Potty Training Success!

We finally did it! I decided that since baby number three was getting closer I couldn't wait any longer to potty train Hyrum. He hadn't really shown signs of being ready, in fact, it got to the point where he'd break out into tears if I even asked if he wanted to try on the big boy potty, but I decided to give it a try anyway. I can happily say that it was a huge success. I had stressed over it for so long and had no idea what I was doing, so I thought I'd share what worked for us for any of you who may find it useful.

Potty Seat
He picked out his own train potty seat which allowed him to sit more comfortably on the potty without feeling like he was going to fall in.

Potty Chart
I printed off a train potty chart from the internet and let Hyrum put one sticker on the chart for going "pee pee" and two for "poo poo". He knew that when he filled up his chart he would get to go to the store and pick out his very own big boy underware. We had looked at the store prior and he already picked out the train ones (he wanted to match his potty).

Penny Jar
This one was the life-saver! In the past we had told Hyrum if he tried on the potty he would get a little treat, but that didn't seem to work very well becuase he'd still tell me, "I just want to go in my diaper this time." I read an idea online about using a penny jar and adapted it to Hyrum. Each time he tried sitting on the potty he got one penny. If he went "pee pee" he got another penny and if he went "poo poo" he got two pennies. He knew that once he was potty trained we'd take his penny's to the mall and he could go on the rides. It was a night and day difference in his attitude after that. He was so excited to try using the potty! After two days we changed to using nickles as an incentive. If Hyrum told me he needed to go potty without being reminded (by me or the watch) he got a nickle. He quickly learned to recognize when he needed to go potty on his own.

Watch
I'd set my watch to beep every 20 minutes, at which time we'd try sitting on the potty. I slowly moved the time back until we weren't using the watch as a reminder anymore.

Cheap Big Boy Underware
After trying all morning with the potty training thing in a diaper I realized he needed underware to really learn. If he went in his diaper he didn't realize it because he couldn't feel that it was wet. We bought some cheap, white underware and it only took a couple of accidents for him to learn to control when he needed to go. He was determined not to get his new underware wet.

We started potty training on a thursday and by sunday I felt comfortable enough to let him wear his big boy underware to church (three hours with no reminders and no accidents...yea!). I can't believe how quickly he learned. I'm so proud of him. I was afraid of potty training and it turned out to be kind of fun! Now all I can say about potty training our next two boys is..."bring it on!"

Sorry about the underware pics, they're just too cute to not post.

"Mom, look at all my pennies"

He was so proud of his big boy underware