Starting the Day Off Right...kinda

The experiment is not going well.  Jake infuriated me during naptime yesterday--he did not take a nap, which was fine, but when I went up to get him dressed so that we could take Abby to her dance class, I discovered that the diaper he was wearing at naptime was soaking wet.  He was awake the whole time, mind you, so it's not like the diaper accidentally got wet while he was sleeping...  I had even talked to him multiple times over the monitor in his room, reminding him to keep the diaper dry while he was playing.  I was so angry--he just isn't getting it!  I took his favorite stuffed animal away from him until he can learn to keep his diaper dry.  So now there's no TV and no stuffed animal.  This experiment is spiraling.

Jingle, Jake's favorite stuffed animal

At bedtime last night, I upped the ante--I'm just so tired of the back and forth.  I told Jake that I was going to strip his bed down to his mattress only (no bed friends, of which he has about 50, no sheets, no covers) and put him to bed naked so that he could figure out how to control himself without me having to clean up a big mess every time...to which he started howling.  He did not like that idea in the slightest.  Dan said I may have scarred him for life with the suggestion.  To pacify him and stop the screaming, I agreed that he could wear undies...but nothing else.  As I have mentioned in a previous post, the child loves his pjs.  He refuses to sleep or take a nap in anything other than pjs...so conceding to undies only didn't do much to stop the crying.  We finally agreed to clear his bed of all his bed friends (the plush ones can't be washed without risk), leave the sheets and blankets on the bed, and put him in undies under his pjs.  I told him that I would take him to the bathroom before I went to bed, and he's to call for me as soon as he wakes up in the morning so that I can take him to the bathroom again.  I went into his room at 11pm last night, and was so happy to discover that he was dry!  I went in again at 4am, and again, he was dry.  I had high hopes for the morning, especially after that successful 4am pit stop.  It was smooth both times taking him into the bathroom and getting him to go right back to sleep, so I was glad for that--this was the one part about potty training Abby to stay dry through the night that I did not enjoy...the late-night possible waking-up-forever bathroom run.  I hate bothering sleeping kids--there's something so innately wrong about it!

Jake woke up at 7am this morning, and didn't say anything to me on the monitor--I told him to call me as soon as he woke up so that I could take him into the bathroom again.  I went into his room at 7:15am, and he immediately informed me that he was soaking wet...as was his bed.  Sigh...  The three hours from 4am to 7am shouldn't have made him feel a desperate need to go, so I think he just totally forgot that he was wearing undies.  That's exactly why I wanted him to sleep with no pjs on, and just undies--so that he would know something was different and would be able to see his undies--he's so used to having that diaper on for security...but no more!  I told him this morning that he won't be wearing a diaper again ever.  I may have to wash sheets every morning, but he has to get the hang of this sometime...right?

On the plus side of the morning, because we were up and going so early, Dan and I decided to work out together before work/bus stop.  We put the kids in Jake's room (all three were up for some odd reason--our kids are not early risers!), and headed down to our basement--I got on the treadmill (after throwing in a load of wet laundry, of course), and Dan got on our elliptical.  It was only 25 minutes, but at least it was something--and something is better than the nothing I've been doing!

this chick looks way happier than I was this morning, which says a lot