Thursday, December 04, 2008

Oh, the potty!

It seems like it would get easier, you know. Like, after you've potty-trained your third or fourth toddler, you'd become a pro. It seems like it. *sigh*

Joshua was three and a half when he FINALLY trained himself. Notice I said trained himself. I was two weeks away from giving birth to Rachael (#3), and had decided it was too much stress trying to train him in my rather large condition.

Daniel was nearly three when I gave up after setting a timer to take him to the potty every 3 minutes, and he'd still have accidents in between. Obviously, he wasn't ready. Two weeks later, as I was changing his diaper one day, he said, "No diaper, mommy." I told him he'd have to use the potty if he wanted no diaper. He looked away as if he was thinking about it, and then looking back at me, he said, "OK." I was skeptical, but as it turns out, he'd made up his mind. He never had another accident, day or night.

Having learned from my previous experiences, I more or less left the potty training up to the kid with my third and fourth toddlers. Rachael trained herself at 2 with very little input from me. Zechariah trained himself at 19 months despite my best efforts to hold him off. I was just months away from having Isaiah, and I had no interest in a potty trained toddler who could neither pull his pants up and down alone nor climb onto the potty. Things turned out just as I'd hoped they would not, with my little feller hollering, "Mommy, I need to go potty!" Just as I'd latched little Isaiah on, or just as I was laying him down for his precious few moments of sleep.

Looking back, it wasn't so bad having a tiny tot going potty. And I earned some serious bragging rights with the other moms of tots! Perhaps it seems nostalgic now only because I'm trying to persuade Isaiah that he's ready to use the potty. We were doing so well for a little while, there. He went four whole days without a single accident. Then, on the fifth day, we had to be at church all day, and it turned out that he was afraid to use their little potties (they have the ones with the seats that are split in the front). He had an accident while still at church, and he hasn't stayed dry since. That was a week and a half ago.

Oh, the joys of potty training. Anyway, I still have half a box of diapers from Sam's Club to go through. I was hoping to be able to give them to the church nursery because it had looked like we weren't going to need them. Oh, well.

Gotta go change a diaper. Joy.

5 comments:

Sheila said...

I read your potty blog and chuckled to myself ya know you never know with the whole potty business. I think it's kind of catch 22 depending on the kid. Hmmm maybe I will maybe I won't. LOL
I think some kids mess with our heads just to see us sweat. LOL

Well, he will eventually go potty I am sure he will realize at sometime how uncomfortable it truly is. I know before he's 6 or 8? LOL Just kidding....he will come around he probably just got terrified from those potties and will come around again, I think kids also like to make us think we have things down and then they surprise us.

Big Hugs to you,
Sheila

The Purvis Pendulum said...

Girl- I totally feel your pain!!! Kaylee does great, I think she just isn't ready to 'tell' me when she has to go. So unless I take her all the time, she will have accidents.
I am by far NO expert, but I guess every kid is different and we just have to let them do their own thing :)
Good luck girl- we can battle this together!!!

Sheila said...

I like your new background and page layout....Very NICE...

Change is too good. :)

Hugs,
Sheila

Shelley said...

Why THANK you!! I like it too! I have been wanting to switch it up for a while now. Now that I know how easy it is, I might change it seasonally...if I can remember to. :)

Shelley said...

Linda, LOL, I think Kaylee has YOU trained, huh? :) But that's okay as long as you don't forget, right? haha! Sara and I were talking about this last night at the staff Christmas party. Carson had a recent setback too! Carson, Kaylee, Isaiah...we're all in this together for sure! :P