Ok, so this post is a long time in the making, and it may not help anyone, but whatever, I figured I would write it any way.
Prior to the actual potty training, I:
- stocked up on M&Ms
- Got a bunch of cheapo potty prizes for Rory to pick from when she went potty
- Got lots of cute toddler panties
- I also put an old shower curtain liner over the couch with a quilt over it
- Made sure that we had lots of clean towels
- The froggy potty was in the middle of the living room in the middle of a few layers of beach towel
- Had a lot of high water content snacks and of course her regular 50/50 water/juice
(ignore my streaky mirror, this was taken the night before potty training bootcamp, the flash makes it look really bad!)
We talked up potty training all week. Every time I would change her diaper, I would make a big deal about there only being a few diapers left. On Thursday and Friday we counted down until her diapers were going to be all gone. I told her (a lot) what a big girl she is and how little babies wear diapers, but now she is a big girl so she was going to get to wear big girl panties beginning Saturday.
We also bought a new toilet seat for the hall bathroom. We were going to buy one anyway, but I found (at Home Depot) a toilet seat that has a toddler sized seat that flips down and stores in the lid. It is awesome by the way!
DAY 1
Saturday Rory got up and we took her diaper off and put her in big girl undies. I told her that when she needed to go potty, to tell me. Then I gave her orange juice instead of milk for breakfast. For the rest of the morning, I sat her on the Froggy Potty about every 15 minutes and had her sit there until she asked to get up. When she got up, I would reset the kitchen timer for 15 minutes. This seems extreme I know, but I had to get her to go once on there so that we could make a big deal of it and she could get the 1st prize. We had a lot of "HOLD IT! RUN RUN RUN..." moments, but finally, she peed. I made a big deal of it, let her choose which M&M she wanted and pick out a prize. (Of course I took a pic...that's right, I took a pic of her sitting next to a potty with pee in it)
After she went the first time, it seemed to register with her that she needed to go in the potty. She did really well the rest of the day, we did have accidents, but she was trying, which was all that counts.
DAY 2
I had prepared myself for regression on Day 2. It didn't prepare me though. The morning of Day 2 was horrible. You would have thought that it was the 1st and she had never heard of a potty. This lasted for about a couple of hours or so and then she picked it up.
The rest of the day went pretty well. She had some accidents, but nothing major and she decided that she didn't like the Froggy Potty and would rather use the big potty. Fine with me! I hated cleaning it out anyway! We kept it in the living room anyway, just in case she wanted to use it, or she was near it and couldn't hold it to get to the big potty. For the most part though, she went to the hall bathroom.
DAY 3
Day 3 was pretty good. We even took a little trip to Target in big girl panties. I figured that it was some place that R was comfortable, they have tile floors and we know where the bathrooms are. I stressed the fact that if she went in her undies that we would have to come home, so she needed to let me know if she needed to go. She did and we hurried to the bathroom and she went. She was so glad to finally get out of the house, I think that me saying that if she went in her pants we would have to go home, was a bit of motivation. We kept the trip short, and she got to pick a prize for not going at Target, so that was good too.
She does have a bit of fear in public restrooms on the giant seats with the open fronts. I remedy that by me sitting on the potty, all the way towards the back (I am fully clothed, sounds gross...whatever) and she sits between my legs at the front. Sounds gross, but it works and she doesn't feel like she is going to fall in since she can hold on to my legs and her back is against me. For a week or 2 if we went some where, I put the Froggy Potty in the car and we did have to use it once or twice, but now just reminding her not to go in her pants and to tell me so that we don't have to go home has worked.
I did put her in a pull up at bedtime, some theories say not to put them in a pull up at all, but I did and still continue to. She doesn't have night time control yet, and I don't stress over that. Night time control will come with time. Poop was a bit more challenging and we still struggle a bit with it.
That is it...if there is something that I have forgotten, let me know and I will fill you in.
