Friday, August 12, 2011

My Girl Wants to Potty All the Time!

Starting solids...sleep training...moving to a big girl bed....potty training...just some of the major transitions in the past 2 and half years of my daughter's life.  Each has been difficult and each has had its moments of pride and joy.

This past week it was Potty Training time.  Why I chose this weekend? I don't know.  But I read about and asked every person possible about the 3 day potty training boot camp and felt like I was ready.  I wasn't. Just like sleep training is not for everyone and certainly not for the weak at heart, neither is this type of potty training.  But I really just wanted to get it over with quickly and with as little pain as possible.

On the first day, upon wakeup it was undies only. No diapers. God I miss diapers. I rinsed out more undies than I can count and was more frustrated than I've felt in a long time.  But we were done with diapers and that was that.  I had to stick with it. She went pee pee when prompted, never unprompted and had many accidents (some minutes after going on the potty - which was soooo frustrating).  I gave her a Skittle when she went on the potty - but she could take it or leave it - which I guess is a good thing. Day 1 sucked. period. Stuck in the house on a beautiful day with a kid pissing all over the place. awesome. I called my friend (who did this with her son) and asked her why she didn't warn me how horrible it was.  But we survived.  Barely.

It was that night hat I told Mike that I am taking FULL CREDIT for this achievement (once it actually happens) and that he is responsible for potty training baby #2 (he agreed).  Because honestly, I can't do this again and I'm writing it here so I remember that I don't have to do it again. (Funny Mike side note: in the morning, I was in the bathroom and I hear "Daddy pee pee. Pee pee Daddy." So I'm waiting to hear the running footsteps.  And you know what I hear? Nothing.  Mike did nothing. Really? UGH! I have to teach kid how to go on the potty and the other kid how to take a child to the potty!)

Day 2 was so much better.  She went whenever she was prompted. (never not prompted) But get this - no accidents! We even left the house (twice!).  Once to take a walk and buy ingredients for some Yum Yum Brownie Muffins (we used yams instead of pumpkin - delish!) and once to buy some fruit.  Toward the end of the day, we even went to our local pool (in swim diapers - not ready for that yet!) and had a nice end to our day. I felt like the tide was turning and maybe yesterday wasn't a huge waste of time.

Day 3 and 4 were weekend days- in retrospect, this was probably not the best weekend to start potty boot camp, because we were upstate for the day on Saturday and Sunday was Mike's triathlon.  But Saturday was ok.  Definitely some setbacks (read:accidents) but nothing horrible.  She did a great job considering we were far from home in a new place.  The issue was that she wasn't pooping.  She was telling me she had to poop, but it wasn't happening.  There were tears (hers and mine) but we stuck with it.  My thinking was that I was still putting her in diapers at night, giving her ample time to poop in there if she needed to.  But she didn't.
Then Sunday, I made the decision to stay home instead of rooting Mike on in the city to get J back on potty track.  I'm glad I did.  She had no accidents and went consistently and pooped (finally!).  She even stayed dry at Grandma and Poppa's house.

Monday, she went to school and when I picked her up....she was still in the same outfit!!! No accidents all day or at home. Success!!

I''m not saying my kid is fully potty trained. But I'm feeling pretty damn good about myself right now (oh, and of course I'm super proud of J for being such a big girl!)

3 comments:

  1. LOLed at Mike not running her to the potty - that's SO something my Daddy would do. Mommy really worries about his response time sometimes! Congratulations to you and J! Mommy is NOT looking forward to potty training...

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  2. I love your recaps. Keeps it real for those that have not ventured down this road yet.

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  3. That's a great overview of what you did. I'm thinking maybe we'll give it a try before school starts. I'd still like to hear if there were any more tricks you have. Let me know when you can chat!

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