Potty Training

On Friday afternoon, if you saw us in Target you knew exactly what we had planned for the weekend. Our cart was overflowing with Pull-ups, Kandoo wipes, a potty topper and treats. The following is an email I wrote to Jess to brief her on how our weekend went before she starts back to daycare tomorrow. I'm lazy, so I thought I'd post part of it instead of writing a brand new post , so I can remember the torture and triumph that potty training brings, when I'm old and can laugh about it:

....Our potty training efforts were definitely slow going this weekend. Sat and Sunday she made a lot of messes in her undies and on the carpet. It was so hot, we didn’t really spend much time outside. About half of the time she would comply with our requests to use the toilet and the other half of the time she wasn’t interested and would resist. Also until yesterday, she hadn’t gone on her own when putting her on the potty and would then often go a few minutes later after she was back in undies, or if she was in a pull-up for nap or a car ride. A couple times she finished pooping when we caught her trying to go in her pants, though.

We used the timer (30-45 min.), but she didn’t care about that much, so it just served as reminder for us.

We would give her a choc covered raisin for trying and then marshmallows were reserved for pee and a Reese’s pieces candy for poop. She really wanted marshmallows, but wasn’t enticed to try going for them.

However yesterday was MUCH better and we noticed some progress. All morning and afternoon she didn’t make a mess once and was able to hold it between potty tries. She was more willing to try going, and FINALLY was able to go pee. I had been a little worried she didn’t know how to make herself go. We could tell when she was trying to go poop, but I just didn’t know if she knew how to pee on command.

She seemed to be pleased with herself and excited for her long awaited marshmallows! Around 3 we headed over to Keri’s for a BBQ, and after that she had periods of time when she was wearing just undies, undies with a pull-up or nothing at all. She had a few messes on the patio, but toward the end of the night she had called out to me twice (kinda in a panic) to tell me had to pee and then to poop. So that was exciting. She had never called to us before when she had to go. One time when I picked her up to take her inside she even said, “Hurry Mom, hurry.” The last time she called out to me, she had to poop and she didn’t have anything on, so I think that helped with the urgency. Up until that point it hadn’t really seemed to bother her if she went in her undies, like she still felt she had a safety net, but with a bare booty, she was like uh-oh!!! It also hadn’t seemed to phase her before if she went in her pull-up even with undies on underneath. I’m wondering if that will start to change now that she’s more aware.

We got home late last night, so she was still in her pull-up, asleep when we dropped her off at Keri’s this am. When we dropped her off, Keri laid her back down, since her kids were still asleep too. I’ll forward you any updates that Keri’s sends me today.

So basically, the routine is:

On potty to try before and after nap/night-time. The daytime pull-ups seem to work fine so far at nap.

Request her to use potty every 30-45 minutes. Or 15-20 min after last unsuccessful potty try.

Choc covered raisin for trying.

Marshmallow for pee, Reeses for poop. Although she may prefer marshmallows for both which is fine.

Just undies under clothes as much as possible, we did try taking her to the park in just undies and she didn’t have an accident, but that was due primarily to luck....

The great news is that she actually did really awesome at Keri's and didn't mess her pants once! Way to go Pooper McScoopertons!