Potty Training: Day 3

This is my last post from last week. We are currently 9 days in to potty training and Promise is doing GREAT! I'll try to write a follow up post soon.


Jonathon asked me last night "Will this all be over after tomorrow?" I told him about the "3 day program" (which I fully expect to take 3+ weeks) and that somehow stuck with him. I guess he was thinking that after today she would just be an expert potty-goer and accidents would be a thing of the past? Who knows. He doesn't like her running around naked. He is also really freaked out by accidents. I honestly didn't know if he would recover from the poop incident yesterday!


We are nowhere near "done" on day 3. But we had some significant successes. I decided this morning not to remind her as often. I think I was putting too much pressure on her and limiting her playtime too much. So, I ask her if she wants to come with me when I go (which, let's face it, is still about 638 times a day!), but otherwise only push at major transition times. So, before Independent Play I pushed her a little, and she went. I put her in a diaper because I felt like she really needed her alone time today - especially since we have church tonight. After Independent Play we went to the park, and I told her we would leave after she went pee-pee. It took her about 20 minutes to go.

THEN we left for the park in UNDIES! That's right folks, no diaper on my big girl. We took the potty and a liner thing for the carseat. When we got there I asked her to sit on the potty in the van and she did, but no pee. We played for about 20 minutes and I took her back to the van to try again. She was resistant because sliding is WAY more fun than sitting on the potty! So I made a deal with her - go pee-pee and we can play some more, don't pee-pee and we go home. Go pee or go home. I drive a hard bargain. And my 18 month old totally understands these bargains. So she sat down, read a book, and went pee-pee! Then we played about 10 more minutes and came home for lunch.

Have I told you that when she feels the pee start to come out she holds up both hands and says "yay!" Yep, she's the cutest thing in the whole world! Seriously.

When we got home I had to go and she wanted to come with me, but only to wash her hands. I told her she can only wash her hands if she pees on the potty. So she did. A little little bit. I let her wash her hands and then went to fix lunch. She had 2 accidents in the 10 minutes it took me to make sandwiches and cut up fruit. I think she got so excited about washing her hands that she didn't finish. That is happening too frequently. Not sure how to combat that. Once she came and told me "poop". Ugh. But it was only pee - maybe we need to spend time on the terminology?

Oh well, we had 4 successes and 3 accidents this morning. Not too bad with so little reminding. Diaper for naptime and Mommy needed a break! This cold is not clearing up and I feel somewhat miserable. She slept about 2 hours 15 minutes and just hung out very quietly for 45 more minutes. She's been really tired even though she's sleeping such long nights so I think the quiet time was good for her.

This afternoon was amazing. She wore her undies most of the afternoon and was so proud of them she didn't want to get pee-pee on them. No accidents... until I went to fix dinner. She was playing on her little fold out couch thing (do you know what I'm talking about? With the sleeping bag inside?) and then came to the kitchen all upset to tell me she pooped. She didn't... she peed. So we stripped down and I left her naked.... and she peed in the highchair during dinner. Oh well, very successful evening overall.

We left for church about 10 minutes after she had peed in the potty and before we were 5 minutes away she was insisting she needed to poop. I could smell it! so I thought maybe she did need to. She didn't. We pulled over and sat on the potty, but she just wanted to crawl around the van. Once we got to church she sat on the potty and peed! Yay! Then I took her to nursery... in her undies (sorry nursery workers! I owe you!!) and a diaper cover with no insert. I think the cover was confusing for her. I might try to find some of those waterproof covers that go on like undies instead of like diapers. She had an accident while they were playing outside and they changed her. I got paged to come pick her up around 8:10 (dropped her off at 7) but because she was pinching people rather than the potty thing. I tried to get her to go at that point, but she was SO TIRED and started crying. She did have another accident before we actually left church. Sigh. But when we got home she went on the potty before bed.

I didn't keep a count this afternoon, but I call it a great success. Its getting better. She's holding it longer in between. And she likes her undies! Tomorrow is family day which means Daddy will be here all day. It will be interesting to see how that goes. I plan to stay home and keep things low key. We might make a quick run to Target for more undies in the morning. We're getting there. It's a long road.