I am happy to report that we all survived our 3 day potty training experience!
Just a heads up: this is probably the most boring post ever....but I wanted to document it for baby #2, and also just for my own memory. If you're about to start potty-training your kid, feel free to read (I loved reading other blogs about what other moms had done!), but if this is not something that interests you (which, why would it?! Ha), feel free to skip this post! :)
Ok, so here's a little timeline of what I did:
Pre-weekend: I researched the crap out of potty training (no pun intended). I talked to my friends who had already potty-trained their kids, scoured Pinterest {I found this to be helpful!}, and read this book. The book came to be my Bible over the weekend...even Travis was saying, "Well, what does the book say about this or that?"
So, I found a chunk of time on my calendar where we didn't have anything major planned, which was this past weekend. It also helped that it was a weekend, as opposed to during the week, because Travis was home and we could take turns supervising Ella, because by day 2 I was starting to go crazy.
Two of my main takeaways from the book that helped me get through the weekend:
-You are teaching your child a new skill. Just like teaching them to walk. We didn't wake up one morning and just tell Ella to start walking, we practiced over time. So we had to practice going potty too.
-Go into it with a "this is going to work" attitude. No trying. Of course, I told all of my friends, "Oh we're just going to see how it goes..." but in my mind I knew that it was happening and I was NOT going to try this again. This was it.
Friday: The big day! After breakfast, I took Ella's diaper off and told her we were saying goodbye to the diapers. I put her changing pad, diaper pail, and the rest of her diapering supplies in her baby brother's room. The book said to have her run around naked all day, so that is what we did. We stayed in the family room, because I didn't have to worry about cleaning pee off the carpet and I just made sure she didn't get on the rug or the couches.
{this is what most of our day looked like...minus the star ;)}
Right at the start, Ella had an accident on the floor, and I rushed her to the potty. You're supposed to say, "Oops, pee and poop go in the potty." and you're not supposed to tell them that it's ok, but of course, she looked really upset about peeing all over the floor, so I told her "it's ok". After that, every half hour or so, I had her sit on the potty, but nothing would come out. She also had a hard time sitting on the potty for more than about 3 seconds, so we had to sing songs, count...whatever to get her to stay on the potty and try to pee. This continued all morning. I was kind of worried that her little accident had scarred her for life, and she was never going to pee on the potty. After lunch, she got a diaper on her for nap time, and I explained to her that because she's still learning, she could wear diaper only when she's sleeping...we will tackle nap and nighttime potty training a little bit later on!
When she woke up, of course the diaper was full of pee and poop. I was so worried that she was just going to continue to hold it all day, every day until she got her nap or night diaper! So I did what any normal parent would do, I started really pushing the juice this afternoon.
She wasn't drinking very much out of her sippy cup, so I thought back to Rhys' birthday party last Sunday when she CHUGGED a juice box in about 2 seconds flat. I decided to give her the juice in the box, and guess what? Gone in 5 seconds. And she wanted more juice. I am pretty sure girlfriend had about 4 juice boxes this afternoon. At least they are organic?!
Well, guess what?? We might have had another little accident, but then...
Yep, she went on the potty! And she kept going on the potty! I think in that next hour, she peed like 5 times on the potty. All that juice! Anyway, by now she was recognizing what it felt like when she had to pee, and was verbalizing to me that she had to go, which was so exciting!
I also want to note that while many sources (including the Oh Crap! book) say not to bribe your child, I know how Ella is and she will do just about anything for some chocolate. So I knew, to make this work, there's nothing wrong with a little bribery. She gets an M&M each time she goes potty. I swear, it motivated her to go more! More peeing = more chocolate. Duh.
Saturday: Ella woke up with a wet diaper and was really upset about it, which I think is a good sign. Today, we tried a longer shirt, with nothing underneath.
At breakfast, she was able to tell us she had to go potty, which Trav and I were both super excited about! I've heard that day 2 is the hardest day, but it really wasn't too bad! We did a lot of coloring....
...and playing with Snapchat filters.
Ella did get a little clingy toward the end of Day 2, but poor girl had been trapped in the family room for 2 days, so I can't blame her.
Meanwhile, I was about to lose my shit, so luckily Trav watched her while I went to get my hair cut and go to the grocery store. I do not like sitting around my house, so the past 2 days had been torturous for me in that aspect!
Sunday: Ohhhhh Sunday. I think we were all a little bat shit crazy at this point.
We did a longer dress, but still nothing underneath. We had to keep helping her lift her dress when she went potty...God forbid she get pee on that precious golf dress!
Ella was still telling us when she had to go potty, and she was going.
However, the terrible 2 behavior definitely shone the brightest this day.
We had to put her in time out several times. I think she was just stir crazy. She was throwing things, coloring on the floor and the tv remote, climbing all over me, sneaking onto the couch (we still weren't letting her on the couches, but had rolled up the rug by this point, so she had free reign of the family room). At least we had ZERO accidents this day! Trying to be positive...
Today: We are trying pants (still no undies) and we went on our first outing!
{thanks to my friends for telling me what I needed to leave the house, and thank you, Amazon Prime, for now having same day delivery in Charlotte!}
So far so good!!
We still have a few issues we need to tackle (going #2 on the potty still hasn't happened, and she's afraid to sit on any potty other than her own little chair), but it's a work in progress. I'm just really proud of my girl for recognizing when she needs to go and telling us!
If you're still reading this, WOW! Go have a drink! I wish I was able to have several this weekend....instead I ate ice cream.
Posts
