So I first decided to start potty training the week after Kilee was born....boy was that a BAD choice! With a new baby taking away her attention and a hormonal mommy getting very little sleep, the combo was just plain bad. And now looking back, Allyson just wasnt ready at that point in time. She just never grasped the concept of peeing on the toilet and she was deathly scared of her poop and the "big potties". She could've cared less about rewards and I think I literally got her to pee ONCE in the potty after five days. So after a week of HELL (and crying myself to sleep at night), I gave up.
I started my second attempt a couple weeks ago. Allyson started to tell me she wanted to use the potty...so I figured it was time! I was just so freaked out about my last attempt, that I wasnt sure if I was ready! I also didnt know if I wanted to try training her before we go to Cancun (we leave next week). But, since she was so interested, I didn't want to pass it up. And I think all my work from my first attempt helped out ALOT. Because when we started out the second time, it was CAKE! (at least the peeing part) She only had a few accidents at the beginning...and then lots of times she would just barely start to wet her undies and then stop herself and say "uh oh!" and then we would run into the potty. She is also not scared of the 'big potty' anymore! she actually prefers it! haha. she has the peeing down pat now (even when we are swimming, which we all know its so much harder to hold pee when you are in water!) If we go anywhere, I just have to remember to take her before and after because otherwise she gets too distracted!
For rewards, we started out with getting one tic tac, which quickly proceeded to m&ms to rolo's! lol. And then she actually didn't care for the sweets (abnormal child, I know) so we switched to stickers which she loves! Also a funny sidenote...she cheers for herself every time after she finishes. lol. she will clap and say 'yay! i did it!' - she cheers especially loud in public restrooms since her voice echoes in most of those. makes me laugh!
I do have to write down this funny tidbit...when we first started and she realized that she would get a treat every time she went; that first day she literally went potty 10 times in a row! it was go pee (in her little potty), dump it in the big potty, run to the kitchen to get her treat, eat it, then say 'i got potty again!' and run right back to the bathroom. she would just go a little bit each time...and I was kind of stuck because I wanted her to know that she would get rewarded! haha. she is such a smart cookie! sometimes it amazes me how quickly she picks up on things...scary!
She still wets at night...so I put diapers on her right before bed. She is still in a crib so I am okay with her wearing a diaper at night for the time being. I do NOT want to wake her up in the middle of the night every night to take her!
Pooping is a different story. She only poops once every 1-2 days so we haven't had that much practice. The first couple times she pooped in her undies and I would let her see it and say "we dont poop in our underwear, we poop on the potty" and then she would help me flush it down. The next few times I would catch her in the act, run her to the potty, and then she would finish on the potty. I gave her SOOO much praise for the poop...I was elated each time! lol. Then we went to SJ and she had some pee and poop accidents. Its hard when they are out of their element and distracted. But on the way to SJ, she told us she had to go potty while she was in her carseat, so we pulled over on the top of the rim on highway 260 and she went poop in her little pink princess potty! haha. I was soooooo happy. It was such good progress but was then followed by the regression at my moms house. That whole next week at my house she was so weird about pooping. She would pee for me, no problem, but was almost embarrassed about the pooping. She would hold it in as long as physically possible (till it hurt) and then would finally go. She would do good one day and then not-so-good the next.
Then we went to Prescott for the Frontier Days celebrations and she did SO good up there! Not one pee accident and when she had to poop, she started to go in undies a little bit but then would stop herself, and she would finish on the toilet. At this point she still wasnt telling me when she had to go poop, I was just watching her like a hawk and would run her into the potty when I figured it was time.
Which brings me to where we are now...this week she has done really well. She always tells me when she needs to go pee...and she typically will have one or two drops on her undies (hardly enough to even notice). She is still kinda weird about her pooping...she will sometimes tell me she has to go potty when she needs to poop but as soon as I say "ok, lets run to the potty!" she like gets scared or something and says noooo while running away. Then I will grab her, make her sit, and she will go poop. And then other times, she is perfectly fine with it. Funny child. She will also sometimes tell me she needs to go, so I will take her and all she does is fart on the potty haha. But at least I know she is recognizing the signals!
It has been a very long process but I refused to 'go back' this time! We fly to Cancun on Monday morning for a week long vacation...so we will see how she does! Potty training is seriously one of the hardest parts of parenting thus far...I told Ben that I dont want any more kids for merely the fact that I dont want to potty train any more! haha! But I have heard that it gets easier with each kid because they watch their older siblings do it, which makes sense. Lets hope thats true!
