Desperate Mommy to Mission control

I've been wondering if the potty gods had been listening to me for the past 4-5 months or not. I honestly believed that potty training Brayden would be so much easier since he had both Ryan and Tim to model himself after. Peer pressure of sorts. Well, he has proven to be just as difficult as Ryan was.

We started potty training Ryan at 3, a bit late now that I look back at it, but he had a lot of emotional adjustment after Brayden was born so it didn't seem like the right time to force the issue at 2 years old. By the time Ryan was 3.5 we were potty trained and only wearing a pull up at night for the occasional accident that would occur. I'd say that 8 months after starting we were out of pull ups at night all together. He's only had a few accidents since then.

So with Brayden, I wanted to start him at 2.5 years. We waited a little longer than that, he was about 2 years 9 months. The peeing part was relatively easy to get him used to. A lot of reminding him to go but getting him to stand up was a breeze because he likes going with Ryan. They have their "boy time" around the potty. Except for Ryan trying to tell Brayden he has to "point it up" the first time, we're doing well.

Pooping, a completely different story. Oh my dear. It was also Ryan's downfall, but he would at least sit on the potty and try. Brayden just screams. Regardless of song singing, bribes, whether he has to go or not. My goal was to have him potty trained before no. 3 got here. In conjunction with his strong will not to cooperate, is my very high hormone level with this pregnancy as compared to the others. I'm just not so patient at all this time around. It's killing me.

After numerous conversations with Brayden that he doesn't need to go in his pants or he needs to tell us when he's had an accident, I was beginning to wonder if he just didn't understand the "pooping feeling" so to speak. I'll share a quick story that some of you that follow on face book may have read about. I was getting things out of our car and Brayden had walked to the door in the garage. He had let the dog in the garage and was sitting by the steps leading to the house talking to the dog. All of a sudden I hear the house door shut and Bowden (the dog) comes around the back of the car. I start walking to the door and Bowden stops dead in his tracks, lifting up his front leg and turning around to look at me as if to say "ewww yuk, not me". I looked down and there were two piles of poop sitting at the bottom of the steps. When I asked Brayden if he pooped on the garage floor his reply "Well yeah, but it wasn't in my pants."

So now, I know he realizes the feeling, he's just playing games. So that day I stopped talking about it. At day care, his teacher told me to start sending him in underwear; so I did. And I found that he will take himself at daycare without a reminder and no accidents. Still no pooping but peeing we're there. Are you hearing me potty gods, please help. I need this child to be mostly potty trained by the time this new addition gets here, for my own sanity, please.

Then it happened. Last night. Tim said "Brayden, did you just poopy in your pants?" "No, I just passed gas". Check of underwear showed no poop. Me: "Brayden let's go sit on the potty please so we don't have an accident". The screaming and crying and stomping commenced. I sat him down, was going to try singing songs but that got him more upset. "Brayden, just try to push some poopy out, we're going to sit on the potty for a while, you can't get up until you try." More crying, more "No poopy, there is no poopy."

Tim came in there, and bribed with food/drink, toys whatever. And then the heavens opened up. In the middle of Tim saying "buddy we'll give you whatever you want if you just...." Tim shut up, he's pushing. And viola, poopy in the potty! There was a massive celebration. Bigger than Garner when what's his name just won American Idol. We went to the store and he got to pick out a "poopy present" which ended up being a green sword. And the rest of the night brought "I'm so proud of you" and "You're such a big boy" and "That makes me so happy".

Now here's to hoping this wasn't just a one time deal and he'll actually try to do it again. Work with me potty gods, work with me, pretty please with sugar on top?!!! We've got somewhere between 1 and 4 weeks left to get this mostly done.