Potty Training Summary

Alright, so I wanted to sit down and write this post more in the moment and complain about how "hard" it was and how I gave up my vacation to do this, blah wah boohoo...and then I gained perspective. I have many people in my life, that I love and care for very much, that are going through circumstances that are much harder than potty training a 3 year old. This reminded me that I am blessed and need not take potty training as a reason to whine and complain. So now I am posting in hind sight. I feel like this is sometimes a good time to post and reflect on things. I can look at the whole picture now and say that it just wasn't that bad, Aiden (and I) really accomplished something, and as much as I ideally wouldn't have wanted to spend Spring Break in the bathroom....this is something that needed to be done so I need to shut-up and get over it. I'll start with saying that I was dreading this whole experience for a while. I just "knew" it would go horribly and that it was going to take forever and that it was going to be traumatizing for everyone. Dramatic maybe? Well sure, it wouldn't be the first time. We started on the Monday of my week off making sure I had one last weekend of happiness (because remember in my head potty training was going to be torture). We started off the morning sitting on the toilet and then set the timer and went back into sit on the toilet every 20 minutes hoping we could "catch" him pee. By 10:00 am he had went and it was so exciting. We called Daddy and we got to put a sticker on his chart (that has been on the wall for months) and then he got his potty candy that he had picked out from the store the night before (mini Reese's cups). The next exciting milestone was the big boy underwear! The time I had tried this potty training thing before he thought that big boy underwear was the worst and acted like the things burned his skin when on...seriously, he threw the HUGEST tantrum. So when he was ready to put these bad boys on it was so exciting and he was so proud!

As the next couple timers went off he would cry and say he didn't want to go but then got over it by the time we sat down on the potty. As time went on, the timer would go off and he'd say, "Time to go peepee!" By around 1:00 we still hadn't gotten another one and then he had his first accident. That day we had one more accident and a couple more "catches". The following day we got on the toilet right away and he peed, it was exciting. He was getting the hang of it and was even practicing taking off his underwear all by himself. He only had one accident that day!

This is what the beginning of my week looked like....every 20 minutes:

By Wednesday he had the pee thing down and I even ran my first errand with him after he had went at home. He has NOT had a pee accident since! And it has now been almost 2 weeks! But as the end of Wednesday rolled around we really focused on the fact that he hadn't pooped. This is where the "hard" part and stress has come into play. He has been scared and keeps holding it. He is peeing like a rock star but continues to have issues with poop. We had to take him to the doctor today because as of this morning he hadn't went since Sunday. 6 days. Not good. The doctor gave us some softeners and luckily tonight he has went multiple times thanks to them. He has been scared every time but hasn't really been able to control the fact he has to go. We hope continuing the softener will turn it into routine and eventually get rid of this fear he has. I can only hope. It has been hard for me to watch him squirm and wriggle trying so hard to hold it in and then cry in fear as he sits hoping not to go. In the end, yes we have some issues but he mastered the peeing thing and that's wonderful! Last Saturday we had to go to the mall and he even told me there he had to pee and was able to hold it until we got to the restroom...I was so proud of him! And can I just say? You never realize how slow people are moving when you are trying to get a little boy who's newly potty training to a bathroom in public. It seems like everyone is in front of you, everyone is heading to the bathroom, and everyone is going at a turtles pace. The icing on the cake? When we got to the restroom there was a wait...I couldn't believe it. Luckily it was real quick but the irony made me laugh out loud. Again, I was so proud of him. Aiden has done such a wonderful job that we even had to add another sticker poster so he had more room and it doesn't even include the ones from when he went to Grandma's and Aunt Ashley's.

I feel safe in saying that Aiden is potty trained (we'll get this poop thing down) and we made it before he turned 3 and a half, barely...he turns 3 1/2 on Monday! Good job Aiden! Mommy and Daddy are so proud of you!