The Potty Chronicles: The Epic Battle

So for those of you who keep up with us on Facebook, I'm sure you know we have ventured into Potty Training Small. He turned 3 in late April and has amazed me with some dry diapers and does not like having a dirty diaper, so I figured it was time to bite the bullet and start the potty training. I thought he was ready earlier, but with XS on the way we felt it better to wait till he was a few months old before trying. And so begins the chronicle:

Monday:
Well, tonight I was grocery shopping with no children and on a whim decided this was the week for potty training. We had a practically free schedule, so I thought I would take advantage of it. So, I loaded up on sweet treats, juice boxes and brand new Thomas the Tank underwear.

Tuesday:
I broke the news this morning to Small that today was the nationally recognized day "No More Diapers Day". I stripped him of his diaper and gave him brand new Thomas the Tank underwear to wear. Then I gave him a big juice box for breakfast. The day was spent sitting on the potty, taking a break, and sitting again. I could not believe how long he was holding it. Here is what the day looked like:

It started rather cheery as we sat...

and then a little goofy while we sat...


and then we pretended what it would be like if we really did go potty...
but we didn't, instead we sat...

and then we sat...

and we sat...

and we sat some more...

We got to nap time and he still had not peed the whole day. I didn't know what to do. If I put a diaper on him and put him in bed, I knew he would go in his diaper, and that would defeat the point. So, I continued. And we tried different techniques,

like having brothers read to him on the potty while he sat...

that didn't work either. So I finally put him to bed in underwear very late in the day. I checked on him at 7:55pm and he was STILL DRY!!! Can you believe it? A 3 year old held it the whole day! I debated on what to do and 5 minutes later decided to get him up to go on the potty one last time. Well, too late! The waterworks had exploded. So, he won day 1.

Wednesday:
He had an accident in the morning (on the tile thankfully). He pulled the same thing for naptime and did not go again. So, yet again, I had to put him to bed in underwear, and he had an accident in the bed. He did not pee the rest of the day. So, he won day 2.

Thursday:
He woke up with a bone dry diaper this morning. Have you noticed what has been missing from this chronicle? Yep, you guessed it! We got a nice little surprise in our underwear this morning. I flipped out with the grossness of it all, and I will spare you the details. It traumatized Small a bit I think (poor kid), but in about an hour or so after clean up, I got him to finally go pee pee in the potty!! This was our first major break through. He cried because he was scared at first, but then you should have seen the joy on his face when he realized what he was doing and that it was OK. :) Yay! So, since I know from experience this kid can hold it. I finally got out of the house and went to run some errands. I risked it and went with him in underwear. We got home 4 + hours later and I sat him on the potty and he went again! Whoohoo! He was still scared, but we were finally getting somewhere.

Friday:
He started the day off with an accident upstairs while playing. I spent a lot of the day trying to get him to go on the potty again. We had been invited to go to the pool after naptime, so I was trying to get him to go before naptime. Well, he wouldn't and I felt like we were starting all over and we were getting no where. I was losing my patience. Mind you we had been doing a lot of sitting on the potty with little results by this time. And even with the success on Thursday, I felt like I had just caught him at the right times. I put him down for a nap and he woke up dry. I told him if he wanted to go to the pool he was going to have to go potty for me. He didn't. I then told him that we would go to the pool so the big kids could play, but he would go to the pool's potty until he went. By the time we got to the pool, I had lost all steam, and didn't want to follow through. I knew I had to, and my friend knew it too, and pushed me to follow through. The fact that Barry would be home with me this weekend, left me with a little hope. Well, I took him and he tinkled and I counted it success and we enjoyed the pool. We got home and he went for me finally.

Saturday:
pee pee 3 times today in the potty! Yay!

Sunday: Another battle of wills. He woke up bone dry and we had church today and he wouldn't go before, so we left to church. We attempted again at church, no go. We sent him to his class with a diaper on since he wasn't telling us when he needed to go yet. We got out of church and diaper still dry, we took him straight to the potty. Still wouldn't go. We then went on to a restaurant to eat and in the car before going in he started doing the potty dance. I raced him to the potty and success!! He didn't pee again the rest of the day, but after nap we finally had a poop in the potty!


Well, as you can see he is stubborn, but I think we are finally on the road to success. I have also decided his ability to hold it was a pain for potty training, but hopefully it will make the early potty stage easier then the other kids, because I can have him out without having to have as many frequent potty stops.

So lately we have been seeing more of this:


and less of this:

Sorry for the long post, but I warned you in the title that it was an Epic Battle, and what Epic has ever been short?? :)