In the past few months…

I know. I know! It’s been a long time since I have last posted. However, so much happened in the past few months! 

We celebrated birthdays and Christmas. Enjoyed the winter sun. Battled against the cold and got caught up in the sales! 

However, that was not all! Less than a week before James’ birthday we received paperwork for James to start nursery the day after his birthday. I was not prepared for this!

To say the least, I was not happy! I came home from a 12.5 hour shift to find out my little boy was starting sooner than expected. I was in shock. I was still in shock while we celebrated his birthday during the week. Sadly, it did affect me mentally which meant I couldn’t really concentrate on celebrating his birthday. 

My anxiety was in overdrive! I was worried about him. I kept thinking all the what if’s. What if he doesn’t get on with the other kids? What if they don’t understand him?

At that time James would not go to the toilet with us. He was as stubborn as me. I got frustrated with him and he got frustrated with me. It was so hard. Really hard! I tried positive reinforcement. I tried to offer him treats. I couldn’t have him possibly potty trained before nursery!

No joke. My mental health really struggled that week. I was a shadow of myself. I was crying over every little thing. I was not myself for sure. 

On the Monday, I phoned the nursery and explained that it’s too soon for him to start, plus, he will be knackered to start on the planned date. I managed to push the date back a week. 

Sadly, James came down with the cold. Was it worth him to start whilst being unwell?

I didn’t take the chance. 

So again, I pushed the date to the start of next term. This was when I thought he would start! 

I was much more prepared! 

Yes, I was anxious when he started nursery. The same thoughts circled through my mind. However, I had time to focus on James and ensure that he was ready. We spoke about nursery and walked to the nursery. He knew that he was about to start nursery. We spoke about how he would make new friends and have time away from both me and his dad.

We also had time to help James go to the toilet. After failing miserably on Nov-Dec. We looked back on what we did wrong. We decided not to use the absorbent pants but used normal pants. As he would feel the wet more. We also encouraged him more to go to the toilet regularly. 

We also have a star cloud collector. We used this to help us with the dreaded tantrums. So, we used this as a treat for James when he did go to the toilet. 

Luckily, this did work for us. However, we still waited for him to tell us for over month. It was like he had no clue when he needed to go. We had no idea what to do. 

This was when James started nursery. So, at least he knew what to do. However, did he know, that he would have to inform the teachers?

Still, I don’t know what happened! 

A couple of weeks after he started nursery he would tell us he would need to go to the toilet. I am not sure if it was the nursery who helped him or if it was us. It was like he had a light bulb moment. 

It was only last week James told us he needed to go to the toilet to do a poo. Yes, I did cry. 

The reason, I wrote about potty training, is because he just turned 3 before he fully understood what we wanted from him. I know, some of us become obsessed with milestones. We shouldn’t! All children learn differently and work at different levels. 

We now, need to focus on how to help him with the toilet overnight. So any tips would be useful!

Stay safe

💖