Could This Be It?

As many of you are well aware, we've been struggling to get Aiden to complete potty training. While he has known HOW to use the bathroom for quite some time, he seems to have had no personal motivation to keep it up. The pediatrician concluded in October that it was a power struggle and he would eventually give it up and decide he was potty trained. We were told to encourage bathroom use, but not make a big deal out of it.

Aiden has been wearing underwear here at home during the day, but has been wearing Pull-Ups if we go anywhere and also during the night. Yesterday, we were getting ready to go to the grocery store so I told Aiden that it was time to get his Pull-Up on so we could leave. Imagine my surprise when Aiden responds, "No, I'm not going to wear those anymore". I was a little hesitant and did finally convince him to wear a pair to the store since he was wanting to go into the playplace. I didn't want to have him end up having an accident, making the poor attendant clean it up. But once we got home, he went right back into underwear and we talked a little more about using the potty all the time.

John has been working 12+ hour days (15 hours yesterday), so the boys and I gathered some dinner to take to him at work. Aiden wore underwear on the trip to see daddy and did great. We got home and began to get ready for bed. Since Aiden had never indicated a want to wear anything other than Pull-Ups to bed, I told him it was time to change into Pull-Ups. He says, "No, mommy. I told you I don't wear those anymore". I had to sit there for a minute to figure out how to approach this.

I was still fairly hesitant and I began to see that it was affecting Aiden. My questions to him were somewhat doubtful and Aiden began to respond to all questions with, "I don't know how to do this". Once that started happening, I realized that this was extremely important to him and as his mom, I needed to show him that I have faith in his ability to complete the potty training process by himself.

So I started over. I smiled at him and said, "Aiden, would you like to be a very big boy and wear underwear to bed tonight?". He got a huge grin on his face and said, "Yes!!". I told him that if he wanted to do that, he needed to go potty right then before he got in bed. He hopped up and did it! Once he came back into his room, I explained that if he went potty in his underwear in the night, his bed would be very wet. So if he woke up and needed to go potty, he could leave his room and go to the bathroom by himself. And first thing in the morning, he needed to use the potty before he did anything else. He seemed quite confident, so I left it at that.

Once the boys were in bed, I paced around the living room feeling very nervous, but I think it was mostly because I was thinking ahead to him going to school today and wondering what would happen if I suggested Pull-Ups to him. We still have two hours, so I can't tell you anything yet.

I eventually relaxed and realized that the worst case scenario was a very wet bed and since his mattress is plastic and easy to clean, it's not a huge deal. We would know in the morning. So what happened this morning?

A very DRY bed and a little, excuse me, a BIG boy who used the bathroom right after getting out of bed. We are so proud of Aiden and are excited about what this might mean for the end of potty training. Now that he seems to have personal motivation, it could be over quite soon.