4 am wake up call

I have been potty-training my son for a year now and I must say, it has been the hardest thing I've had to deal with as a parent...so far. It's frustrating, it's time-consuming, and it's exhausting. There have been times where I felt like giving up. There have been times where I wished babies were born potty-trained. I've heard potty-training a boy takes hard work and a lot of devoted time and patience, which sometimes I run out of. 

It's been a inconsistent and a consistent challenge. 

This past weekend was surprisingly consistent. He kept his pull-up dry for long periods of time and even while we were out, he said "Mommy, I have to go potty!" This is something he hardly ever does. We're usually the ones asking him if he needs to go. Not this time. He was very vocal and in control of his "potty needs". 

At bedtime last night I put an extra blanket underneath him just in case he wet his pants, which is something he usually does during the night. 

I wake up to him nudging me on the arm and standing next to my bed. It was 4 am and I had to wake up for work in 2 hours. "Oh please don't wake me up right now", I thought. I looked at him and he said, "Mommy, I pee-peed." I got up and immediately started feeling his pants and to my surprise, he was completely dry. I said, "No you didn't." Then he said, "I did! In the potty!" 

I couldn't believe it! I was so happy and so proud of him. He has never woken up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom. And I was so surprised that he didn't even bother to wake me up. 

He's growing up way too fast!

potty training trials

I started my 2-year old son, Dylan, on potty training in February. I wanted to try everything I could to encourage him so I downloaded a Pull-Ups iGo Potty app on my iPhone. I set it to go off every 30 minutes and it plays this cute little song. There's even a little tracking log of whether or not he went potty. Every time he went potty, he would get a sticker and the more stickers he gets the more games he can unlock. How cool is that? I even added more incentive by rewarding him with an M&M. He loved it!


He started out really well. He didn't go every 30 minutes, but he always went to the potty and tried to go. I was so excited for him as was he. A month after he started, we moved to a new city. I read that it's not a good idea to potty-train while going through a huge change like that, so it set him back a little. Now when my app goes off or I tell him, "It's time to go potty!" he'll shake his head no. Of course, I don't want to force him if he's not ready. Now that we're settled into our new home, it's back to square one! Hopefully we'll be able to get back on track and he'll be in big boy underwear in no time!