Ever have one of those moments where the whole world feels like it is moving in slow motion, just like in the movies? Where even your voice sounds all slow and distorted - Noooooooooooooooooo!
Yes, that is exactly the feeling I had when I watched my naked-from-the-waist-down 2-year old poop on the floor! Thank God it was the hardwood and not the carpet.
It seems in my explanation of where and where not to poop, I forgot to mention not to poop on the floor. Silly me. Well that was remedied in short order. 'No Isaac, we do not poop in our underwear or on the floor, we poop in the potty. We go poop or pee on the potty...or both"
We leave him in his birthday suit (with the addition of a shirt and socks) for the rest of the day and apart from a few close calls, we manage to go the rest of the day without any peeing accidents.
The amazing thing about this whole process is seeing the look on his little face when he discovers that he did indeed pee in the potty and there is a reason why his parents and older brother are getting so excited. That slow smile that turns into a huge grin, followed by his own shout of "Yay!" (Though I still picture him looking in the potty and thinking 'Really? This is what you get all crazy excited about?')
Now, you may have caught on that earlier I said there were no 'peeing' accidents...yes, sadly, we were not so lucky in the poop department. We had put underwear and pants back on Isaac for dinner time and shortly after we had finished eating, the potty timer went off. We all produced our standard potty time excitement and Isaac came marching over to the potty. I had to help with his pants and underwear since he'd been doing this without them for most of the day. I noticed a second too late, as I was pulling down his underwear and sliding him onto the potty....he'd already pooped! And now there was poo on the potty, in his underwear, down his pant leg, on the floor and oh God, yes, poo on my hand (Ew!)
I can't help but think that in some ways the poo on the floor was much better than this! At least it was easier to clean up.
So we ended Day 2 with some success in the pee department, a total strikeout in the poo department and complete success in the polishing off a lovely bottle of red wine department! (Even mommies and daddies need rewards for potty training)
Day 3
Isaac wakes up this morning and I realize that he has the fullest pee-soaked diaper possible (mental note: our son is definitely not ready for overnight potty training). Once again, a very tired mommy tries to mentally prepare herself for the long day of potty training ahead. I would love to tell you that the morning went amazing, but who're we kidding?
He had 4 peeing accidents before we finally managed to catch him in time to pee on the potty and all before 11 a.m. (good thing we bought an ample supply of underwear and pants...though I'm not looking forward to the extra laundry)
Just 5 minutes after his first successful pee on the potty for day 3 and we have poop accident #3. This time it was the smell I noticed first and though my attempt to get him to the potty would have made even Flash Gordon proud - I was sadly too late! So at this point we still have not managed to get Isaac to successfully poop on the potty. We even bought this super cool Hot Wheels Super Stunt Vehicle with lights and sounds to award him once he does do his first business on the potty...but so far, no luck :(
We also realized that we need to be more diligent about catching him before he pees his pants, (without having to leave him on the potty for the rest of his life), so we developed the 'dryness check' which we do every 5 minutes. So far, this has definitely helped the cause! Since implementing this new strategy, there have been no accidents!
Of course, we still have a long road ahead of us. We still need to get to the point where Isaac can tell us that he needs to use the potty without the use of the timer and of course we haven't done the 'road' test (basically taking him out of the house in just his underwear). Oh ya, and then there is that small matter of him actually pooping on the potty...but all in due time.
The thing I have learned since becoming a parent and interacting with other parents is that we can be extremely resourceful when we need to be. I have a friend Joanne who kept a potty chair in the back of her SUV while she was in the midst of potty training her daughter - sheer brilliance if you ask me! In my opinion, whatever works, whatever helps maintain your sanity - go for it! And with that last piece of advice, I call it a night...I'm sure there will be lots of pee and poo in the morning (just hoping most of it makes it into the potty first).
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