Day 1 of potty training hell

I decided to copy and paste a play-by-play of my first day of potty training Matt from Mommy-Zone. Read it and weep with me:

8:56 AM
He's peed and pooped on the potty before, but never consistently... Mark and I were talking about it and we decided to just go for it this week, no holds barred.

We've already had one minor pee accident in his underpants and one success (he still had some pee in him after his accident and did the rest on the potty while I wascleaning up the carpet).

Ugh... I hate this already. I'm just not one to have much patience with this kind of stuff. Don't get me wrong, I can have all the patience in the world with Matt, I won't humiliate or get mad at him, but I'm likely to give up too quickly if it gets hard.

I guess I need to take each little success at a time and not look at the whole picture, right???

9:30 AM
We just had another small accident followed by more peeing on the potty. This time it was on the couch.


9:40 AM
Yet another accident w/ peeing on the potty... I think this kid drinks too much.

9:52 AM
He just peed AGAIN!!! What the heck? Three times in a half an hour?? Am I doing something wrong? How do I get him to empty his bladder? We already ran out of the Thomas underpants and are on the plain tighty whiteys. Is he telling me by doing this that he's just not ready?

See? I'm already ready to give up.

10:30 AM
This is me taking a deep breath: Okay, it's been 30 minutes and he still has dry pants. But I'd hope so after all the peeing he did earlier.

Thanks for the encouragement... I'm trying to stay consistent. He really really wants "Gordon's Polar Express Coaches" as he calls them, so I've been telling him that if he keeps his pants dry and clean and get enough stickers on his new sticker chart, we can buy them. I'm not sure he "gets it" yet, but I keep giving him positive reinforcement for keeping his pants dry anyway.

11:11 AM
I've been putting him on after every nick jr. show. I don't usually let him watch that much TV but I figure it keeps him in one spot so I can keep an eye on him.

Well, we just had a minor break-through... I was watching him... he started to go, looked down, and ran to the bathroom asking to go on. I put him on and he went!! After much cheering and me doing my happy dance, he chose a sticker and put it on the chart. We were both very excited.

11:51 AM
Didn't catch him quite on time this time. He just had an accident. I should probably put him in a diaper for his nap, right? And also, should I wait until he poops before I put him down for his nap?

3:17 PM
Put a diaper on him for his nap and he woke up wet (or I didn't get upstairs in time to get him before he peed... either way, he was wet). He still hasn't pooped or asked to poop. We were just outside for an hour with him running around the back yard naked (it's 90 degrees here today), and he didn't pee out there either. I put him on when we got inside and nothing... So I'm just waiting...

4:01 PM
Still dry and still waiting...

4:48 PM
still nothing.

I think I freaked him out though. I saw him with that "look" that means he's about to poop, so I snatched him up and ran to the bathroom, him screaming all the way. Needless to say, he didn't go.

5:01 PM
Another pee accident. I think he's starting to get annoyed with me bugging him, too. I hate this.

5:18 PM
Another accident.

6:55 PM
Around 6:00, he was on and off, on and off, on and off the potty 5 or 6 times and we started to think he was playing games with us. He kept saying he had to poop, but we'd put him on and he'd just sit there and then ask to get down. Finally, he went, although it was a very small amount. But I guess I should be thankful that he DID go and realized he needed to go. I'll count that as a small victory! That earned him a sticker on his chart AND 5 M&Ms.

I just gave him a bath and put him in a diaper for the night. One day closer to only one kid in diapers, right?? I need a glass of wine... or a shot of espresso... or both.

So that's it. Sigh. I hope tomorrow is better.