Potty Training

Wow, I can't believe how long it has been since I've written a blog...almost 3 months! Anyhoodles, my sweet Kylie is finally potty trained! For the most part. Over Thanksgiving holidays, I had several days off work so my goal was to buckle down and potty train her then. Well, that turned out to be a disaster. I was 110% confident that she was ready. She had been showing all the signs for months but I was just so sick from pregnancy that I had no motivation or energy to try to potty train her. Anyway, for 2 days I tried to get her to use the potty. She peed on the floor every single time she had to pee. I was so frustrated so I just put her back in diapers and vowed to try again over Christmas holidays.

So last Monday (December 31), I had to go into work that morning for a little bit so we started potty training right after we ate lunch. A friend of mine let me borrow a book about potty training that guarantees you can potty train your child in one day so I was eager to try the steps the author suggested in the book. Over Thanksgiving holidays, I had an alarm set for every 10 minutes to take Kylie to the bathroom, and I think we were both just getting overwhelmed. So this time I just took her every 30 minutes or so, and she was actually peeing in the potty! The 2nd day (January 1), she started TELLING me when she needed to go "tee-tee." On the 3rd day (January 2), I had to go back to work so she had to go to day care (her school was  still closed for Winter Break). I was so nervous because potty training was still so new to her but the girls at the day care were super helpful. That day she did have a couple accidents while at day care but she wasn't having any accidents at home, which I was super excited about. On the 4th and 5th days (January 3 and 4), she had no accidents at day care! She did have 1 accident at home on each of those days but just ONE on each day. Over the weekend (January 5 and 6), she continued to do awesome and again, she had just ONE accident on each day. Yesterday, she finally told me for the first time she needed to go #2 in the potty. And she told me again today! Before, I would see that she was getting ready to go #2, and I'd tell her to hang on, and we'd run to the bathroom. We've only had 1 poop accident since we started on December 31. I am just so excited! This time has gone so much better than I expected, and I am so proud! Today Kylie went back to school, and she did great. She didn't have a single accident all day long.

What worked for us is treats and incentives! For the first couple days, every time she'd pee or poop in the potty, she'd get to pick a treat from the treat tray. We used bite-size Rice Krispie Treats, Smarties, and Bite-Size Oreos. Then I told her if she used the potty all afternoon, she could have a surprise. Chris and I had gone to Wal-Mart the night before and picked out this box of princess tiaras, sashes, wands, lip gloss, etc. that I thought she'd totally love. At some point during the first day, I put the box on the bookshelf so she could see what she'd get, and it really helped her want to use the potty.

She is still sleeping in a pull-up. She was sleeping in a diaper but for a couple days, she didn't want to part with her diaper when she woke up so I bought a pack of pull-ups just to wear at nap time and bed time, and she associates them more with panties so she pulls them right off and goes to the potty when she wakes up. She is actually dry most days when she wakes up from nap. Some mornings she is dry after a full night of sleep but other mornings she has peed so once we get this day time potty training down for sure, I'm going to start with nap time and bed time. So hopefully soon we will have a fully potty trained girl on our hands!