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so…the potty training
By heather | May 18, 2009
In the midst of the kitchen remodel and without really thinking it through AT ALL, we decided to start potty training Alex. Not that we decided, we were shall we say – encouraged – by his daycare person. She felt that he was ready and that the longer we waited the harder it would be to break him of the diaper habit. So because she is like our own personal Supernanny and we listen to her, 2 weekends ago we told Alex that he now only wore diapers at night and went cold turkey.
Flying without a net, we put him in underwear and shorts and prepared ourselves. The first few days were wet and puddle-ridden. And also practically house bound, which pretty much sucked. Alex would decide he was just too busy to take a potty break and would pee himself and not even tell us. One time I found out when I picked him up. He took me right into the hallway and showed me the accident scene…”see? Wight dare!” Then we got down to one accident a day, usually in the afternoon and finally last week a totally dry day.
Enter the poop problem.
Yesterday, at 9am he told me he had to poo poo. As soon as I put him on the potty, he clenched his buns and refused to go. All day this went on, with me spending most of the morning in the bathroom either trying to get him to sit, helping him get dressed, or washing hands. And of course, cleaning up the pee accidents that would happen because he refused to sit on the potty for fear of what might fall out.
He managed to hold it ALL DAY until he got into his nighttime diaper. That’s stamina right there, but also makes for a miserable kid, 4 wet pairs of pants, and a mommy wishing she had less whine and more wine.
What makes a kid comfortable dropping his friends off at the pool? Bribes didn’t work. I am way too OCD to let him run around without a diaper – I can’t stand the thought of anyone’s bare ass on my couches. I don’t even like it when people sleep on my couch.
And he is potty training on the toilet, not a little chair - mainly because I would rather wipe someone’s butt than constantly be washing out that stupid cup. Isn’t the whole point so you can just flush it away?
Topics: Alex, toddler stuff | 3 Comments »
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May 18th, 2009 at 11:55 pm
You’re going to laugh at yourself when it’s EK’s turn and you look back on this
Reagan was (still is) a chart girl and very reward driven. Try stickers on a chart, special treats and promises of even bigger treats after several completely accident free days. BUT, if he’s not ready there ain’t no amount of bribing that will get him to drown his little friends.
May 19th, 2009 at 5:08 am
I can’t do the sleep on the couch thing, either. Drives me bonkers when Paul naps on the couch.
We did the cold turkey thing with Will but it was so damn easy it gave me a totally unrealistic notion of what potty training would be like in reality. He was 37 months old and had not shown One Darn Sign of Readiness — his teacher said he was ready and wow, was she right. Kate is very, very, VERY different. Totally different experience this time around.
One of Will’s friends took months to poo on the potty. She would ask for a diaper to put on after school each day, go into the bathroom and poo in the diaper. It took a few months, but eventually she just stopped asking.
Hang in there. I’m fascinated to learn how this all gets resolved.
Holly’s last blog post..The week Kate potty trains.
May 19th, 2009 at 10:42 am
I am no help as I have not started this yet because he is stubborn and hates the potty, although he is ready. Brett gave me some good pointers this weekend though. I do know that this is totally normal and takes a while, but will happen. If Alex is incentive driven which it seems like he is, use it to your advantage. Andrew is not and doesn’t care, so I am searching for other alternatives.