Oh yes, adventures in potty training! You can totally skip this entry if you'd like. I won't hold it against you.
Just before Christmas, Bimmer started giving us some signs that she was ready to start potty training. She wanted us to change her right away after she went in her diaper and she was anxious to get panties. Specifically princess ones or Smurfs ones. But she was sick and then I was sick and then we traveled 7+ hours to The Fort, so I didn't want to get started on something we couldn't finish. Once we got back to town, we found ourselves at Target and I let her pick out whatever panties she wanted - she chose princess ones. She also really wanted both Mommy and Daddy to find some princess panties of our own. Alas, we did not.
So, how did it go? Well, here's the saga....
Day 1: New Year's Day. I figured it was as good a time as any, since it was dreary and we didn't really have plans. My initial plan was just to set a timer for every 30 minutes and put her on the potty to try. We attempted numerous times that morning, but then Puff was getting antsy to leave the house, so I had to abandon our mission to entertain him. Yes, I was frustrated. I didn't feel like Puff was taking this seriously enough. I think he thought it would be a quick and easy thing that would just magically happen without much effort. I understand that he doesn't want to be stuck in the house, but unfortunately, I was pretty sure that was what was going to have to happen.
Day 2: A few days later, it was a Saturday, and I was hell-bent on trying again, more seriously this time. Except Bimmer woke up with Puff in the other room and he let her lay around versus trying to get her up to try to go on the potty first thing. So she had already gone in her diaper by the time I heard them and tried to take her. More frustration... with Puff, not Bimmer. So I set the timer for 30 minutes after that, and put her in a pull-up. She was super excited by the pull-ups and kept asking for her panties. I told her she had to show us that she could use the potty a few times before we tried the panties. We ultimately ran up the street to a local bakery for breakfast, with her pull-up on, and she came back dry. We tried again. But she didn't go. About 10 minutes later, she told me she needed to pee, but she had already gone in her pull-up. She went again about 5 minutes later, in a fresh pull-up. So I put her back in a diaper, since I only had a handful of pull-ups. We kept trying in anywhere from 15 to 45 minute increments.
After several hours, I could tell Bimmer was getting frustrated with herself that she couldn't go on the potty. We kept trying to get her to drink water or juice, but she just wasn't having it. I asked her if she thought a little potty (versus just the potty seat on our big toilet) would be better for her and she said yes and told us she would be excited to go buy a potty. So that's what we did. She wet her diaper when we were gone, but wanted to try to use the potty ASAP when we got home. We kept trying every 20 minutes or so. But she kept wetting her diapers. That was when Puff and I came to a realization... if we were going to do this, we were going to have to be hardcore about it. We were going to have to try boot camp style... just put her in panties and be prepared for accidents.
Day 3: The next day, Bimmer woke up and was enthusiastic about trying her new potty. So she sat there while I read her book after book. She hadn't peed in her diaper since the middle of the night, so I knew there *had* to be something in there. But alas, nothing came out. We tried every 20 minutes for a good two hours while she wore her Little Mermaid pull-up. We read "Once Upon A Potty" to her several times. Finally, she peed in her pull-up. But she told us as she was going. Which was a step forward in her awareness of the whole thing. Still sucked to have to not get anything in the potty, but I was proud of her that she was becoming more aware of her bodily functions. We stuck with the idea that we needed to just ditch the diapers and pull-ups the following weekend.
Day 4: Puff and I both decided that next weekend, we would go full on boot camp. It started right after we picked her up from school on Friday. I had to attend an awards dinner at work, so Puff was at it on his own. We pulled up all the rugs, outfitted her in princess panties, and just waited to see what happened. And from 5:30pm until 9pm, there were no accidents. She also, however, didn't pee on the potty either. Girl definitely does not have my bladder!!! Puff said she cried the last time she was trying because she was getting frustrated with herself. I don't blame her. Poor girl. I hate I wasn't here to help.
Day 5: That next morning, we tried immediately when she woke up. And every 20 minutes, roughly, after that. Finally, after going last in her diaper around 5am, she went on the potty just after 9am! I think it shocked her when it came out. But boy was I soooooo proud of her!!! We let her help dump it into the big toilet and flush it. We washed her hands and there was lots of yelling and high fives. She got to put a virtual sticker on her chart on my phone and she got to eat THREE Reece's Pieces. We also may or may not have done a dance. It was pretty awesome. Later that morning, she had a few drips in her panties, which we considered an "accident" for tracking purposes, and then later in the morning, she had her first real accident. And she screamed as loud as she could the minute she started peeing in her panties. I didn't want to pick her up mid-pee and then track it through the house, so I let her finish as I stood there with my arms on her shoulder comforting her, as she was kinda freaking out. We took her to the potty and made her sit there for awhile and cleaned her up. I made her carry her soiled clothes to the laundry. She told me she didn't like that feeling at all. GOOD! Between 7:15am and her nap at 2pm, she had just those two accidents, and she peed on the potty twice and pooped once! Of course we put her in a diaper for her nap though. We went against the whole "don't leave your house" rule that night though and put her in pull-ups so she could attend a pajama party at her school that she was super excited about. Unfortunately, she went through a few pull-ups that night, but it didn't seem to set her back too badly.
Day 6: The minute she got up Sunday morning, we put her in new panties. She had a small accident that morning, but only after she screamed for us that she needed to go to the potty and we didn't run quick enough to help her. She did go later that morning and surprisingly, after her 3 hour nap, she was totally dry and woke up crying for me that she needed to go potty. I was so proud of her that she did that and made it to the potty! She was definitely becoming more and more aware of when she needed to go and I was so excited!!!
So... where do we go from here? Well, we are going to use pull-ups at school for a few days just because we don't think she is 100% ready to go to school in panties yet. But we are going to be pretty adamant that if she is at home, she is in panties. Soon enough, those pull-ups will be obsolete. I can feel it - she is going to do great! She's already doing great. So proud of my little girl growing up!
And I promise not to write any more sagas about potty training. Or post any more panties pictures. Although this one is pretty darn cute too...
No comments:
Post a Comment