Potty Tranining

What can I say?  It's where we are right now.  Monday starts the journey for Miss A to a diaper free world. It should be... messy.  Fun.  Exciting.  Difficult.  Frustrating.  Rewarding.

I am looking forward to one less diaper to change for sure!

Potty Training - Days 2 through 6

I think that days two and three are a bit of a blur.  In a nutshell, I really wanted to quit and go back to diapers.  However, everything in me was telling me that Miss L was indeed ready to learn how to use the potty.  It was very hard to keep up the super-positive attitude when my child was yelling at me and just not happy.  However, we were seeing small victories in her staying dry overnight, during nap (except once), and generally making it to the potty about every other time.

The perk to the method that we are using is that there is a help desk where you can ask as many questions as you like and you always have access to the questions and answers in your thread.  So, you can access them if you need them for future children, etc.  We used this once.  If anything, it was just the encouragement we needed to keep going.  We needed to do something to get her to go more.  I had not done a good job in figuring this out with Miss L.  Husband, on the other hand, found a way on Day 3 and at the time we didn't really care what it entailed.  Miss L loves certain chips and will do just about anything to get them.  For each chip she had to take three sips of beverage.  It worked!  Granted, it basically ruined dinner but we didn't care at that point either.  We were starting to see small glimmers of hope as Miss L was a little less dramatic about sitting on the potty.

Day 4 I stayed home from church with the girls.  I bribed her once again with certain things that she liked to get her to drink so as to afford us more learning opportunities.  It was a hit and miss again as to if we made it to the potty.  But we were getting there.  Still she has amazing bladder control and would just hold it in forever.  In the evening I read an e-mail from a dear friend detailing how she does a trial run to see if her kiddos are ready.  I capitalized on a moment that evening to add a part in to what we were doing.  I took "Mama Moose" through the whole rigormarole and asked if she could do the same thing.  "Yes, Mama!"  Well, she took the moose through it rather than doing it herself.  Quick, think fast!  "Can you show Baby Moose how you do it?"  After talking through it all she finally did it with very little drama.   We were a bit more hopeful by the end of this day.

Day 5 was amazing!  No accidents!  We began the day again with the moose as a reminder which was fine.   I finally had to reel in my little girl and some of her tantrums and let her  know that I was the Mama and she just needed to do as I asked.  That seemed to click with her (most of the time.)  No drama sitting on the potty and she would just go once she sat down.  Since then she is quick to tell me if she needs to go and she knows that even though she may not have to go if we are heading out of the house or just waking up we need to at least try.  Surprise, surprise (not really) she generally needs to go.

Day 6 (today) was the big test as far as I was concerned as we had a standing appointment to make.  <big deep breath>  I asked her to go before we went but nothing.  Okay, no big deal.  At the end of our appointment Miss L was asked if she needed to use the potty to which she responded yes.  Okay!  Now I was wondering how this was going to fly without the potty seat we had at home.  After a bit of drama I got her on the potty facing backward, told her to just put her pee-pee in the potty and voila... she went!  I was SO.PROUD.  I almost cried in the bathroom because I was so proud of Miss L.  No.  For real.

BM's have been another story and we had our first small success this afternoon which was awesome.  She totally gets being dirty and tells us if she has the accident even if it happens at night.  But we made it to the potty this afternoon so I am hoping this leads to good things in the coming days.

All this to say is that I did and do appreciate the model we chose to use.  I like that it's pretty short term instead of unforeseeable long term stuff.  I am not sure that Miss L would have been ready at 22 months as this method claims.  However, we may give it a go with Miss A this time next year.  We'll see.  It's an intense time but it has been worth it all.  I would recommend the method to others with the caveat that something may need to be added or changed for your particular child or household.  However, I do think that it is a good method in general.

Potty Training - Day 1

It's a big week around here.  Miss L is learning to use the big girl potty!

If you didn't know there are about as many methods and philosophies on how to potty train your child as there are on parenting.  Oh my.  Thankfully, awhile back a friend of mine inquired of her Facebook friends about potty training methods.  I just watched the conversation unfold.  There was one particular method that caught my attention.  The Official 3 Day Potty Training by Lora Jensen. I read through the website and waited until we were a little more ready to take the plunge.  Then on Mother's Day this year she offered a discount on her e-book and I bought it.  It was almost half off! It was a really refreshing take on things.  Plus, I am a such a method girl that she just broke it down in "here's what you do next" type of terms.  Jensen also offers personal support once you have purchased the book for trouble shooting.  It's intense but we are hoping to be done so we can make it to church on Sunday.  But there is grace if it takes a fourth day.

So, we had one accident so far and thankfully it was on the tile.  HA!  My dad is here to help with Miss A so I can pay full attention to Miss L.  Which means I probably need to be done with this post, too.  Lunch needs to be made and liquids to be consumed!  We'll see how the next couple of days go.

Has anyone else used this method?  Or do you have a favorite method?