3-Day Potty Training: Day 2 Noontime Totals

Number of Big Boy Underwear in the wash while Collin Naps: 5 (big improvement, eh?!!) Number of Big Boy Underwear in the wash last night post Nap: 8

Number of sheets we had to wash AFTER nap yesterday: 0!!!!

Number of sheets/pads we had to wash AFTER bed last night: 2

Number of PJs washed in the morning: 2

Number of successful pee-pees today*: 3 Scratch that 4

Number of successful poops today: 2

Number of full-fledged accidents: 0

Number of parents ready for the looney bin: 1 (yeah, Daddy's remaining calm, probably because he gets to go to work tomorrow and leave me alone with this for the day...jerk)

*Pee-pee is anytime he gets pee in the potty

**Poop is anytime the poop makes it in the potty, even if he "starts" it somewhere else, like in the corner, staring us right in the eye :)

Yep, we're struggling through this whole ordeal. The big success is that yesterday, Collin was "dribbling" a lot before realizing he was wet and either saying "wet," "potty," or "pee pee," and stopping or rushing to the potty to finish. In fact, most of the dribbles were big enough to soak through to run onto the floor. Today, he's barely squirting enough to wet through the front of his underpants and then stopping, looking at us in panic, like ACK! help! and then rushing with us to the potty to finish the business at hand. The dribbles are getting smaller and smaller, so he's getting better and better at holding it and then knowing what to do about it.

The non-silver lining is that I, obviously, want him to tell me he's got to go BEFORE the dribble, so we can make it. We know he's got to go, he knows he's got to go. We try taking him a bunch of times before the dribble, but nada, zilch, nothing. Half the time, he'll admit to having to go, some of the time, he'll kind be a party to a walk to the bathroom, and then the other part of the time, he sees the bathroom and runs the other way. So, no pee in the potty yet without the dribble first; which is bumming me out more than it should. I'm trying to see the glass as half full right now.

We just put him down for his nap and the first thing he did was start pushing out a dookie as soon as we closed the door. We caught him in time and we made it to the potty before it poked it's way fully out in the pants. But, I'm a little bummed that he didn't tell us he had to go. I'm not sure he understands that we can hear him over the baby monitor. He says "monor" for monitor, so he gets that something communicates with us, but that's a big concept.

I started him a "progress" chart last night that I was certain he'd never understand; but I thought, hey, what the heck, let's try it out. I put a little grid on it and decorated some squares as "special." They look like total crap. But, he's too little to know that. Anyway, every time he visits the bathroom, even at all, even if nothing happens, he gets a sticker on a square. He helps put it on. When he reaches a special square, he gets one of the presents/rewards we stocked up on (and restocked up on last night after he went to bed...thank goodness Target is open until ten on Saturday night!!). He is so totally into this chart! I swear, "tiker! tiker!" is more important than actually going potty, I think. And yes, he totally gets the "special" square thing. He gets to one of those and his little feet stomp and that smile is as wide as you can imagine.

Anyway, this program is definitely not for the faint of heart. It brought me to tears today. I had to sequester myself off in my bathroom for a minute to compose myself so I didn't slam his little toosh onto the potty seat, or worse. Yeah, I just had to let it all out. 24-7 of positive reinforcement, careful to never say a negative word when they are simply just peeing on the floor, in their bed, on your carpet, and then popping up out of the crib six times before nap insisting that yes, they do have to pee only to sit on the potty seat to do NOTHING can break a Mommy. It can, trust me. Especially when during those six visits to the potty seat, they only sit for twelve seconds at a time, then insist that NO, they are NOT done. Yep, it can break you. Oh yeah, especially when you know, pretty surely that as soon as they do fall asleep they are probably going to pee in the bed.

P.S. On a happy update, while I waited for pictures to upload, I went and checked on the little man in question, who was groggily trying to finally fall asleep and told him it was time to go pee pee. He decided not to protest. HOORAY!!! He peed! And, I mean, really, really peed. Emptied that bladder. So, phew. I imagine we'll have another sheet-change free nap...except for the piddle that came with the poop pushing earlier, of course I'll have to wash those. I'm not counting those. I'm only counting this success. You've got to take them where you get them.

All I can say is that we are committed to giving it our all before we throw in the towel and because he's certainly made progress since yesterday, we can only see that as a good sign. We'll see what the afternoon holds and tomorrow before we reassess. We've already figured out some things that work and don't; like Collin hates clapping and yelling for success. It freaks him out. Subdued and lowkey is more his style. It's all a work in progress.