Potty Training

I wasn't going to make a post about this yet because I didn't want to jinx anything, but now I know that we're well into it and there's still going to be lots of ups and downs.  We are well into potty training our little Lila.  I had always hoped that she would take an interest in potty training early, but honestly had expected to be buying diapers for at least 6 more months.  Lila will be 22 months old this month and we couldn't be more proud of her.

Here's our story and how potty training worked for us.

In February of this year, I bought a book on Amazon called Stress-Free Potty Training.

I started reading the book knowing that Lila wasn't ready, but preparing myself for when the time came.  The book was pretty awesome, I think.  It had an introduction on what kind of things to look for to see when your child might be ready.  Things not to do in the process.  What I found most amazing is that they broke the book down into different personality types and once you determined your child's personality by taking a quiz that Neil and I both took without know each other's answers, you simply read that chapter (or two depending on how close the scores were) and used those methods to help potty train your child.

It was amazing.  I still knew that she really wasn't ready.  We had a potty seat which we had put out before, but she hated sitting on it.  One of the things in the book said, don't push it.  If they scream and want to get off, let them off.  Making them hate the potty will only make matters worse.  I went by that rule.  Every few weeks we would get the potty back out and see if she wanted to sit on it again.  She never wanted to.

The next step we took was "naked time".  I'm pretty sure that this was the life changing step.  Since about May she has been naked most of the time at home.  Yes, she would pee anywhere and everywhere, but that was ok.  It tells you in the book to keep them in a place where you're not worried about pee getting on the floor.  Most of our house is hard wood floors, so it really didn't matter to me.  If she did pee on the rug or the carpet in one of the bedrooms, it was just like cleaning up after the dogs when we were potty training them.  LOL

So she peed and peed...a lot.  She peed everywhere.  We started getting the hang of sitting on the potty about a month ago.  Again, I wasn't pushing anything, but if she started to pee on the floor, I picked her up and ran to the potty really quick and sat her down.  When she finished peeing in the potty, I would give her an M&M or something similar that she liked.  I eventually started picking up on cues that she needed to go.  If she was playing and running around and then suddenly stopped, I knew she was about to pee.  So we would run into the bathroom really fast.

This went on for about a month.  Then, a little over a week ago, I read this blog about potty training in one day.  I think I found the blog link on Pinterest...another reason why I love that damn site so much.  I still didn't think I could do it in a day, but decided to use many of her tips and tricks to speed up the process.  She had been showing more and more signs that she may be ready.  I would catch her outside playing or if we were swimming at my grandma's swimming, we would go pee in the yard like Elizabeth (my grandma's dog).  She would squat in the yard.  She's going to be a champion road tripper one day.  :)  Anyway, I digress.

So last week I was off work on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday so it was the perfect opportunity to make the move and see if she truly was ready.  By Friday morning we had gone pee enough times successfully on the potty, I thought, she might be ready for panties.  I called my Aunt JJ who lives across the street from me and asked her if she had any of my little cousin's panties from when she was a wee kid.  Thankfully, she did and we put on panties.  It was an experience for the first few hours.  She peed in a couple pair and then she started getting the hang of it.  We have been in panties ever since.  I am proud to say that she has only had a few accidents in the past week.  I think that reading this blog helped me out tremendously even if we didn't do it in one day.

She still hasn't gotten the hang of pooping in the potty and poops in her pants at least once a day, but we can work on that.  I am confident that she will get there in no time at all.  (Fingers crossed)

I will say one thing that I think is so very important.  When they're ready, they're ready.  It's kinda like crawling or walking.  If they aren't ready, they aren't going to do it.  It will only make things worse on you and set them back a little further.  If you read this book, watch for the signs that they are ready.  They may show some signs and not others.  All kids are ready at different times so don't be discouraged if they are not showing signs yet.  :)