Wednesday, October 22, 2008

Potty Training

Where are we at?
That is a good question and I don't rightly know the answer to it.
I often think if I could mush Andy and Doug into one person (and hopefully end up with the positive things) then we would be a lot further along then we are now. There have been times when it is almost like they have "shared" an illness because one will be puking and tired and runny nose but no fever, and the other will have a fever but no other symptoms.
Anyway, on to potty training. If we were doing potty timing and not worried about them knowing when they need to go, then we would mostly have it made. Doug can pee on command but he has no clue when he is wet. If I have him in cloth underwear he doesn't know when he needs to go and by the third pair of wet underwear he even stops telling me that he has had an accident. He has yet to poop in the potty...though a couple times letting them run naked in the backyard he produced poop (once squatting at the top of the slide...but that is a whole other story) but essentially he doesn't know when he needs to go.
Andy, on the other hand, still mostly freezes up when urinating and likes to fall back on the "hot water" method of making him go. He can poop in the potty and actually has asked to go to the bathroom a few times. Last night he begged for a nighttime pull-up instead of a diaper and I told him that if he woke up in the night and needed to go that he could. I also told him that if he needed help it was ok to wake up mommy. Apparently after about an hour of sleep he came running out to Jim (I was downstairs at the time) and insisted that he needed to go. He apparently squeezed out an extremely small poop and went back to bed (I worry a bit about hemorrhoids with that child). Sure enough in the morning he had a wet pull-up. Doug on the other hand had apparently had a dry night (which happens every so often with each of them) and I had to insist that he go to the bathroom prior to getting dressed.
So...I am encouraged by Andy asking to go to the bathroom...I don't know what to think about Doug. I also realize this would be a lot easier if we didn't leave the house, I didn't have other things I had to work on, and I had done potty training before. I know we will get there eventually.

4 comments:

Jennifer said...

thanks for the comment. three is definitely harder here than two was. :S but we are surviving and I'm trying to focus on the good things. :)

I love your mantra!! :)

as for potty training... they will get it. and i know you know that, but sometimes hearing it from someone else it just is like "oh yeah. they really will get it one day." I know girls are a lot easier, at least for me they were and also maybe b/c they were first children. they saw everyone else in our house using the potty so they wanted to too. :) it was a beautiful thing. but my son was just like Doug. He would urinate every time I put him on the potty or almost every time, but wouldn't go on his own and would just nochalantly pee his pants and most of the time not tell me. it was so frustrating for me. I thought he would be able to put two and two together and just go on the potty but it took a lot of time and changes of clothes. he was almost three when he was fully trained and honestly what worked for us, which may not work for all, was talking to him about who goes on the potty... like mommmy, daddy, grandma, grandpa etc... and also at the time my friend was working on potty training her daugher so we kind of made it into a friend competition w/ Trevor.. could he get potty trained before Kelsea did... that seemed to help him out too... and also I kind of just backed off of it some... just let things go they were going to go and eventually it all just worked out. thankfully!! :)

Now at 5, if I could only get him to wipe his own butt. lol I guess we'll get there too.

have a great day!!
xoxoxo

Jill in MA said...

My oldest didn't get it until 4 1/2 and he still occasionally has an accident. I feel like no amount of talking and coercing will help -- they just have to want to do it and get it. My next one is turning 3 in a couple of weeks and she thinks she's potty trained because she peed and pooped on the potty once.... She'll get it, too. Don't stress, don't worry. It will happen in its own time.

ooolia said...

sounds like we're at about the same place. C will generally produce pee or poop on the potty, but will never admit to needing to go. He usually won't even tell me if he's wet or poopy. ARGH!

I know he'll get it eventually, but I'm not enjoying the ride.

Jen said...

We started potty training with the boys when they were 3 years 2 months old. We really didn't leave the house then, and I was rushing them to the bathroom every 20 minutes. It was a wet few months.

But, now it's a year later and they are terrific. They almost never have accidents. They don't need to be reminded to go. They *sometimes* stay dry at night.

I am not sure that having potty training experience really helps at all -- it was such a different experience with the boys than with my older daughter (much easier, actually).

If you want, email me at fern0301 @yahoo.com. What you said about Doug seeming not to notice that he's wet is a familiar situation here.