Potty-Training Update

Potty training has been very interesting, to say the least. We worked really hard on things while we were on vacation. I knew this was my time, since I’d be with them most days, we didn’t have a lot of things planned (were vacationing/relaxing at my dad’s). Also, I didn’t have to worry about puddle clean-up as much at my dad’s because, the kids played outside on the patio a lot, and the house doesn’t have much carpet.

Josephine had been doing REALLY well before vacation – she had basically already trained herself. She tells us when she has to go, too. Sometimes she’s just saying it but doesn’t really mean it – especially since I was taking Elijah frequently and she wasn’t getting as much attention. She has a bladder the size of Texas and can hold it a long time – so if it’s only been a half-hour I just let her go in by herself. In this case, she’ll go in and play for a minute or pretend she’s going. Then she’ll say, “no potty,” and come back out of the bathroom. I don’t have to tell her when to go, except we do first thing in the morning. The switch to panties was very easy. During the day, I think she’s only had two accidents, when she got REALLY busy playing and ran to the bathroom, but she couldn’t get her pants pulled down in time and peed on the floor in the bathroom. She’s usually dry all day and most nights (unless we sleep in too late).

The funny thing was, even before we switched to panties, one day we had a family 4th-of-July party up at the pole barn. We had a big cooler of lemonade for the kids to drink. Josephine must have drank 30 little glasses of lemonade that day. It was hot, so she was thirsty, but she also LOVED the lemonade! Then she said, “potty mommy!” about 10 times within 2 hours. Since we were about 100 yards from the house, the port-a-potty was a necessity – but I was sooooo glad that the company they rent from has newer clean ones – and they have installed those disinfectant dispensers. But, it was so hot in that thing, because it was in the sun! Since it was just family around, I’d just stand in the doorway while she went, but then turned over the potty duties to Daddy. It was so funny though – she usually only goes – at max – every 2-3 hours, but that lemonade was a hit!

Elijah is a little more complicated – typical of boys, so I’ve heard. He would wet his pull-up several times per day, as well as going in the potty – and at least squeezing out a few dribbles – several times per day. He seemed to have a bladder the size of a pea, and no control! He’s always soaked when he wakes up in the morning, so we’re keeping him in pull-ups overnight. But during the day, while we were on vacation, I switched him to big-boy pants. The first day, he only had one accident – when we had gone to a local nature center for about 1½ hours – so I wasn’t surprised, and it wasn’t his fault – there were just no restrooms nearby for me to continue his every-half-hour potty-breaks. He was even dry thru nap – and I caught him right when he woke up and had him go right away.

The second day wasn’t so good. I tried extending to every 45 minutes, and he went through about 5 pair of pants before I switched him to pull-ups to go out for supper - then he told me he had to go in the car on the way to Pizza Hut - go figure! The following few days were good as long as I made him go every 30-45 minutes. Once in a while I’d forget and extend to an hour, and he still did really well. He still won’t tell me when he has to go #1, and says, “no potty” but I make him go anyway, and he does go. He does, however, tell me, “potty mommy!” when he has to go #2, so it’s nice to not have to worry about that clean-up.

When we left my dad’s house on Sunday for the 3-hour drive back home, I put a pull-up on Elijah. He now hates wearing pull-ups – he wants to wear underwear, and whines when we have him put a pull-up on (except at bedtime, so I think he knows it’s necessary then)... But I didn’t think 3 hours would work, so I put the pull-up on him despite the whining. To my amazement, he was dry when we got home. BIG praises for Elijah for that!

We debated whether to continue using pull-ups at daycare, but I decided I didn’t want to lose ground. I just explained to the teachers that he needs to go slightly more often than hourly, and I'd put in his bag several changes of shorts and underwear – and one pull-up in case he got down to the last pair of shorts. The first day, he only had one accident – and it was at naptime. So I had the blanket and one outfit to wash that night. I was so surprised – he did great! The second day at daycare, they put a pull-up on him at naptime, but no other accidents. I was pleasantly surprised to see him in the same clothes when I picked him up. I do kind of wish they’d given it more than one try at naptime though, since he’d been dry for me at naptime most days on our vacation. I wondered though, if he just drinks more at daycare than he does at home - they said he is running to the drinking fountain frequently - so that makes sense.

The third day I didn’t send a pull-up to daycare, but he did have a pull-up on when we got home. He'd had two accidents in the morning, and then was on his last pair of pants so they found one to put on him. He was dry when we got home, but complained of an "owie". The doc put him on an antibiotic and it's clearing up well for him. I don't think it's causing him any more problems on the potty-training though, so that's good. I replenished Elijah's bag for daycare, and he did great on Thursday and Friday - no accidents, although they are continuing to put a pull-up on him for naptime.

Elijah's teacher did say that she's checking to see how wet it is and it's been lessening. She said today it was just barely wet. Hopefully soon we'll be done with naptime pull-ups too! I'm so thankful for such good teachers at their daycare. I was concerned that they wouldn't want to deal with his tiny bladder - especially since he's in an age group classroom where most kids are already fully potty trained, but they're doing an awesome job with him. They just picked up with him where I left off last week, and he's coming along very well. :)

He's been doing great in the evenings at home as well. Although I will say that after tonight's puddle in the entry-way, that I need to help the kids get inside and get Elijah to the bathroom as soon as we get home. I usually have the kids go on in the house, while I check the mailbox, and then grab my stuff out of the van. I'd really rather not have to add cleaning up a puddle to the already-busy evening routine.

Now that we're starting to get past the initial daytime pottying with Elijah, I’m guessing the final hurdle - dry nights - will extend out quite a while. Not really sure how to handle that one, but for now I'm looking forward to only using one pull-ups per day instead of buying a big package every week. Once he can tell me when he has to go pee, can hold it for longer than an hour during the day, is dry through naptimes, or maybe when he's not nearly quite so wet in the mornings, I may just try doing underwear at night – my thought is that maybe he’ll not like sleeping in wetness, and train himself. But I don’t have another change of the waterproof mattress pads – I guess I better get on that so I’ll be ready!

Oh – and I’ve got some 2T-3T girls pull-ups that we won’t be using if anyone wants/needs them – there is almost a full package of Huggies and about 1/3 of a large package of the Walmart-brand. Just let me know - first-come-first-serve.