Potty training sucks

It just does. And it sucks the life out of parents. Today was pretty intense - particularly the second half. It doesn't help that little B decided to wake up at 5:45 this morning so we were exhausted at the start. And he woke up totally soaked so he didn't really need to go for quite some time.

I was amazed how compliant the little guy was. He literally spent from 7:30 a.m. until 5:30 p.m. in my bathroom and on the potty except for 5 minute breaks every 20-30 minutes. He ate a LOT of salty junk food: chips, goldfish, McDonalds fries & nuggets. But he didn't drink all that much and he didn't go that much. It was tough to get him to make the connection when there weren't many opportunities to be rewarded. We learned a few things: he is scared of the whole process. He had a tiny accident on the floor during a break and literally jumped into my arms in fear. And he doesn't like an audience: each time he went, it was when the focus was off of him. His big brother wanted to be in the "party" too so we had 5 and 6 people crammed into my small bathroom most of the day. B watched movies, ate junk food and generally was pretty happy for what was a very long day.

By mid-day, he clearly was holding it and needed to go. That's when it got painful to watch. He was scared to go so he would trickle here and there but never enough to really reward him. He did seem to be catching on though and consciously controlling it.

We put him in underwear at the end of the day and then the accidents started. And boy did he hate that! He tried to clean it himself and cried. This boy does not like to be dirty. For the next couple of hours, I yo-yo'd him on and off the potty and ultimately gave him a bath where he let it all go (so to speak).

He did do it successfully a couple of times and there was definite progress made. Fun though? Um, no. I spent the last couple hours of his training literally hugging him on the potty because he wouldn't let go of his grip on me.

I think he'll get it. Along with everything else, it's just not going to be easy.