I am soooo proud of Ryan!! I have no idea what possessed me to start "cold-turkey potty-training" yesterday, but I just made the decision and did it. Actually, I think what pushed me over the edge was when he was suiting up to go in the pool. It seems like such a waste to put those swimming diapers on him all the time. So, once he got out of the pool I just took off the swimming trunks and let him hang loose. I kept reminding him that he couldn't pee or it would make a big mess. We tried sitting on the potty a few times with no luck. Kaeli even brought down his big boy underpants and set them the back of the toilet seat as an incentive. We also added in the promise of ice cream if he went pee in the potty. This went on for probably an hour of on the potty, off the potty with nothing more than a few little sprinkles. I went ahead and put the underpants on him because he really had tried. Wouldn't you know not 2 minutes later he gushed a fountain. Poor little guy was so upset over the mess he made and I did my best to comfort him. I resisted the temptation to put a diaper back on him. We didn't have any more accidents, but he went to bed only about an hour or so later.
Today (day 2) of potty-training boot camp started off very, very rough. I came within a hair's breadth of giving in and putting a diaper on the poor child. He went straight into the underpants upon waking and was still dry 2 hours later. I saw a little tiny dot of wetness on his pants and asked if he needed to use the potty. He refused and we went on a 15 min walk (he rode his bike). I was incredibly nervous that he was going to pee all over the place during the walk, but he did great. As soon as we got home I told him we needed to try to potty. He cried and didn't want to, but the temptation of chocolate chips did the trick to at least get him on the potty. For close to an hour we got on and off the potty. Each time he only could produce a couple of little drips. That hour was incredibly trying and that is when I almost gave in. He was nearing complete panic mode by the end of it. He needed to pee soooooo badly, but just couldn't seem to make it happen "on demand". He was screaming and crying and begging me to put his diaper on. Right at the end he asked to get back on the potty and was just crying the whole time. I was trying to help relax him while he sat there and he finally just yelled at me "I WANT DRINK"!! Let me tell you it was a very intense few minutes. As I was getting the drink I heard him yell "I see pee". I dropped the cup and ran into the bathroom, but he had scared himself into stopping and couldn't get the flow going again. He resumed crying and I resumed getting the drink. I ran back in and handed him the drink. Almost simultaneously he put the cup to his lips and he released a good steady stream of pee. He was able to keep it going and overwhelming joy and pride ruled the moments afterward. He would look down to watch himself and then look at me in complete disbelief. I think he really had a hard time believing he was causing this to happen. It was also good practice for him because he was watching to see what happened when he moved his muscles in certain ways--the pee stopped and started with each change. There was an amazing amount of celebration afterwards!!
Ryan was so proud of himself! He got off and then told me he wanted to try again about 10 min later. He peed a little more and even pooped. I actually had a hard time getting him off the potty because he wanted to keep trying. He told me "I have lots poop!" Once I finally got him off the potty he got his pants on and went about his business. We even went to the grocery store with him in underpants. In total, it was approx another 2 hours that he stayed dry. When we got home I sat him on the potty again. He was still nervous and I had to tempt him with chocolate again. But, this time he only had to sit on the potty about 10 minutes before he started up a nice steady flow of pee.
Another 2 hours later and still dry brought us up to nap time. I put him in a pull-up for nap and after about 10 min I heard him playing in his room. I went up to settle him down. He said "I go pee on potty" because he wanted to try again. He went in there and within only a minute or two he was able to pee without a single problem.
It appears that Ryan's biggest obstacle to potty-training was not learning to hold his pee, but learning to release it on command. When I think about it, I'm sure that is a strange sensation and a difficult thing to learn to do. He was probably trying to push it out when it actually takes relaxing to get the job done.
We seem to have made it over the hump and are on our way to complete potty-training. Now I look back at all his resistance and I'm pretty sure I now understand why he refused. I think he was afraid that he couldn't pee when he tried. So, he just refused because that was the easiest route. Now that he's met with some success he seems eager to continue trying.
And, as an added benefit AJ enjoys sitting on his little potty the whole time Ryan sits on the big one. He definitely seems amazingly interested so I'm cautiously optimistic that Ryan was the hardest and it'll be easier from here on out. Oh and Paige is still staying dry all night!!
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