Potty time by the light of the moon

Today was day 4 of potty training. I’m not sure how we are doing. I guess we are doing ok. This is such a new mothering thing for me; I really feel like I am learning as I go but I still am pretty clueless. This is the first real attempt at potty training. We have casually worked on it, but I have been waiting until Jackson seemed really interested in it to start. Last week he asked to go potty several times. I bought him a second little potty, a couple of step stools, two more packs of big boy underwear and some chocolates and stickers for reinforcers. Colin and I keep accidentally calling his big boy underwear panties. 

Please forgive my use of pee-pee and poop, but there is no other way to talk about this. From the very beginning, Jackson has been great at going pee-pee in the potty. He’s had a pee-pee accident each day, but it was such a little amount it wasn’t that bad. Our big problem is poop. We’ve had 3 poop accidents (one a day). Today, I hounded him about getting poop in the toilet. We weren’t going to have another accident! Hounding probably isn’t the right word. I tried all manner of coercion trying to get him to go poop in the potty (songs, dances, promises of treats, threats, hugs, casual remarks about poop, etc.) I sat reading to him in the bathroom with him at the times when he would usually go. After about 10 or 15 minutes, he would get bored and leave.

Tonight we were playing outside when he went to hide behind the shed. The way he was acting, I was sure he was going poop. I tried to get him to come inside to go, but he wouldn’t. I brought his potty out to him. He sat, and sat, and sat. He was so content in the outdoors, we spent a long time out there—it got dark. He was so relaxed, I thought the poop would surely come. Alas. No poop. I can only hope for tomorrow. I’m worried I made too big of deal about it so he couldn’t go at all. Potty training is exhausting.