It's Potty Time

Anyone who has ever said that a mother of 3 should know what she's doing by the time the 3rd child comes along obviously did not have 3 children of their own... Isaac proves to me again and again that he is truly a unique individual, and will do things his own way. Thus, on occasion I am left feeling just as unsure of my actions with him as I did with Samuel and Avery, and I am constantly having to re-learn my way of doing things to fit his personality.

Potty training... Ooooooooohhhhhhhhh... I said those 2 little words, dreaded by mommies of toddlers everywhere! Potty training Samuel was a nightmare. Potty training Avery was a piece of cake. Avery and Samuel potty trained at the same time. I tried to potty train Samuel when he was 3, then again at 3 1/2, but he wasn't ready. I finally potty trained him when he was almost 4 and Avery was 2. Samuel could have cared less about potty training. Avery was always wanting to please me. Samuel fought it tooth and nail. Avery was constantly seeking the praise that came when she did go potty, which is why we spent the better part of our days on the potty or in the restroom from the time she was 23 months old until she was 25 months old. That was when I had enough and wanted my life to be more than just "going potty" every 2 minutes, and that's when I put an end to all of that nonsense... :-)

And now, here comes Isaac. He had been going potty very willingly for several weeks. He was so agreeable to everything. He didn't fight it, but at the same time he didn't feel the need to be in the bathroom every 2 minutes. I thought he was close to making the full transition into pull ups or underwear and that he was going to be my easiest potty trainer, but then he completely lost interest in going potty. I didn't know what happened. I stepped back, unwilling to push him and repeat some of the mistakes I made with Samuel. But then this past Friday, as I was using the restroom, Isaac asked me if he could go potty. I sat him down and he went on cue! So I asked him if he wanted to wear "big boy underwear." And to my surprise, he said yes. He wore underwear all day long, had a few accidents, but did good overall. Saturday was still not great, but an improvement from Friday. Sunday, he came home from church with a dry pull up (I wasn't about to make his Sunday School teachers deal with him in underwear!). And he only had 2 accidents on Sunday. And here we are on Monday. He has not had a single accident today. YEA!!! He's doing better than I ever could have imagined he would. Still, I'm having a problem... It's a problem because I never dealt with this issue when I was potty training Samuel or Avery.

Isaac does not want me to put a pull up on him at nap time or bed time. But he simply can not make it 2 hours throughout his entire nap, let alone all night, without a pull up on. Samuel ALWAYS wanted the pull up on, and Avery just went along with that plan because she wanted to do whatever Samuel wanted to do. So every day at nap time and bed time, I'd put pull ups on Samuel and Avery. Last night when I put Isaac to bed, he kept calling out for me to come get him so that he could go potty. It took him over an hour to finally go to bed, after he broke down in tears because he did not want to go pee pee in his pants. Same thing at nap today... He didn't want me to put the pull up on him, but then about a minute after I put him in bed, he was calling me to take him to go potty.

So loyal blog readers, friends, and family, I ask you what I should do. Is it better to simply insist he wear a pull up when he's in bed while trying to explain to him that it's okay to go pee pee in his pull up, and just fight through that with him to spare myself (and Isaac) the frustration of bedtime accidents? Or is it better to allow him this bit of independence, and just wash his bed linens and clothes twice a day? I would really appreciate your advise.