I honestly can’t believe I can say my 2.5 year old little boy is potty trained! I am one proud Mama!
Let’s rewind a little… while on maternity leave for Little Miss, I thought it would be a great idea to try potty training Brayden. Just what I had time for, right?? So we tried, I took him to the store so he could pick out his “big boy” undies (he excitedly picked Toy Story with having no clue what I was about to do to him) The next day we took off the diaper and put on the undies, then proceeded to ask about 1000 times a day, “Do you have to go potty?” Our hope was he would pee his pants a few times and not like that feeling of it dripping down his legs and then he would get it – seems so simple! Ha! Joke was on us! He happily peed in his pants over and over again and the best part, he wouldn’t even tell us. One time he was out in the sandbox and I went to check on him and he had peed, he didn’t even care his pants were soaked. Next time, he peed on the couch while watching tv. Next time he ran to his room after I had just asked if he had to go pee pee and peed on his bed. The poor kid just wasn’t getting it. I soon realized we I had pushed this a tad too early. We decided to back off and re-visit at a later unknown date. My hopes would be summer 2013.
Then comes January 23rd (Yes I remember the exact date!), Rick, Grandma Deb, Brayden, Ella and I were out to lunch at Portillo’s. While were eating, Brayden told me, “Mama, I’m going pee pee in my diaper.” It was the very first time he had told me when he was peeing. He has been telling us when he had to poop for months now, but never pee. In that moment, I knew he was ready to try potty training again. Literally that day we started. Smack dab in the middle of the work week – crazy, right? I told the hubs this was it, no turning back, he was ready and so were we. This time we had the same approach, take away the diapers and put on the undies! We didn’t ask 1000 times if he had to go potty this time, we just kind of felt him out and would occasionally ask. We stuck him on the potty when we thought he would need to go. In the beginning days, he would hold his pee for hours, we couldn’t believe he could hold it so long. Then there were the accidents, but this time, not so many. Then there were the moments he would actually pee in his little potty – the tiniest amount of pee and I would literally jump up and down screaming and cheering for him (hey, it’s a BIG deal!) He would get so happy when we would cheer for him. In the days to follow it was the same thing, accident here, pee a little there, and I kept thinking, "this is hard, this is going to take a loooong time." I was coming home from work and spending pretty much all night in the bathroom with him trying to get him to go. Then one night we were eating dinner – I’d say this was after a full week of training – and he said, “I have to go pee pee!!” So we jumped down from the table and ran into the bathroom and he peed, a full pee! This time I took my psychotic crazy jumping and screaming to another level, I was so happy that it had finally clicked to tell me first, then go pee, instead of the opposite. That night, he continued to tell me he had to go pee pee every time. I was beyond impressed. The next day he continued letting us know each time before he had to go. We seriously could not believe our ears and eyes, it was happening, he really got this whole concept. It has been almost 4 weeks and he has been doing amazing, only 1 accident since that day he started letting us know he had to go.
He still wears a diaper/pull up when he sleeps but that is another bridge we will cross at a later time. He also is still not pooping in the potty – everything I have read and also the information given from the dr says this is extremely normal. He waits until bedtime when he has the diaper on to go. I hope at some point this stops and he is confident enough to try to go on the potty, but for now, we are just so happy that he is fully trained during the day and we can go out and about and no matter where we are, he will tell us when has to go.
We could not be more proud of our little boy!!