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Tuesday, June 10, 2014

Toilet training....again


So we're toilet training, again. That's one thing with having had more than the average child:parent ratio, it seems like you're constantly toilet training.

It was almost a year ago that Blake graduated from nappies, & with Jack, from when he came out of nappies at two & a half years old we've never really stopped (due to his bladder issues, that are still on going). Then there's Ben & Rianan who are only 20 months apart, & with Ben being nearly two & a half when we toilet trained, then Rianan was only 17 months when she was ready to go to big girl undies - it feels like I've been constantly thinking about potties, undies, accidents & packing enough spare clothes to dress a small nation for the last 7 years.

We briefly tried toilet training with Will back in January, during summer, but he just didn't 'get' it & through many little puddles outside, showed us he wasn't ready yet. However over the last month or so, Will has been a lot more aware of what's going on in his nappy - so I've decided it's time to try again. If we have success - awesome! If not, then we'll leave it for another few months & try again. It may seem like a longer process doing it this way, stopping after a few days if there doesn't seem to be much success, then re-starting a few months later. This way works for us though & takes away any stress or anxiety. I don't have the determination to stay home every day for a week, two weeks, three weeks - however long it takes until they are finally accident free. Also, we don't have time, or the weekly routine, to put the rest of our life on hold to get through that method. So instead, I wait until I know that we have two or three consecutive days that are quiet with no plans & we can just chill at home while making toilet runs every twenty minutes.

There's one spanner in all this that doesn't help make it easier for me, & that is breastfeeding. Murphy's law dictates that every time you sit down to feed a ravenously hungry three month old, a toilet training two year old will yell "wee-wee Mummy, quick toilet". Because we're in the early stages, half of these dash-to-the-toilet events will be false alarms. So poor Clay has no idea what's going on, when he gets three minutes into a feed & then suddenly finds himself on his play mat while I dash down the hallway following Will as we attempt to keep his undies dry. Though I should probably be used to it, given that I'm pretty sure I've been toilet training one toddler while we've had a new baby in the house for 90% of our toilet training days.


So far, this morning has been accident free, although that's not including the school run when Will had a nappy on as we took Ben, Rianan & Jack in to school then Blake to kindy. I'm so glad he didn't have undies on at that time, otherwise five minutes after getting home & when I was tied to the couch feeding Clay, there would have been a massive clean up that no one wants to face at 9:15 in the morning & still pre-coffee. 

Fingers crossed the next couple of days go well & we can say good bye to having two in nappies & hello to constantly scanning road sides for somewhere safe & out of view to pull over, in case of immediately required toilet stops. Cleaning car seats when we couldn't pull over in time, & high fives when a wee was kept in until we could pull over.

Then we get to do it all over again in another two years.

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