Hiatus

We're taking a little hiatus from potty training Tyler. Generally this is thought of as a poor move in the PTing world because it just confuses the child to have them put back into diapers, but I think in Tyler's case this is definitely the right move. Let me back up and explain though...

As noted on Monday's post, Tyler had a horrific tantrum Sunday afternoon. Nick and I suspected it was because he needed to go to the bathroom in a bad way but didn't want to wet his pants nor did he want to use the potty. He finally calmed down after he peed on the playroom floor.

Monday was fine tantrum wise, but we weren't making much progress PTing wise. He would sit on the toilet for us, in fact sometimes for a long time (one night he happily sat on it and talked our ears off for an hour!) but he would never do what he was supposed to do on it.

Tuesday he threw another epic tantrum in the afternoon. This one was more violent then before and I have a horrific bite mark on my leg (I wanted to show you all how horrific it is but my camera batteries are dead) to show for it. His loud screaming, hysterical crying, back arching and violence (trying to bite and hit me) freaked me out. 40 minutes into the tantrum I broke down in tears because I didn't know what to do to help him calm down. Thankfully my other boys were perceptive of Mommy's emotional stability and instantly climbed into my lap to give me the sweetest hugs and kisses.

Later Tuesday afternoon (after the tantrum was done), I e-mailed the lady who wrote the Potty Training E-book I've been using. I explained my hunch about Tyler's tantrums and asked her if she thought we needed to take a break and if we did how badly would that mess us up down the road. Or did she think we needed to keep pressing on and perhaps getting him his own little potty would make things exciting enough that he'd use it properly. She e-mailed me back and said PTing should definitely not be this stressful on the little guy and that I should follow my mom gut here and take a break, but explain to Ty that he's not being punished by going back into diapers. After talking that night, Nick and I agreed that if Tyler through another fit on Wednesday afternoon that we would take a break from potty training him.

Yesterday afternoon, just as soon as Tyler woke up from his nap, the tantrum started. It took me almost 2 hours to get him to wear a diaper and keep it on. The first time I put it on him he screamed and pulled at it until I took it off. When I finally got it on him the second time he was ok with it. About 20 minutes later he was standing in the kitchen with me when he looked down between his legs and said "uh oh peepees!" but then seemed awfully confused to not see anything hitting the floor.

He's asked several times since then to sit on the potty but we've declined each time and told him we'll do it again soon. How Jackson does with the PTing will largely dictate when we start Tyler up. At this point I think I'd like both Jackson and Chase to be done potty training before I take on Tyler again.

So there you have it. We're taking a break with Tyler. Can I just say how glad I am that we did Chase first? If I didn't know how successful this could be I probably would want to just give up on the whole idea for the next 6 months or so! Here's hoping it's a tantrum free afternoon here, otherwise I'm at a loss as to what's making him flip out so badly. And here's hoping Jackson trains more like Chase did...