Not my favorite part of parenting

Asher recently turned 3, and I have been contemplating the idea of potty training for some time. He has never expressed any interest at all and has been quite content in diapers. He doesn't care if their dirty or wet. He doesn't like it when I change him. He would be fine to keep the dirty diaper on.

Without getting any clear signal that he was ready, I didn't quite know when to try, but I figured after we had been on our big trip, he would be turning three and it would be worth a try.

I had done lots of reading and seen lots of suggestions on how to do it, which was such a helpful thing. It gave me a whole lot of ideas to inspire and guide me through. Ultimately, I got a package of new underwear (which he didn't care about), I bought some of his favorite chocolate candies, had some juice boxes and juice on hand, bought a set of matchbox cars, and had the little frog potty set to go.

He would get a couple of candies when he went #1. He could earn a car or two when he would go #2 in the potty. Cars are so big in his life right now that the bigger incentive was so important. 

He went nude for the first several days, and day 1 was definitely the hardest. He loves juice boxes so he was drinking quite a bit, and we ended up with 4 accidents and 1 success that day. We also had a major accident with #2 that luckily happened outside on our patio which made for easier clean up. I had told myself that I would give it a good honest try for a week, and if he was still having a number of accidents at that point, we would go back to diapers. After the lack of success on day 1, I was ready to shorten it to 3 days. I was hating life. I also bought another box of diapers in preparation for giving up.

But day 2 got better. We had three accidents and three successes that day. He and I were both feeling a little more confident with things. He was easily getting on and off the frog potty. He was beginning to really understand the sensations. I was thinking we just might be able to do this.

Day 3 was just one accident with four successes. Excitement! We still weren't leaving the house, and when we went to church we took him in a diaper. I should buy some pull ups for outings out, but haven't yet because I have so many diapers. I am thinking about getting a small package and saving the diapers I have left for Julia some day in the future.

After about a week he was only having 1 accident a day. We are currently almost two weeks out from starting, and I am happy to report that he has not had an accident since Friday, and hasn't had a wet diaper at night for the last three nights. He gets up and goes potty first thing in the morning. I will keep putting diapers on him at night for the time being just in case, but the kid seems to have gotten the concept. He even came home from preschool dry in his diaper this morning, so I think next week, I will send him in underwear and let his teacher know. We've gone on a few shorter errands in underwear soon after he's gone potty and had no accidents there either.

We still have progress to make. He has yet to really use a regular big potty, and I need to move him in that direction, but that will come, and in the meantime the froggie works just fine. He also still doesn't really like doing #2 on the potty, so I have to keep a close eye on him, but that's not something that happens every day, and he has definite signals he gives when he needs to do #2, so we're working on that. He also prefers to be without underwear, so that is something we work on too, but he is getting better.

No, this has not been my favorite time in parenting, but it's gone pretty well I think. I'm grateful to have read so many bits of advice that I could pick and choose from to find what would work. I've been grateful for patience because it is very frustrating to have accidents, but I needed to stay positive.

Hopefully I haven't jinxed myself by writing this post. ;)