Potty Training My *Almost* 3 Year Old Baby

It's been rough going.  I ain't gonna lie.  He's my latest potty trainer, but that should've been expected.  The boy has needed a large amount of prodding and gentle pushing from the nest in all areas of his development.  He's not one to just get up and try something because he sees someone else doing it.  He refused to take a step until I was gone overnight in the hospital with Hannah (appendicitis) and didn't take more than three steps until I left on a girl's weekend.  It is fitting that the first time he uses the potty would be when I was gone to the grocery store.

I could tell he wasn't ready in April, but I also knew that time when I needed to start pushing him was approaching.  So, I took the approach that has worked with three of my children (the other two just decided to potty train on their own and needed no push from Mama) which is to start prepping them with lots of talk.  We talk every time I change his diaper about how he is getting so big and needs to start using a big boy potty and wearing big boy underwear.  Then I pick a time in the future that has a big event before it so that he can tell when it is approaching, in this case, when our friends leave from their visit at the beginning of June.  We did many other things to prepare like watch Elmo Potty Time from the library, read all our Potty books, and have him watch his big brothers use the potty.

Well, time came and he knew that he was going to be expected to use the potty when our friends left, but he just couldn't do it.  I left him half naked the whole day right after they left, and he peed on the floor every single time.  It was a huge failure.  That has worked with all the boys.  I reminded him of his promise at some point in the day to use the potty after our friends left.  His reply totally cracked me up, "I'll do it when the next (insert last name of our friends here) leave."  Uh, that's a problem for me.  They're the only ones.  Turned out that my idea to train him then wasn't ideal anyway because our movers were coming to pack our stuff all week and then we were leaving on a long trip, so I decided to wait and try again after we got back from our trip.

This turned out to be the best time anyway, because we arrived home with no diapers left and only had pullups in the house.  He slept in a pullup and we stripped him down to his birthday suit first thing in the morning.  The plan wasn't necessarily to potty train that day, but there were no diapers, so I thought I'd let the girls work with him while I ran to the grocery store.  Before I left, he pooped on the tile floor.  Wah wah.  I was not hopeful.  This is a first for me in all my 13 years experience as a mother.

However, his developmental pattern continued and I came home to a very happy household thrilled to tell Mom the good news that he had used the potty for the first and second time ever and not had an accident!  That stinker!  What is it about me that makes him turn into a baby that never wants to grow up or try anything new?!!!

He had no more accidents all day, but we didn't try underwear yet.  Day two Dad was hanging with the boys while the girls went shopping and he wore underwear and kept them dry.  That afternoon we went to a movie together as a family (It was our 17th anniversary.) and he sat on my lap with underwear.  This was a bold move and he made it 3/4's of the way through the movie, but he wouldn't go to the potty with me no matter how many times I asked.  And then it happened.  He peed on my lap.  In his defense, that's a lot to ask of a toddler just learning to leave a movie voluntarily to go potty when he normally just goes when he feels like it.

Day three, he had one accident on the way to Mass, but was dry the rest of the day and we were out on a long hike that afternoon.  Day four was a bad one, three accidents at home in his underwear.  It was a bad day for everyone.  I think we're all just tired and cranky with all our comfortable beds and stuff gone.  We are in our house still, but with temporary loaner furniture for almost two months total.

Any so it continued, day four no accidents, day five one accident, day six no accidents, day seven one accident, and on until close to two weeks in and the accidents stopped.  He figured it out.  I generally do a load of laundry everyday anyway and with most of our clothes gone, it was a more dire need.  So no big deal to throw in a couple of soiled items.  When Hannah was potty training I hated that I had to run laundry everyday, but now it's really no biggie. 

Bobby was a little afraid to use the big potty for poop for a while.  When we were out, he'd try and then change his mind several times, but he didn't have accidents and always just waited until we were back home with his tiny potty to go.

And since I am writing this post nearly two months later, I can tell you that he didn't have an accident for around a month until we got to the states, upon when he began having half accidents.  He starts to go and then stops himself.  It's a big adjustment and I'm just glad he stops himself.  He's nearly always dry at night. 

I can not believe my youngest s potty trained.  I immediately started wanting to ask strangers to let me hold their babies.  I thought I'd be on cloud nine when he was potty trained, but really I'm mourning the loss of my baby.  The era of thirteen and a half years of changing diapers has come to an end.