Progress So Far

When I last updated, Matthew had a terrible day at daycare with potty training.  Wednesday and Thursday went much the same unfortunately. I even brought his reward chart and froggy potty to no avail. So come Friday I was desperate. I brought in the big guns. I brought in CHOCOLATE! Well apparently that was quite the motivator. Matthew kept running to the potty to try and then demanded treats. He did earn some treats but unfortunately they made him into a crazed, chocolate hyper maniac who kept hitting and pushing his buddies. He was so wound up that my daycare provider hid the chocolate and didn't give him anything else for the rest of the day. He did have some success on the potty, but only when she brought him. I'll take it as a half win. My plan then for the weekend was to wean the child off the treats and eventually the stickers.

Saturday was a GREAT day! He made lots of pee and even poop on the potty! He did have an accident after dinner, but overall it was good. Sunday was not so good. He made a pee first thing, but then pooped in his underwear and peed at lunchtime. I'm not sure what to make of all this. Is he really just not ready? Is this just normal potty training setbacks? How will daycare go tomorrow? I'm nervous. I don't want to undo potty training, but if we keep having multiple accidents, I'm not sure where to go from there.

Now for the sleeping. Matthew's shinanigans and fighting at bedtime had gotten worse. Much worse. The screaming at bedtime was no longer 2-5 minutes followed by silence in his room as he fell asleep, it was 20-40 minutes that required a visit or three to calm him down. I decided to change things up a little. I started to entertain his baloney for longer than I would have before. I let him use the potty 5 times, let him tell me story after story, get up and down etc. Finally I would tuck him in and tell him very firmly that I would return if he stayed in his bed and was QUIET! Night one, this worked brilliantly. The next night, Roland tried the same thing and again, success. And success the night after that. It seems he needs to talk through his fears a little before bed. Matthew would tell me that Michael wakes him up, or penguin, or Mya our cat. We told them to "go way!" We had to check a few times to make sure they had indeed gone away. Last night Matthew added a new fear to his list. Apparently pumpkin was waking him up. The pumpkin was hiding in Matthew's bed, in his book bin, on the wall and sneaking around outside in the hall. We sent everyone to my room and he went to bed quietly. With no fussing.

This strategy seems to be helping a bit with the sleeping. He's slept straight through twice and other nights he's woken up only once or twice from a bad dream or having to pee. Last night he woke up at 4 am screaming "nooooo noooo nooooo!" When I calmed him down and asked him "no what?" he explained that he wanted to eat his dinner (that he had refused). So looks like this kid has a vivid imagination and is a bit of a worrier. Hopefully talking a lot with him before bed will ease his fears and help him sleep.

I received a call from the behavioural therapist from the sleep workshop last week. Well, a message. She wants to know how it's going. I tried to call back a few times but was unable to reach her. Hopefully I'll be able to reach her this week and we can discuss what's been happening. I'm not sure if we still need support. Things seem to be getting better, if only by a little. But it could just be another trick.

Eventually something has to give right? The child doesn't eat, or sleep, is language delayed and is failing at potty training. We have to get something right eventually right?