Giving Up on Potty Training....Worked?!?!?--Part IV

After this post, much reflection and discussions with friends, I decided to give up on Potty Training. Many of my friends had talked to their pediatricians and were told to not stress about it. They said that when the child was ready, they would do it. The deadlines of preschool and the baby coming were really stressing me out so after talking with my friends K, H and M a week and a half ago......I decided to give up. What a relief that was!!!

I told S that we were not going to stress about it. We would ride the wave and see what happens, after all we might work so hard to have him trained to only have him regress when the baby is born (I did that). He would head to preschool in a pull up and each day we would hope for the best :) I felt good with this new decision.....so we stopped asking, stopped talking about it and went on with life. I was calmer and more relaxed about life.

Then on Monday afternoon, Z came to me and asked to use the potty. I begged him to let his pregnant mommy go first and then put him on. He PEED!!!! He was so excited, the only other time he had successfully peed on the potty, he really didn't understand what was going on. This time he looked like he got it. We went overboard with the celebration.....he put a sticker on his chart, got a lollipop and a new car and then about an hour later he came to me again and asked to use the potty. Could this be a fluke? Nope, he did it AGAIN!

Tuesday he used the potty 4 times for pee and then came to me last night and asked if he could go poop. I said yes, saw something already in his pull up, put that in the toilet and he managed to push out a little more.....we had half of a successful poop (sorry for those of you who are so grossed out right now). Today he has already peed on the potty two times :) He finally gets it! He understands that pee comes out of his penis and is starting to slowly understand the poop angle. We are all so excited and this new approach to training (the "you tell us when you have to go"system) seems to be working for Z.

I don't know where we will go from here but S and I are in agreement that we are going to keep this laid back. It might take months to have him fully day trained and that is okay with us :) This slow, no pressure system is just what the doctor ordered :) Yeah Z!!!