It was a big weekend in the Cornwell household. We finally made the LONG-overdue decision it was time to potty train Ethan. No more excuses, it was time to do it. Jason was gone for an Army weekend so I thought it would be the perfect time to tackle this. Probably not the best move on my part but that's my story and I'm sticking to it!
We started off the weekend okay, knowing there were going to be accidents. I decided to follow the Three Day Potty Training plan, which is basically take your kid out of diapers and then just spend all your time with them, observing them and getting to know their signals. Sounded good. I figured that Wyatt took about a week to finally get the hang of it so it would probably be the same with Ethan.
I bought two packs of underwear (minions from the Dispicable Me movie, one of Ethan's favorites) and got my bed mats for the couch set up and ready to go. I put him in underwear, where he stayed until we headed to the pool for an evening playdate. We had about 11 accidents that day and I couldn't tell any of his signs. The only thing I learned was that he, indeed, did not like the feeling of being wet or poopy.
I went into the second day a little deflated but kept positive with Ethan (funny how I was never able to be so calm with Wyatt - sorry little man). And then I dove into researching other methods for training kids with Down syndrome. I spoke to a woman who used the Marcus Autism Institute and she gave me some tips. So day three I switched it up and changed to a five minutes on, five minutes off approach. I ordered a wet monitor that I can hook up to Ethan's underwear that will beep the minute he starts to urinate (it arrived late today) and then started over correcting -- if he peed in the family room I would take him to the bathroom for five minutes then bring him back to the family room to tell him we don't pee here and then back to the bathroom to tell him we pee here. We would do that twice then put him in clean underwear. Over and over.
I was constantly telling him to keep his big boy underwear dry and tell mommy when you have to go potty. By the second day I got more yes's than no's (HUGE for Ethan, who says no to everything - even when he means yes) and he even said potty a few times.
There were a couple times where I could just tell he had to go potty and take him but he would stubbornly hold it until he was off and safely away from the bathroom. Then in the afternoon I asked if he had to go potty and he said yes so we rushed to the potty and -- nothing happened. So we went back to the basement and not 2 minutes later he fussed and got out of the chair -- because he had just had an accident. But that was huge! He recognized and verbalized that he to go potty. I was curious to see what would happen next....
More accidents, sigh. I was low. Then Jason came home and we didn't see eye to eye on things. I won't get into specifics but I felt like I should have been patted on the back for a good effort but I didn't feel that had happened. Feeling lower.
Monday morning, we had about four accidents in about 30 minutes and I was done. Deflated. Emotional. I couldn't talk to Jason without tears exploding. Finally he sent me out to run an errand and he sat with Ethan on the potty while I was gone for about 30 minutes. I came back, kept him on it longer, gave him lots to drink and then finally took him off. Only to have him have an accident almost immediately. But having gotten out of the house I was a bit refreshed.
Last night I reached out again to more people for more help and advice, specifically mom's of children with special needs.
And they didn't disappoint!
I love my support group!!
So today we started operation sit until you pee. We started at 9a and to my utter shock, Ethan pooped at 9:50a. Of course my child would do the hardest thing first. And I didn't even know he was pooping until he had finished!! So I took him off and gave him lots of praise (he liked that and had a huge smile) and told him he had 15 minutes and then we'd go sit again.
The minute the timer went off he had a huge pee accident. Sigh.
We went back to the potty and sat knowing we'd be there until he went potty or we had to leave for therapy at 12:30p. So we sat (with his gorilla) and read books.
We sat and played with the iPad.
We sat and sang.
We sat and he said, all done over and over and over (and over and over).
But amazingly at about 12:15p he pooped again (REALLY???). But he didn't pee. So we sat. And then just as I was about to get him off a little tiny trickle of urine escaped!! Woo Hoo!! I got him up and praised him and hugged him and cheered him. He LOVED it. Big smiles!
We headed to therapy (in a pull-up -- don't judge) and to run a couple errands. His therapist suggested when he starts to pee that I press on his bladder. She said with the low muscle tone it was harder for him to feel the urge to pee but that the holding it in (I'm convinced he's scared of the potty) was going to help him with that muscle tone so at least some good was coming of his stubbornness (finally).
Back home and on the potty at 3pm. Lots of liquids, songs, books, all done's, etc. later and we finally got another little trickle of pee about two and a half hours later. Yay!! We are moving forward!! Big hugs, praises and huge smiles from Ethan.
Put him back in underwear, sat him on the couch, gave him some food, more liquid and told him 15 minutes. About 10 minutes in, another accident. I thought ok, I'll just get more liquid into him before we sit on the potty and then we'll have less time on it. But another accident.
Back on the potty at about 5:45p and there we sat with no luck until I took him off at 7p to get into jammies -- this mommy needed dinner.
So the long day has come to an end. It would have been better to do this with help (Jason is traveling until Friday night) and to not go anywhere in the middle of the day but I feel we made good progress.
Tomorrow we'll be back at it again, with no where to go so hopefully we'll have an even better day. Even though we still had accidents I've told Ethan several times how proud I am of him and how far he's come in just a few days. It will happen -- eventually!
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