Potty Progress - Part 1

Many of you have asked how the potty training is going, so I thought I'd give you a brief update. Earlier today, as I contemplated what to write, I was brimming with cautious optimism and hoping to be able to end the day with a positive report.

However, after spending the past hour tag-teaming with Ryan on cleaning up three poopy accidents in a row, I am instead, feeling a bit defeated.

By the time Owen went down for his nap this afternoon, he had peed in the potty two times and we had not had one single wet accident. Actually, even now (as of 7:00 p.m.), we still haven't had any wet accidents. Now, this does not mean that he is telling me when he needs to pee. It just means that I have been fortunate in setting him on the potty at times when he felt so compelled to pee into it. Lucky me.

We still have not had a successful poop in the potty yet, but I get it. It's scary. Actually, those are Owen's exact words..."it's scary." I understand that the poop part might take a little longer. Which is why I wasn't too upset when he had a poop accident in his underpants this morning, and a second one in his Pull-Up while we were at the library. No biggie. At least the pee thing was going well...

After his nap today, I got one more pee in the potty out of him (woo hoo!) and then there was an almost 3-hour period of time where he did nothing. I kept putting him on the potty, encouraging him to go, but nothing was happening. There was, however, one more very small poopy accident during that time. Nevertheless, my spirits remained high.

Then, it was time for dinner. It was at this point that I began to lose track of the details. All I know is that immediately after Owen finished his dinner until about 30 minutes ago, Ryan and I changed a total of three pairs of poopy underpants (two small and one big). It felt as if we would no sooner get one mess cleaned up and it would happen all over again.

We had a brief discussion after evening accident #2 and a quick word from Owen that his "tummy hurt" about maybe just scrapping the underpants for the rest of the evening and putting him back in a diaper, but I really didn't want to do that because I hated to regress after working so hard the past few days. It was only moments later, however, that accident #3 occurred and we officially called it curtains on the underpants for the night. (That's #3 for the evening; #5 or #6 — I lost track — for the day!)

So, Owen is happily playing in his diaper with Daddy right now and I am nursing some pretty rough (bloody, even) knuckles from all the disinfecting and hand washing I've done today. But we figured that if he has an upset tummy (six poops in one day!!!), maybe now isn't the best time to push the potty training. Both for his sake, and for ours.

A few other things to note, however...

Owen does not care for the way it feels to poop in his underpants. In fact, he didn't even like it when he had pooped in his Pull-Ups today, which surprised me since those things just seem like a more expensive version of a regular diaper to me. But, this is a good sign. His dislike for that feeling is a step in the right direction.

He also seems to like wearing "big boy underpants" now, as opposed to a few days ago when he was utterly indifferent. When we decided to put a diaper back on him tonight, he protested a bit. Again, a good sign I think.

Right or wrong, there's an update on all things pee and (mostly) poop in the Peterson residence for the night. I told you I was just winging it with this one and I'm still ok with that. Tomorrow is another day. Let's hope for far fewer poops.