October 14, 2010

Diapers

Just when I thought I had it all together...this am, after getting the big kids off to school, I get the two little guys home and Isaiah promptly needs a diaper change. I go to our usual downstairs spot for diapers and no diapers. I knew we were out of diapers upstairs because I had put him in the last one that morning when I got him dressed, but I assumed we had some downstairs. But no diapers there. I wasn't too worried at that point because there is usually a diaper in my purse, in my van and in his daycare backpack. Wouldn't you know it but not a diaper in any of those places? I curse a bit under my breath because I realized I had to go to the store...and I didn't have a diaper to put on him to even go to the store. Great. And he's been refusing to sit on the potty for the last month, even though he was doing great for awhile. So I put him in underwear, tell him he has to use the potty if he has to go. Now what do you suppose happens? As I'm feeding Caleb because he, of course, decided that now is the time to eat, Isaiah looks at me and tells me he's wet. He emptied his bladder while sitting on my living room rug and is saturated. Fabulous. So once again, I clean him up and I do finally get to the store to get diapers and thankfully he didn't have an accident while we were in the store or van. He did promptly poop in his underwear as we walked in the house, but at least we were home. I can not wait until he's potty trained. I actually thought a couple months ago that maybe he would be out of diapers by now because he was doing so well. But he was just messing with my mind, giving me false hope! Someday though, someday he'll be out of diapers and I won't have pee soaked pants to wash. Ah, the joys of motherhood!

2 comments:

Pale said...

Oh I feel your pain. I am just a couple of months ahead of you on two counts. My fourth (third boy) was just born in May and my three year old (3 last June) just potty trained a couple of weeks ago, at THE absolutely, very last minute before the start of 3 y o preschool.

I'd begged and pleaded all summer long ... saying he wouldn't be able to go to school without using the potty (he loves school). And promising that the terrible, medieval diaper rashes would go away if only ... he ... if ... yea. Not. Having. It.

I love the three year age gap, but having a newborn and a bigger kid potty training (or not, as the case was) is one downside. I think the new baby helped to delay things. So cliche, but it turns out to be true.

We went on vacation for 2 weeks before Labor Day and he followed my husband to the bathroom many times a day the entire time. Which seemed to turn the trick somehow in his mind. (Being "like daddy" is big with him). 2 days before we left to return home (via a 12 hour road trip), he just announced he was willing to do this potty thing. And that's been pretty much it. After all that gum flapping from me (which did exactly nothing for the cause). Poof. Just like that. Trained.

There was some mess, of course ... the most notable at the end of long day, in the middle of making stuffed cabbage (I was sick of post-partum phone-it-in meals after nearly 4 months and resolved to finally cook something new and different). The bathroom looked like a crime scene only splattered with poop instead of blood. And the underwear. OMG. Not exactly an ideal kind of interruption in the middle of food prep. I cleaned up the boy and the bathroom, slathered on the antibacterial gel, put the underwear in a plastic bag and put off dealing with it. Then in the morning ... as I contemplated my next move ... I just surrendered and threw it in the trash. A pair of spiderman underpants is far more disposable than my sanity.

Anyway ... hang in there. Soon you will have this milestone done and it will be fabulous -- I am loving every minute. I ran out of diapers this AM, too ... but my 5 month old is so big that I can get away using the leftover size 6's if I tighten them enough. Congrats on the new guy, btw. Well done!

Emily said...

Oh, I feel for you. My own kids, thank God, got themselves potty-trained at daycare...which was 2 days a week for 2 hours, so I could get some work done. They had to stay in the infant room until they were out of diapers; that did it. They were desperate to get out with the bigger kids. My efforts got no results, none, but social pressure did the trick like magic.

My grandkids don't have this arrangement. Disposable diapers have gotten so good that kids are training later & later. Mine are now out of diapers (at 4 & 5), but it was a long, hard road with many accidents. Yuck.