Learning To Use The Potty (private for Carrie96 and me)

[Omo90210]

Characters: Paul and Sharon, in their mid-thirties, who weren't able to have their own children

[Carrie96]

"Hi, sweetheart!" Sharon pulled James out of his crib and kissed his forehead. After gently squeezing the front of his diaper through his blue footie pajamas with trucks on them, she realized he was dry. He'd been waking up dry most mornings for a couple of weeks, now. "Your diaper is dry, honey! Look who's Mommy's big boy!"


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[Omo90210]

James slipped his thumb into his mouth and lay on Sharon's shoulder.

[Carrie96]

"What's wrong, Jamesie?" Sharon heard a faint trickling sound from his crotch and felt his diaper grow a little clammy through his pajamas. "James! Did you just go pee-pee?!" She asked, excitedly, wondering if he knew he had to go before it came out. She'd been wanting to try potty-training him for a few weeks now, but Paul was hesitant to agree. They'd been talking about the potty to him, letting him sit on it every now and then when he'd been dry for a while, and talking about how 'pee-pee' made his diaper wet and 'poop' made his diaper messy, but they hadn't gone any further than that.


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[Omo90210]

Mistaking her excitement for anger, tears filled James's eyes.

[Carrie96]

"Oh, sweetie, Mommy's not mad. You're such a big boy, keeping your diaper dry all night and knowing when your bottom is about to make pee-pee! You'll be big enough to wear big-boy pants and use the potty soon!"


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[Omo90210]

James didn't like the sound of this one bit. What was wrong with his diapers?

[Carrie96]

Sharon carried James to his changing table and unzipped his pajamas so she could change his diaper. As she wiped his crotch down with a wet wipe, she got an idea. Paul was out of town for work for the next three days, and she worked from home, but had a light schedule for the rest of the week. She would have plenty of one-on-one time with James to get him potty-trained. If he could make some progress before Paul came home, he would be likely to agree to continue with it. She'd bought the supplies a couple of months ago, but she hadn't had the courage to actually try it until today. Instead of putting a clean diaper and either James's pajamas or an outfit on him, Sharon lifted him off of the changing table, naked, and got a pair of toddler underwear with Spongebob on them from the top drawer of his dresser.

"Look, James, these are big-boy pants! You're going to wear these today instead of a yucky diaper. Tell Mommy when you feel like pee-pee or poop is going to come out, and we'll hurry to the potty so you don't go in your pants, okay?"


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[Omo90210]

Oh, no.

[Carrie96]

"Good boy. Look, it's Spongebob! It's going to take a while for you to learn how to use the potty, so you're going to wet your pants and poop in them for a while until you learn, but you'll get better at it. Try really hard to tell Mommy when you need to potty before you accidentally get Spongebob all wet or messy, but I won't be upset with you when you have an accident. All little boys and girls have accidents when they're learning to use the potty."

[Omo90210]

James nodded and lay back down on Sharon's shoulder, already not liking this potty business.

[Carrie96]

Soon after breakfast, Sharon gave James his second sippy cup of watered-down juice for the morning. She reminded him how his bottom felt right before he wet his diaper that morning, and how his tummy usually felt in the afternoons when he usually hid behind a table to soil his diaper. "When you feel like you're going to wet or make poopies in your underwear, tell me so we can try to get to the potty first, okay? Try really hard not to go potty in your big boy pants."


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[Omo90210]

James nodded, hoping he could do it.

[Carrie96]

Sharon's head snapped up from the book she was reading in time to see a tearful James with his hands squeezed between his legs as pee-pee spurted through his fingers, ran down his legs, and formed a puddle on the floor. The bright yellow and blue colors of his underwear, which was now soaking wet, had grown darker in the front.

[Omo90210]

James hung his head as Sharon led him to his room.

[Carrie96]

After lunch, while James was playing again, Sharon got a load of laundry from the dryer and folded it as he entertained himself. "Make sure you tell Mommy when you need to go potty again, okay?"


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[Omo90210]

James nodded quickly, dismissing her request.

[Carrie96]

A little while later, Sharon turned the TV on so James could settle down before he took a nap. She had covered the couch with a waterproof sheet, anticipating accidents and not wanting to force him to sit on the floor all the time. She'd been reminding him every now and then to tell her when he needed the potty, but she hadn't been actually asking if he needed to go or making him go to the toilet at certain times. She knew that was just asking for a bunch of accidents, but she felt that letting him have accidents and see the natural consequences of pottying in his pants would help him learn to go to the potty and avoid accidents faster. She also believed that, in the long run, it would be better for teaching him responsibility for paying attention to his own potty needs than hounding him about going all the time would.


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[Omo90210]

Once James saw that

[Carrie96]

Sharon was doing some things for work in a chair beside the couch, and she looked up when she heard James's distressed cries, already certain of what the problem was. Sure enough, his underwear was clearly wet, and he was sitting in the fourth pee-pee puddle that had graced the play room today.

"Oh, honey. Why didn't you tell Mommy you had to go potty?"


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[Omo90210]

"I didn't know, it just came out!" James sobbed.

[Carrie96]

"Okay, sweetie, that happens sometimes. You just need to pay attention and remember that you're supposed to keep your big-boy pants dry, okay?" Sharon looked at her watch. "It's time for your nap, and then we'll try again with the potty when you wake up."


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[Omo90210]

James would normally whine about having to take

[Carrie96]

Sharon knelt in front of James and helped him step out of his sodden underwear. After cleaning him up, she put him on the changing table so she could put a diaper on him.

"You've been drinking a lot of juice today, and you sometimes pee-pee in your diaper while you're taking a nap, anyway, so you're still going to wear diapers for your naps for a while. Once you're better at using the potty, and I'm not giving you as much juice for practice, you can wear big-boy pull-ups for your naps until you wake up dry more often."

Sharon put a t-shirt on James and wrapped a blanket around him, ready to rock him to sleep. "If you wake up and need to go potty, call for me, and I'll be right here, okay? Remember how Mommy can hear you through your monitor? If you can't hold it until I get here, that's not your fault. You can't get out of your crib by yourself, and we can't turn it into your big-boy bed until Daddy comes home." She sat in the rocking chair with him and rocked, scratching his back and humming softly.


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[Omo90210]

Feeling much less anxious with the familiar soft padding and security of his diaper enveloping his bottom,