Potty Training

I had a few weeks off for Christmas Break, so I figured it would be the perfect time to potty train Baby.  We had tried halfheartedly in the past, but I wasn't super proactive, Baby had two many accidents when I did put her in panties, and it was hard to follow through when she was going back and forth to daycare.  Thus, I decided one of my goals over the break was to potty train Baby.

We had relatives here for Christmas, so I soon realized trying anything wasn't going to work.  I had let Baby pick out cute Princess Panties, and she had been getting a tiny M&M for using the potty, but with all the excitement and traveling places, I wasn't able to really buckle down on her until after the family left.

Hard core potty training began December 28, 2012.

I put Baby in panties and made her sit on the potty every hour.  She had her own little potty that was just her size, complete with a lid just like Mommy and Daddy's potty.  She got an M&M every time she peed.  The first day was pretty good.  She had one accident.  The second day was great.  No accidents, and we were pretty proud.

We did go out in public after that, and she was always very excited to use the public restrooms.  Although I have a love/hate relationship with automatic flushing toilets.  They are very scary to a two year old.  Loud and unpredictable, you never know what movement will set them off.  Once they flush, the two year old is out of there.

Baby also loved washing her hands in the public restrooms.  It is always especially exciting when there is a stool that she can stand on, or a sink that is lower to the ground that she can reach all by herself.

We never had any accidents out in public.  She would tell us she had to go potty, and we would run her through the store and into the bathroom as fast as we could.  I also put a town on her carseat, just in case.  I did not want to clean pee off of anything.  Yuck.

I read that kids have an easier time peeing in the potty and it takes some time before they tackle the business of number two in there.  Not my child.  We've always been a little backwards.  She had mastered number two a while ago.  She's always had a hard time going, so in order to "help" her we had been putting her on the potty and giving her books to read while she did her business. 

Eventually we phased out the M&Ms and switched to Princess Fruit Snacks.  If she went all day without any accidents, then she got a Princess Fruit Snack at the end of the day.  That went very well.  My child works well with bribes.

I soon discovered that I was the one who was more on top of things than she was.  I would be the one to tell her when to go potty.  She wasn't telling me when she had to go.  I was fine with that, and it eventually switched to where she rebelled when I told her to go potty.  She would tell me she didn't have to.  Sometimes I made her, sometimes I didn't, depending on what we were doing.

Going back to daycare, I was pretty worried.  She had done great for the couple of weeks I was home, but I wasn't sure how she would react to the change of schedule.  She did pee once on the carpet at daycare, but I think that was because she didn't want to stop what she was doing.  After that, I don't think there were any more accidents.

Our next issue was time outs.  She discovered that if she got time out, she could get more attention if she peed on herself at that time.  Yuck.

Thankfully she outgrew that phase (she didn't like feeling wet), and now she just ends up going in time out, telling us she has to go potty, going potty, then back to time out.

I put her in pull ups at night because I really don't want to clean up any accidents in the bed, but she wakes up dry and uses the potty in the mornings, so I don't think it's too big of a deal.

I do know in the beginning we were stressing her out.  She would wake in the middle of the night thinking she had peed in her panties and freak out (when really she was half asleep and had a diaper on), but she's outgrown that.

Altogether, I'm pretty proud of her.  I was thinking that we were getting too old for diapers when I would hear of other two year olds who were fully potty trained, but I think our timing turned out to be just right.