It's Potty Time!

*Warning:  This posts contains words like pee-pee, poo-poo, underwear, and potty.  Proceed with caution.*


This past Saturday kicked off an important undertaking in our household:  the beginning of the end of diapers.  That's right, we decided to start potty training our two year old.  I'd read several articles/e-books, researched some methods, and talked to her pediatrician and our friends trying to glean every bit of good advice I could.  While we had occasionally mentioned it here and there, we'd never explained it much to Audrey nor had she ever even sat on a potty before.  We began talking it up on Wednesday and read her a couple of books I bought on the subject.  On Friday, she and I took a special girls' trip to the mall to pick out some big girl underwear.  We told everyone who would listen - friends, family, and complete strangers alike - that starting on Saturday, Audrey was going to get to use the potty!  I let her come home and watch her new Elmo's potty time DVD.  She was excited, we were half excited, half dreading it.  But what choice do you have?  It's gotta happen sometime.  I'm not going to let my kid be the one that smells like pee-pee in first grade because they haven't gotten it down yet.  Or maybe that'll be just the motivation she needs.  Who knows.


SO, bright and early Saturday morning I woke up and drove to get David and me some good breakfast from our favorite local spot.  I figured we'd need the carbs and the treat for ourselves.  After we ate, we went in her room to get her up.  We explained that today was her big day and described all the cool stuff that was going to come along with it.  She ate breakfast and then we went upstairs to show her the "Potty Party" decorations we'd put up in her bathroom.  We let her open a present: a drink and wet doll named Annie.  We showed her how it worked and then immediately started clapping and making a big deal when Annie went pee-pee on her potty.  No doubt Audrey thought we were nuts, but she quietly took it all in.  We asked if she wanted to try to go potty on her new potty seat.  She said she did, so we took off her diaper and sat her down.  Almost immediately, she went pee-pee and we clapped and cheered like crazy, which embarrassed her nearly to the point of tears.  We settled down, went over the wiping, flushing, and hand washing routine and let her put a sticker on her sticker rewards chart.  Then we let her choose and put on a pair of her big girl underwear.  We'd read a lot about the bare bottom method, but decided we'd start off trying underwear, especially since we were expecting some company that weekend.  I thought maybe the incentive of keeping her new britches dry would help.  


We settled in for some serious play time.  Part of this method is that you stay home for three days and are basically glued to your child so you can catch them in the middle of accidents and whisk them to the potty.  Another thing I'd read that we were trying was to get her to tell us when she needed to go instead of taking her on a set schedule.  You're supposed to say, "Tell us when you need to go potty, okay?" one hundred times a day for the first three days.  (Talk about being a nag.)  The idea behind it is that the child likes to be in control, and that way it puts the responsibility on them to let you know.  Of course, this makes for a lot of accidents at first (18-20 that first day, in fact), but as they learn to hold it, it gets much better.  When she did have an accident, we'd say "Yuck, your underwear is wet now.  You have to tell us before you go pee-pee in your underwear, honey" or "Pee-pee belongs in the potty, Audrey" or something to that effect.  Never did we scold or shame her and we didn't have her help us clean up, mainly because there were only three to four times I can recall that the floor even got wet.


We also liked giving her "Pop Quizzes" and asking her if she was dry so we could use the opportunity to praise her and to make her aware.  We called a few family members to brag to them about her achievements, though she didn't seem as into that as I thought she'd be.  And, of course, there was the sticker rewards chart.  Truthfully, though, she grew tired of that by the end of day one and we moved on to letting her choose one M&M every time she went.  It worked wonders.  Like me, she's motivated by chocolate.  


At first she'd go a little, hold it in and tell us, and then have trouble letting it go when we got her to the potty.  Running the faucet and reading a book usually helped distract her enough until she relaxed again.  She even pooped in the potty on day one with no problem because I think she was so wrapped up in the book we were reading.  


By day two, she was down to 8-10 accidents and on day three, only 4-5.  Of course, I was taking her a little more without her saying she needed to on day three, but I was proud of her for how well she could hold it!  If it had been awhile and I knew she just didn't want to stop what she was doing, I'd explain we needed a quick break and off we'd go.  I'm not sure how that's going to work down the road when she's in the care of someone else, but it's working for us now.  I'd call going from 20 to 10 to 5 accidents definite success.  If I have to remind her to tell me/ask her five times an hour and then make her go try occasionally, then I'm good with that for now.    


On day four, we even ventured out to the library and the grocery store, meaning we had to deal with public restrooms for the first time.  She had one damp accident at the library because she started before she told me she needed to go (almost always the case at this point), but she did a great job in both public potties and we were SO excited to be out of the house.


So, we're not home free yet, but we're getting there.  We still keep her in diapers and naps and night, despite what one author recommended.  Granted, her one suggestion if your kid always wakes up with a wet diaper was to go wake her and take her an hour after she went to bed and then wake her up an hour earlier in the morning to take her.  Um, no thanks.  Clearly that lady does not value sleep as much as I do.  Until we put Audrey in her toddler bed (the next big task?!), we're keeping her in diapers.  I have no doubt that she's smart enough to understand my explanation of diapers being for sleep time and underwear being for awake time.


We're so proud of big girl and how quickly she's picking this up.  It's a hard thing to learn, no doubt and she's been amazing.  Of course, we're also a little proud of ourselves for keeping our sanity.  I won't lie, it's been a long, tough three days of being stuck indoors and on constant vigil.  I started annoying myself with how much talk and questions about potty there was coming out of my mouth.  I have given new meaning to the term potty mouth!  Ha!


I sent David a message today that read: I'm on day three of being stuck in the house potty training our daughter and I'm feeling a little abandoned today.  I know, I know.  You had to go to work so we can pay the bills, eat, and afford other such frivolities.  All I ask is that you not judge me for the amount of chocolate I've consumed today, which may or may not have included some of her reward M&Ms. HURRY. HOME.  


His reply:  I think a thorough quality control sampling of the reward M&Ms is very responsible parenting.


At least one person in this house is trained well. ;)  


After we cross the potty training finish line, I think we'll use some of the money we're saving from diapers and have a serious date night out.  What do you want to bet it takes me half the evening before I quit telling David to let me know when he needs to go?!