Potty Training Adventures

Our pediatrician wanted us to start having Ainsley try the potty at 18 months.  We obliged by having her sit on the potty as we ran her bathwater on bath nights.  She was nearly always successful in peeing on the potty, even in the beginning.  After a month, she might even poop on the potty while waiting for Mama to get the bubbles ready in her tub.  We always used her little chamber pot because she was afraid to fall in the big potty.  Major big potty fear out of that girl.  

This continued until she turned two years old in November.  At that point, we bought underpants and Pull-ups.  We were completely unsure as to how to proceed.  We decided to try an hour every morning in underpants.  She'd have an accident in about three minutes, and Daddy would decided that this was ridiculous and put her back in a diaper.  He's a man of great love, but little patience.  

As we were at work during the day, morning underpants time fell to the babysitters.  From the sounds of it, they too weren't big fans of cleaning up pools of urine or underpants filled with poop.  Who would have thunk?  Is it only the MOTHER who doesn't seem to care about cleaning this up?  

At Christmas time, we could have tried potty training more intensely, but we had two problems:  

1)  Mama was getting so pregnant that she just wanted to sit.  Just think about it.  The pee usually pools on the floor.  The floor is not where you want to be when you can't bend over.  Daddy could have cleaned it all up, but refer back to the previous post about patience.  He's all about cleaning up ONE pool of pee.  The second?  Not so much.

2)  We didn't really know HOW to potty train a child.  I kept asking friends of mine who had successfully potty trained their children.  How did you do it?  They would reply with some vague answer about their child being "ready" and it just "happened".  Um, could you be a tad more specific?  One told me that their daycare did it for them.  Sheesh.  

Being a woman of education who works in education, this is not the way I wanted to proceed.  I began to research the topic online.  I read bit and pieces about some method called "Potty Training Bootcamp".  If I wanted to buy the book, I could read about the actual method.  I'm a bit cheap, so I just read the comments under the book's page on websites that review books.  It sounded like I needed to just put the child in underpants and pray she would start understanding sometime soon.  Sounded a bit fishy.  Sounded like something to do when you aren't pregnant.  Potty training went on hold until after the baby.  

Fast forward to March 2011.  The baby is here.  He cries bloody murder nearly every moment of the day.  I'm recovering from a c-section.  THIS was the time I felt would be perfect for potty-training.  I'm officially the stupidest parent alive, but I proceed.  I'm DONE changing adult-sized poopy diapers.  

Day One:  I cover the furniture in all the water-proof sheets I can find.  Ainsley is put in underpants immediately upon waking up.  I explain that she needs to tell Mama when she has to go to the bathroom.  She has no idea what I'm talking about.  She pees her pants nearly 40 times that day.  We sit on the potty every 30 minutes [a little chamber pot in the living room, in front of the television], but she seems to be holding it for when she has her underpants back on.  We have only one poop.  It was in her pants.  And by pants, I mean underpants.  I decided there would be no pants until we've mastered this skill.  Day one is not entirely successful.  We only have 20 pairs of underpants.  I have to do loads of just underpants-filled laundry to get us through the day.  She is, however, beginning to understand that peeing your pants means that Tinker Bell must be paused in order to clean up.  This annoys her.  It makes Mama happy.  We used Pull-Ups for nap and nighttime sleeping.  NO MORE DIAPERS EVER!  I am determined to persevere.  

She wasn't allowed to wear pants in the house for nearly a month
because of the inordinate amount of laundry involved in potty-training.    

Company would come and wonder, "Why is this child not wearing pants?"

At some point, Mama got sick of covering the furniture with water-proof sheets.

Durham didn't wear pants either.  To be honest,
Mama probably wasn't wearing pants as she took this picture.
Solidarity.  

Day Two:  We repeat the process from the day before.  We have slightly fewer accidents.  She appears to be putting a little more in the potty, but is becoming seriously annoyed at the frequency of the potty trips.  Mama beings the "Chocolate in exchange for pooping on the potty" idea that continues to this day.  [What will her preschool teacher think when Ainsley demands chocolate for having pooped on her potty?]  My little chocoholic obliges nearly immediately.  It's like she thought "Chocolate for pooping on the potty?  You should have told me earlier about this.  I shall poop on the potty immediately."  By the end of the day, she begins to literally HOLD HERSELF when I tell her to hold the pee-pees in.  She holds herself as she pees all over the floor.  What am I doing?  This is ridiculous.  Who gave me a license to parent?  It should be revoked.  

Day Three:  This is a day of miracles.  She begins to exhibit "THE LOOK" right before she has to pee.  This gives me just enough time to tell her to "Hold the pee-pees in!  Run to the potty!"  She literally holds herself and saunters in a wide-leg stance over to her chamber pot.  We have success after success!  Our only problem now is that she has a bladder the size of a grape.  She pees every 15 minutes.  If she has the inkling, she puts a squirt into the potty.  This means that Mama has to empty that chamber pot into the actual toilet way too many times a day.  This is seriously more difficult than diapers.  She stays dry most of the day.  We have more poopy success and chocolate treats.  

Day Four:  It's like she was always potty-trained.  She's giving "THE LOOK" and a little dance when she has to go.  She grabs herself and dances to the pot.  She takes her underpants completely off every time she goes to the bathroom.  By "bathroom", I mean living room.  We constantly have to check the pot for pee or poop and empty it, because she will not put pee-pees on top of old pee-pees.  She refuses to use the toilet in the bathroom.  She doesn't like it even when we put the potty seat on it. We go through a period in which she would bend over to see if she could actually watch the pee come out.  She was completely amazed by her own body.  She would look up as if to say, "who knew I could let liquid out of that area on command?!"  We have a few things to work on, but I don't want to overwhelm her.    

Days Five - Month Six:  We've been working on correct bathroom etiquette.  Here are some rules, in case you are wondering.

1)  Don't sit too long on the potty.  It hurts your butt.

2)  Just keep your legs on the floor.  You might fall if you try to put them on the toilet seat along with your butt.  

3)  You might fall if you try to watch yourself peeing by bending forward to look.  

4)  Don't take your underwear completely off every time you pee.  

5)  Some poopies look different from others.  All pee looks the same.  Regardless, we can only talk about this with Mama and Daddy.  

6)  Stores and restaurants have bathrooms, too!  Who knew?  But we can't look under the stalls to talk to our neighbors.  

7)     Wiping by yourself is ADVANCED potty-training and takes years of practice.

8)  The toilet will break if you put too much toilet paper in.

9)  We only need a little bit of toilet paper.    

We are just getting to the point where Ainsley can go into our home bathroom by herself.   We've graduated from the pot to the potty seat to the actual toilet by the end of summer.  We've learned that potty training is more about parent-training.  It is much more difficult that just keeping your child in diapers, because it takes months for full underpants understanding and confidence on the child's part.  We've dropped the ball a few times by not forcing her to go to the potty before we leave on a car trip, but we're much better now.  

Whew.  It was an adventure that continues.  This week, we finally stopped wearing Pull-Ups at night.  We have a fully potty-trained child.  We have the occasional "I was too busy playing to use the potty" type accident, but she's doing excellent!