Another Big Milestone for Owen

Kyle and Owen were not easy to potty train. I never worried about it though. It just was not something I was willing to allow myself to stress over. They were in diapers until they were three. And even after they were out of diapers they still weren’t night-time-potty-trained—- not even close. They always had to wear a pull-up to bed. A few weeks before Meera was due to be born, as the boys approached their fourth birthday, Braydon and I did a push for night-time-potty-training. We were thinking that with a new baby coming it would really, really, really nice to have the boys completely out of diapers. Kyle cooperated. He was ready, and motivated. Our ‘thing’ was that if he could wake up with a dry pull-up for three nights in a row, then he could try sleeping with no pull-up. It wasn’t long after our big push that Kyle was fully night-time-potty-training. Owen, on the other hand, was a whole different story. He had absolutely no interest whatsoever in night-time-potty-training, and he had absolutely zero motivation to go for it. He would tell us openly that he thought pull-ups were “great” and he seriously questioned why anyone would choose to get up in the night to pee on the potty when you could just stay in bed and pee in your pull-up. It made no difference to him to know that Kyle wasn’t wearing a pull-up any longer. It made no difference to him to know that most kids his age weren’t wearing pull-ups any longer. None of that mattered. He happily wore his pull-up to bed every night for a full two years after his brother had stopped. And he’d happily wake up every single morning with a soaking wet, heavy-with-pee-filled pull-up. He has a mind of his own. But then, suddenly, out of the blue, about three weeks ago, Owen announced to us that he was going to “stop wearing pull-ups by the time he turned six.” We were all overjoyed– and flabbergasted. With Kyle and his parents cheering him on with gusto, and with us committing to waking him up to pee each night before we go to bed, Owen determined to go for it. Three times he got to ‘2’ (2 dry pull-ups in a row), but then crashed and burned on the third night… sending him right back to 1. He got frustrated with himself, but he didn’t give up. And then, just last week, he did it. 3 nights in a row with a dry pull-up. And then, for the first time in his life, he got to go to bed pull-up-free. With Kyle there were many accidents in the first few days/weeks/months of pull-up-free nights. So, we were fully anticipating lots of laundry and making-of-beds. But no. Owen has been pull-up-free for the past week and has not had one accident. Not even close. Owen is officially 100% potty trained day-and-night. Just in the nick of time too (for his own self-imposed deadline)—  as he is just about to turn six. A big deal for Owen (and the whole family)! And I am so, so glad that I didn’t ever let myself get stressed over the whole thing. I truly believe it to be true (at least with my boys), that when they are ready, they are ready. No point in rushing them. For whatever it may be.