 PM	Down for nap
2:30 PM	Woke up dry. Went pee-pee on the potty.
3:00 PM	Sat on potty before leaving the house.
3:30 PM	Went pee-pee at grandma’s house.
4:30 PM	Went pee-pee at grandma’s house.
5:15 PM	Went pee-pee at grandma’s house.
6:00 PM	Sat on potty before we left to go home.
7:00 PM	Got home. Went pee-pee on the potty
7:30	Asleep in bed.

Update: Sophia is still going strong with the potty training. She does awesome at daycare, thanks to her amazing daycare provider. I am so happy that we decided to give this three day project a chance.