I hate potty training. I know hate is a strong word, but I would rather give birth multiple times to multiples than potty train one child. This is why I always said that William and Ryan would have to say, "Mom, I want to wear underwear and go in the potty from now on." before I started to potty train them. Until one afternoon when William took off his diaper during nap time and I didn't want to go into the babies' room to get a new one so the thought struck me to try him out in underwear, just to see. I would sit them on the toilet before going into the bath and William would always sit on the toilet until he went; Ryan would wait a second or two and say he was done. So I had wondered if William was ready to potty train. Anyway, on a whim I put underwear on William, and he liked it. He did really well. I would ask frequently if he needed to go and he would tell me if he did (and luckily I had some sort of treat to reward him with). Ryan saw the attention and wanted to try it out, so I put him in a pull up not really concentrating on him, but letting him go when he thought he needed to. Well it just so happened that the next day our sister-in-law and her kids came to stay with us and we had places planned to go and I didn't really want to have to worry about always asking if they needed to go. So I put a pull up on them and kind of forgot about it while we were out and about. But luckily they were doing pretty well, I was hopeful I could do this in a short period of time.
The next week I decided we'd start for real (except naptimes and night times they would still wear pull ups, I'm not THAT good). But I was scared, Christopher had really scarred me. I asked Jacob to give me a blessing, I needed to know this was the right time to do it and not just something I thought up. I was scared about me giving so much energy into William and Ryan that the other boys would be too neglected. After the blessing was done, Jacob apologized that it didn't really answer my question on whether it was right to potty train or not, but it actually was exactly what I needed:
He said the boys would receive enough love, keep going and they will be taken care of and turn into good upstanding men before the Lord. Trust myself. Even when I think I'm making decisions by myself, the Spirit is whispering in my mind what I should do. Trust it and the family will continue to grow up strong. I'll have enough energy to give to everyone I need to and still have some left for me. Everything that's happening is for a reason I may look to the future and be scared of outcomes, but blessings will come and I needn't be so worried.
I knew that the thought to randomly put William in underwear was inspiration now I just needed to follow and act on it.
The first week went pretty well; William was telling me when he needed to go. He is also very talented; he'd go a little in his underwear, but then go more in the toilet so he could have a treat. Then when he was done eating the treat, he'd immediately go again to get more treats. He's smart and talented. Ryan had a harder time catching on when he needed to go and being able to make it to the toilet before going. But he was learning and trying. We went on like this for about a month. Unfortunately at the end of the month, neither of them had pooped in the toilet; I tried being super optimistic and giving them showers, neither of them worked. One Sunday morning they both had accident after accident, and I just couldn't take it anymore. I knew William knew how to tell when to go and could go and Ryan was almost there, but yet they still would wet their underwear consistently. Obviously, they just didn't want to do it and if they didn't want to do it I didn't have the energy to make them do it. I was emotionally drained. I told them if they wet their underwear one more time I'd put them in diapers again, with no more treats. William wet himself and he skipped to get a diaper on. As soon as he was done, Ryan came and sat down for his diaper to put on. I felt relieved to not have to worry about how long it had been since they'd last gone to the bathroom, but also upset at all the emotion I put into teaching them when it was all for nothing. I told Jacob they had sucked up all my reserve emotions and energy, he said, "you had enough for a reserve!" Apparently I did, but not anymore.
The next morning, I heard them in the bathroom for a while so I thought I should investigate. They had both taken off their diapers gone to the bathroom in the toilet, and put on underwear. Maybe they
were ready. After that the accidents were minimal, except #2, neither had really ever done that in the toilet yet. So we went to the store and got them each a pack of 9 cars; when they went poo in the toilet they'd get 2 cookies and a car. Soon William caught on and it wasn't long after it clicked for William, but Ryan started to go. It was such a glorious day when they both were going in the toilet consistently. So now we are about 2 months out and occasionally they'll run to the bathroom to go but come back with wet underwear, either not making it or just not pulling down their pants before they go. But other than that they go by themselves or tell me they have to go then run in, often not wanting anything in return; occasionally they'll ask for their cookies (Nilla waffers). Although during it, it was so rough, I now can see that the Lord was helping me along the way and that it was the right time for them. (now we won't have 5 kids in diapers!).
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