Potty Training you say?

I don't know what I'm becoming completely by this one, but it better be a saint.  My children are supposed to become more independent and grown up.  I'm trying to be positive, and take it time minute at a time and remind myself we will live through it and it's got to be better than three kids in diapers.

So, it's been 24 hours since we ditched diapers except for sleeping times.  We've decided to do both Sam and Haley together, because she seems ready in many of her own ways.

To get through the personal insanity I'm passing through, I thought I'd journal the moments as we go.  I won't remember all the stuff I want to if I wait until the end.

12:21 pm, Friday
My mind is in constant prayer to God for help...

1:12 pm
I didn't really finish the previous thought.  We take breaks every 20 minutes.  Any sooner we get nothing, and any longer we have accidents.  I keep going back and forth in my mind with "We got this," "This is soo hard," "Hey this isn't soo bad," "What was I thinking?"  It's also ridiculously hard to nurse a baby while potty training two kids.

1:47 pm
And there will be no more juice. NONE!

4:54 pm
I'm not entirely convinced Haley is ready.  She's screams "no" a lot and only seems to go 1 in 3 times Sam does.  Is that normal? She's currently on "poop watch" because she hasn't pooped all day, and yesterday even though she did poop in the potty she also pooped while not on the potty.  And it happened in about 60 seconds between me checking on the kids.  Let's be glad I'm not sharing pictures through this all.

Right after lunch seemed to be quiet on the potty front.  I wonder if that's how it goes...they seem to be definitely more potty minded in the morning and more in the late afternoon/evening.

5:08 pm
This reminds me of Pavlov's dogs.

Dinner will look all goofy tonight, but hopefully good.  Chopping one handed with a baby in the other arm.

5:54 pm
I want to give up on Haley's potty training. I'm discouraged that she won't really go potty on her own and I'll just be dealing with accidents for lots longer than if we just wait for her to be really really ready.  But she did have another accident and I found her trying to clean it up on her own.

Sam is really doing good with a timer though.

Baby should now be asleep until dinner in 35 minutes *hopefully*

6:11 pm
I'm getting highly suspicious of Haley.

6:28 pm
I've at least had Haley sitting for a while on the potty.  I had to tell both kids that potty time is not play time.  We are going to limit activities to sitting and reading books.  Instead of being distracted elsewhere, they are bringing their distractions with them.

3:33 pm Saturday
The whole family is sitting the office doing various things.  We have the potty up here with us so we don't have to run to the corners of the house when it's time to go.  I stepped away for a few minutes and on my way back, I hear Haley say "potty" and then see that she has sat down on it all by herself and pees.  No one told her to go.  She just did it because she needed to.  Wow!!  Maybe she is ready for this.  Sam has done good today too.  We haven't had any accidents, and Sam goes every time we tell him to.  I think remembering on their own will come in time.  It's kind of hard to realize you have to go potty somewhere specific compared to the fact that up until now it's been where ever whenever.

Last night I had to remind myself that this weekend is only a start.  From now on there's a lot of reminding and checking on kids to go potty rather than using diapers.  It's not like a perfect miracle--hey do this for three days and you'll never have to work at it again.  These are the moments we live in.

3:56 pm
Sam just ran to the potty by himself too!  This feels monumental.  It makes sense why you can't give up after one day or two days.  This is definitely a moment of awesome!

10:05 pm
No accidents today!!! (granted we were out of the house in diapers for a few hours, but still)

Best moment of the evening was after dinner.  Randy had gone out to do a photo shoot so I was at home with the kids chillin' in front of a movie.  Haley was doing really good at running to the potty when she seemed to feel the need.  This particular moment she started grunting "uuuuuugggggggggggghhhhhhhhh" as she ran to the potty. I dashed to her aid to make sure she made it in time.  I grunted with her to show some family support.  We had a good laugh about it too while grunting.  Alas no results, but the fact that she knew to go sit on the potty was perfect!

5:29 pm Sunday
We did not attempt church without diapers.  I'm not ready for that yet.  Maybe next week?

No accidents yet today either!  Sam successfully called "Mom, I need your help," after breakfast this morning.  We made it in time!  Wheew--glad I didn't have a mess to clean up.

5:35 pm
We all cheer together when it's potty time.  It helps the kid not on the potty but almost in the way stay somewhat out of the way but still involved.

Haley is still afraid of actually flushing the toilet sometimes.  Ever seen the Tiny Toons with baby Plucky duck and he's flushing the toilet?  "I want to flush it again. I want to flush it again."  I try to help them overcome the flushing fears by waving bye-bye to the water in the toilet as it swirls away.  In my mind I always hear Plucky saying "I want to flush it again.  I want to flush it again."  I keep it inside my mind for fear the kids will take to flushing toys just to see the water swirl away.

6:10 pm
I'm wondering at what point we venture out of the house with no diaper.  Hmm this week should be interesting.  I've got one more day to ourselves tomorrow.  Maybe we can try a walk around the neighborhood.  I think it's finally cooled off enough to go outside without hating it.

8:02 pm
Kids are headed to bed, but as we were getting ready to head up to bed, my foot found a wet present.  So add that to one I found near the kitchen table and that's it for the night.  I told Randy that it helps to remember that these really were accidents and we were chaotic with getting dinner on and video chatting with family so I feel it's just as much our fault as parents.  Because diaperless is so new we can't expect them to be perfect at every moment especially the ones that are busy and action packed with everyone doing different things in different directions.  Still, I'm looking forward to tomorrow and continued success.

I think our weekend adventure is over.  More to go on in potty training world, but I'll end the post.  It's not like you really want this to go on forever anyway, right?  Me neither.  And maybe someday the kids will be happy I didn't share all the details and that I did end it here.

I feel like I've become less uptight about some of the things we do in the house the last few days.  That's a good thing.  I can't control or prevent everything.  I feel I've also gained a better perspective of who my children are becoming.  What happy and amazing and innocent little children they are.  They only want to do the best things---the things that make us all happy.  Sam even tells me the things that make him happy (drinking milk, playing with toys, helping, smiling and on).  I'm pretty sure he'd add going potty makes him happy too.

Sarah