Potty training-day 1

had mixed results.

All morning, he happily sat on the potty, although the only times he peed it was on the living room floor. At naptime, he peed on the floor to his room (better than the bed, right?) No biggie.

But when he woke up from his nap, I don't know what got into him. He was cranky because he hadn't slept quite as long as normal, and when I tried to put him on the potty it was like he had developed a sudden huge terrifying fear of the toilet. He screamed, flailed, and absolutely refused to sit on the potty. He wanted to be held. But he kept letting little squirts of pee loose. I did not want to hold him at that point, which made him madder. After an hour and a half of fussing and struggling, he suddenly decided he was ready to sit on the potty. Lo and behold, we got our first pee in the potty!! Granted, it was only a tiny amount, since he had been spurting all over the house, but still, major progress! We did the whole big hoopla, called Daddy upstairs from work, got the dog sticker he's been eying for weeks, the whole nine yards.

The rest of the afternoon went okay. Lots of sitting on the potty and lots of peeing on the floor. But when he's in the potty, he clearly has the idea of what he's trying to do now. He did get one really good pee in. I think it was actually a pretty good first day.

Then came nighttime.

Night has been more challenging lately because Rinnah will go down around 8-9pm, but then she's back up after half an hour and won't go to sleep until nearly midnight. She usually only gets up once and often sleeps until 9-10am. By herself that's great for a five month old, much better than Ian. But when Rinnah doesn't go down until midnight, Ian and Rinnah are each up once or twice, Rinnah eating once, and then we're all up at 7-it's taking it's toll. I went ahead with potty training anyway because I figure I've been tired since Ian was born; if I wait until I'm getting good sleep he'll be in college.

So, last night we decided to try the underwear. Ian's still back and forth between the crib and toddler bed, so the plan was to make up two sides of one mattress plus the other bed. We figured he could have two accidents in the toddler bed; after that we'd put him in a diaper in the crib. Good idea, but Ian wanted to sleep in the crib. Okay, fine.

Jeremy & I took turns with Rinnah until about 11:30, then I went to bed and he got her to sleep. At 12:15 Ian wakes up wet and completely hysterical. Won't sit on the potty, doesn't want to wear underwear OR a diaper, doesn't want new pj's, just wants to sit in my lap naked in a room that reeks of pee because I haven't been able to clear off the wet sheets yet. Needless to say, I am not excited about this plan. Eventually, with Jeremy's help, I got a diaper on him, and then Jeremy went back to bed. A few minutes later, Ian suddenly decided he was fine with putting on new pajama pants. But he still wouldn't lay back down. He has a bit of a cold, but it's not that bad. I think this was mostly confusion about waking up wet, plus he's normally a beast when he's tired. I spent an hour and a half with him, thought he was asleep, slipped into the hallway, and heard Rinnah awake. So I got her resettled, came back out, and Ian's awake again. I tried to help him, but I just reached a point where I told him Mommy had to go to sleep and thankfully, he settled down. Now it's 2:30 and I'm finally back in bed. At 3:20 Rinnah is up. She probably doesn't need to eat yet, but I'm not awake enough to process that idea until she's already half done eating. At 4am I had Jeremy rock her back to sleep. Then I had a dream that we had hired someone to get the kids for five hours a night and I didn't have to get up, only to realize it was only a dream and Ian was awake again. Not even sure what time that was, but it only took a few minutes to get him settled. Then at 7 it's time to get up. Ugh. I hate nights like that.

So this morning we got up, I mustered up some enthusiasm from somewhere, and got all excited for Ian to get on the potty and wear underwear again. But he was like he was after his nap. Completely and utterly refusing to even take off the diaper, let alone sit on the potty.

My current plan is to leave him in this diaper until he's ready to try again (provided he doesn't poop) and then go at the potty training again. I'm too exhausted to push him any harder than that. I know consistency is important, so I'm not quitting, but my goodness this would be easier on a few more hours of sleep. I think my kids are conspiring against me already.