Tate's cousin is getting married in May and they asked for B to be their flower girl. Of course I said yes and was super excited, then this lightbulb went off in my head! I thought it would be a perfect time to potty train that way by the time of their wedding the whole process would be complete. Notice I'm giving it a little more than 4 months, none of this potty train in 3 days crap. I've heard it works, people swear by these "techniques", but not for this girl. Now in three days she understood what to do but in no way, shape or form was she completely potty trained in 3 days. In my mind to be completely trained would mean no accidents, right? Correct me if I'm wrong. No accidents after 3 days? Ha. I'm not saying it CAN'T work, so don't scold me if it did for you. Yay, you, supermom! I've never washed so many loads of towels and princess panties in my life! There has been accidents in places I'd rather just not discuss and then you turn around to see this: proud moment!
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After a week of solid 'lets go potty' every 30-45 min B finally got the hang of what she was doing. Now, 2 weeks later, we have had our good days, definitely more bad days, but have made so much progress. I remember at one point she was crying, I was crying, and Layla was howling (hilarious now, but none of this was funny at the time). The impatient part of me was about to give up saying 'she's too young', 'she's just barely two', 'maybe we'll try later' but the non-quitter in me said NO, stick with this, and that's just what I did! She has only poo-pooed in her panties ONCE! Wiping poo off Cinderella isn't for the faint of heart. I wanted to trash them (I mean we have like 50 pair) but Brylee insisted we clean her and I think it grossed her out so much that she hasn't done it since! We have had days with no success in tee-teeing and then days with very little accidents. We are now down to about 1 accident a day, sometimes 2. Most of her accidents happen while she's too busy playing to come get me. Immediately after her accident, she will run to the bathroom, strip herself down, throw her clothes in her laundry basket, then call for my help! She's got the right idea, wrong timing. She is wearing pull-ups at nap time and for bed but that is it; to me they have the same concept as diapers. Now, here was our process:
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Buy a potty chair and potty seat! Given, right? Yes, but buy them early! I bought her potty chair months ago knowing she wasn't quite ready but I still wanted her to be familiar with it. It's been in her bathroom and we would often talk about it and she knew what it was and what it was for but if you asked her if she wanted to use it her answer was a definite NO! The potty chair I got was very plain. It's girly designed, sure, but it doesn't "flush", sing, or make any other kind of noise; I didn't want it to be mistaken for a toy. Now, I didn't purchase a potty seat because the one I got can convert into one, but I did eventually go buy one. Why? I put it in our bathroom. She wakes up and comes to our room around 5 every morning and then sleeps for a few more hours. She has to potty when she first wakes up so why not have it to where she can use all the bathrooms. Lightbulb!
About a week before I really got started, we 'prepped for it'. We got all excited about the potty, our panties, and becoming a "big girl"! She was excited and finally said yes she wanted to use the potty. I got her bathroom stocked; big box of goldfish, bag of panties, books or busy toys, flush-able wipes and a ton of towels! I made her a progress chart and I let her help with it so she was even more excited. I downloaded the Huggies Pull-Ups app and set it up and we were ready. The app has a timer on it with this jingle that goes off when it's time to potty and then there are celebration games with Disney characters. Wait, goldfish? I'll get to those!
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Day 1. Change out of diaper/pull-up. Go sit on the potty. Like for 5 + minutes sit on the potty... hints why you need books and busy toys. This was also the only time she got to play on the iPad. Nothing happens? That's okay, give her some goldfish (it becomes some kind of incentive to go sit). Why? They're salty! You want a drink after you've just eaten something salty! Get it now? Take the goldfish, drink some water, wait 15-20 min and go sit on the potty again. Give her goldfish, water and repeat! This is where it'll test your patience. Every 20 min I have to take a potty break?! I have stuff to do! Wrong! For the first few days do nothing, if you can! No laundry, no cleaning, no major cooking, nothing! I dedicated those first few days to Brylee and becoming a big girl. It was in these days that the crying happened. I didn't understand how we sat on the potty just to have an accident 5 min later! Patience, Leah, patience. And what do ya know, it became easier. She started recognizing what the feeling was like to need to go and she would tell me, sometimes too late, but she was understanding the concept. Every time she went on the potty she got a sticker. Yes, those are just garage sale dots that I added my own smiley face onto. It was a last minute project and the only part I didn't plan, don't judge! After 10 successful potty breaks she gets a prize and when the entire chart is full we will do something big.. plans haven't been made yet though.
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Now, 2 weeks later, we still use the timer, but we don't go sit every 20 minutes. The timer goes off every 45 min just for her to hear that jingle. I'll ask her if she needs to go, sometimes yes, sometimes no. Sometimes she needs to go in between the timer. Sometimes she tells me, sometimes she doesn't. I'd say with OUR lack of experience with potty training, we've done exceptionally well!
-Leah
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