Go With the Flow

Judah had his first night EVER of waking up with a dry diaper...scratch that...pull-up. He is adamant that we call them pull-ups and NOT diapers because he is a big kid. I about did a flip in my living room. I had no idea how hard potty training was going to be. I had such high hopes for the J-man when he was two. He was totally into the potty. He would follow me in and watch me, an experience I hope every mama goes through. He would take off a square of toilet paper and drop it between my legs, pretending to wipe me. This freaked me out at first...I mean, you don't want your precious little guy anywhere near your business, right? I made sure I was never violated. He would even sit on the potty for extended periods of time and read books. Surely I was a supermom. He would be potty trained in no time, right?

Finally came the day when I was ready to full on train. Mayah was six months old, I was pregnant with Liam, and Judah was two and a half. The thought of three kids in diapers was terrifying. We started off using the M&M bribe method. Judah would get one for attempting, one for peeing, two for pooping, and one for remembering to wash his hands. He could really score big if he completed all tasks in one sitting. He was really into this for a while but soon didn't care about M&Ms. After a while, we switched to the chart and sticker method. Judah would get to put a sticker on his chart if he pooped or peed. This, like the M&Ms was great but very short lived. It was just easier to go in his diaper. For three months, my son was in an eternal state of nudity. His only motivation for using the potty was that he got to be naked from dawn til dusk. The major problem with this was that he would poop the second we put on his nighttime diaper. The little bugger would hold it all day until that diaper went on. It was maddening. But boy, did that kid love to be naked. Every time my inlaws stopped by, they would be greeted with Judah's little penis flapping in the wind. There was a period there where we just stopped getting drop ins...

But now we are making some progress. Sure, I still have to remind him hourly to go sit on the potty. Sure, I occasionally hear him call "Mama, I peed on the wall again" from his place in the bathroom. Sure, he still has the random accident in the most inconvenient of places. But more often than not, he has dry days. Soon I will be able to trust him to go on his own. Soon I will be able to drop him at a friend's house without loads of accident anxiety. Soon I will only have to buy diapers for two instead of three. Small steps, right? Elmo says to go with the flow. He's an insightful little monster.