Potty Training!!

OK, in parenting there are some things that are just plain exhausting. Apparently potty training is one of them!! Although I must say that my 19.5 month old boy is impressing me a bit. I have always heard that it is more difficult to potty train boys, and it's more time consuming (but not necessarily difficult) to potty train any child before the age of two. Well I laugh in the face of all you people who say these things, and decide we will do it all anyways, MUAHAHAHA. 

It's not really that funny though. It's actually quite tiring and tedious. But we are seeing some results, so methinks we should keep going with it. 

Even though technically it would be much easier to just stick him in diapers. It's not really about the mess- he hasn't been drinking as much fluid lately, and he has also slowed down on his eating. So there really hasn't been that much bodily fluids coming out of him, into the potty or otherwise, compared to back in the "old" days when he ate me out of house and home and consumed 25+ ounces of milk plus 5-10 ounces water each day. It is, however, about letting him run around naked ALL DAY and sitting on the edge of my seat, waiting for our "learning opportunity" to arise when he looks like he will pee or poop and he's not already sitting on the potty. That is probably the most exhausting part about potty training- I am constantly waiting for him to pee or poop so I can teach him to put it into the potty, instead of on the floor on in his pants. 

See, what I have realized about babies in general is that they spend approximately 23 out of the 24 hours in each day in their diaper. And a good diaper that does its job will not let the baby feel hardly anything when it comes to peeing and pooping. So when you start to potty train, the key is to let them have accidents to begin with- this is their first experience with seeing/feeling it come out of their body and not get absorbed into the diaper. Let them experience cause and effect, ya know? They have been getting these sensations all along, but not seeing the results of the sensations. Naked time gives them the results. And at about this age is when they start to show some awareness of what their body is doing, so I think that is why potty training between 18-24 months used to be so popular (before the convenience of disposable diapers that is), because they are finally starting to put two and two together. 

But based on all of this running around and anticipating I've been doing, I don't blame parents for wanting to wait until their kids are older to start potty training- there is a lot of work involved, especially when the communication is still fairly limited. At least a 3 year old can talk better than a 1 year old, right? Although, a 3 year old *can* be more stubborn than a 1 year old. I think that was my fear and part of why I decided to try at this age. 

I also decided to try because he was showing some signs of being ready- he would often tell me before (but usually after) pooping in his diaper, and he despised being in it for more than a few minutes; he showed a real interest in his little potty that we bought him, and always wants to come in with mommy and daddy to the bathroom when we go, and uses his signs to acknowledge that he understands what we're doing; also he would watch me put his poop into the toiled from his cloth diapers each day; he understands "wet" and "dry," and is starting to prefer dry; and he has started to be able to go for longer stretches of time before having to pee. 

He does not stay dry at nighttime yet, but I know that some kids have a hard time with this well into elementary school so I don't think that is a good judge for whether or not they are ready to daytime potty train. And he is still learning to dress and undress himself, but again this is something that I think he will learn as he gets further into potty training, and will have a chance to practice more with it, so I don't think we needed to wait until he had that skill mastered to start. 

Anyways, this is probably one of the tougher parenting tasks to date for me. One, because of everything I explained before and how exhausting it can be. And two, because there are so many different ways that people choose to potty train their kids- so asking for advice is almost worse than just figuring it out as you go. Everything I hear that one friend did for their kid is something another friend says didn't work for them or they tell you it's not the right or realistic way to approach it. Even my own pediatrician didn't really hear me say that I wanted to potty train soon, and all I heard him say back to me was that he may not get it until he is 3 or so. 

I feel like a lot of people have been a little bit less than encouraging through all of this, and they only ones who have been encouraging are the ones who started potty training with their kids around the same age. They may not have been fully trained until 2 or 2.5, but at least they saw their child's potential and tried to create an environment that would fit those needs. That is all I wanted to do- I am willing to exhaust myself and put up with a few messes if he is showing me that this is something he may be ready for. And I am not going to throw in the towel over a few hiccups along the way. I felt like I was holding him back if I put him back in diapers, and I felt like I would be giving up on him rather than helping him with success. Realistically, I am not busy with a second or third child, and I am not working (outside of being a stay at home mom) or going to school, or busy with much else other than chasing my active toddler around, so this was something I considered to be doable.

We are on day 4.5 of potty training- we have seen some really successful days, and days like yesterday where there was little to no true success at all. But I will try to remember to let you all know how it goes from here, and fingers crossed that we continue to see progress along the way!!