Last month, I wrote a post on potty-training and traveling with children. I wanted to send out an update on how it all went! Because we all know that real life doesn’t always translate the way we hoped or planned for it to go.
As far as potty-training went, we were really lucky. I think our son was really ready! He had been showing signs for a few months but I was being lazy about it…admittedly nervous to give up the diapers. But he was so excited to wear his “big boy underpants”! He did not want to be naked so we went without underwear under his shorts for a few days and only had a handful of accidents. I watched him like a hawk and kept looking for the signs that he had to go and within 24 hours something clicked and now he is fully potty-trained, day, night and naps! I was not planning to night train but his overnight diapers were dry so I took a chance and put him in his underwear for night time and what do you know, he was still dry. He was even waking up around 1-2 am most nights to use the bathroom which was very surprising to us! Now he goes all night without using the bathroom but I just make sure we go before bed and right when he wakes up. He still needs help with wiping after BMs so we will work on that but overall I would have to say it was a GREAT SUCCESS and I did follow the book by Jamie Glowacki pretty closely so I highly recommend that for everyone in this stage of life. The only hiccups we ran into were helping distinguish when it was OK to urinate outside in private vs public. When we first started training, it was easier to have him urinate outside because he insists on standing up (quite the mess!) but shortly after we potty-trained we were out in a public restaurant and we found him with his pants down about ready to “water the bushes” right in the middle of the restaurant’s outdoor space. Surrounded by a bunch of people – who thought it was pretty hilarious but we were mortified!! So, we had a big talk about privacy, private parts, etc. It’s never too early to talk about this.
As far as our big trip goes…we drove a total of 2,230 miles over 10 days. Slept in 9 different beds, saw countless friends and family and had a wonderful time!! I prepped the surprise bags ahead of time and probably had way too many toys for him in the car but we were ready!! Surprisingly, he did great for being in the car for such a long time. Our longest day of driving was 8.5 hrs (without stops) and I tried to stick to a schedule but he fell asleep at random times in the car which I never was upset about 😉 We tried our best to stick to our cooler full of healthy foods and only ate at McDonald’s once! Yay! 🙂 The surprise bags were a big hit but his attention span is pretty short so he was always asking for the next best thing. We definitely used the electronic device to keep him happy but setting a timer has worked really well for him and so thankfully we were able to police screen time in the car. All in all – I’d say we had a great trip and will be planning our next road trip soon!!
