Saturday, February 16, 2013

And it begins...

The potty training adventure.  I have heard stories from multiple moms, read the best "techniques," but I still don't think it has prepared me.  Probably because every kid is different.  There isn't one size fits all in the potty training department (although that sounds so much easier to me).  I don't really feel like we've really jumped into full-time potty training, we're just dabbling in it.

It all started with a pair of panties...princess panties to be specific.  My mom sent E princess panties in her Valentine's package, and the girl loves princesses so she insisted on wearing them.  So I figured how could I keep her from peeing in the potty if she wanted to, so what the heck, let's see what happens.  What happened the first day was lots of accidents...which meant lots of pee on the floor (thankfully no poop).  I made the mistake of promising an m&m if she went in the potty which promptly led to a complete meltdown because she couldn't have m&ms immediately.  By noon, I think she was feeling frustrated, and she said, "I need to wear my diaper mommy."  Sounds good.

Day two, she woke up wanting to wear panties and peed and pooped in the potty multiple times.  Success!  I admit I had fleeting thoughts of being able to tell people my daughter didn't have any accidents her second day to wear underwear.  Those thoughts were fleeting indeed because she did in fact have accidents, and by noon she wanted her diaper again.

Since then, it's been hit or miss.  Sometimes she wants to wear panties, sometimes she doesn't.  And the thing about Miss E is she doesn't do anything half-heartedly.  If she has her mind made up she wants to wear a diaper, by golly she is going to wear a diaper and visa versa.  This really hampers our schedule.  She usually wants to wear her panties when we're about to run errands, etc and Lord knows she's not ready to be in public in her big girl panties.  I have found that she pees in clusters.  She'll go a little bit every 5 or 10 minutes which makes me wonder if she just doesn't know how to fully empty her bladder.  Also, she decided she no longer wanted to use her little potty (which was actually kind of disgusting to me), so she now pulls herself onto the big toilet, all by herself.  It's a wonder she can pee with her legs straddling the toilet.  Looks incredibly uncomfortable.  But at least I don't have to clean the little potty.

So I really have no idea what is going to happen.  I assume eventually she will learn to go pee pee in the toilet consistently, but I'm not really sure what her time line will be.  I don't know if we should designate a weekend devoted to potty training but my fear is if she is not in the mood, I think it would be more frustrating than productive.  Or should we let her govern the steps?  The thing potty training has made me realize is I'm not that patient.  It can be exhausting sitting by her, thinking she needs to go, her getting so frustrated, only to have nothing happen.  We're both learning through this process...

1 comment:

  1. I sometimes wonder if I need to work more with Callie and the potty training thing but I just keep going back to what my pediatrician suggested which was each child has a "date" in their internal "day planner" that they will potty train. He told us don't stress about it, don't force it, and she will tell you when she doesn't want to wear diapers anymore.
    Sounds totally crazy and I feel like I'm "behind" because I haven't even considered trying to "train" Callie but my cousin who uses the same pediatrician says that was how it was for her daughter. One day she said she was done with diapers and said she had no more than 5 accidents after the switch.
    I know it'll be nice once Callie is potty trained but I really enjoy diapers and the convenience they provide so I don't mind riding the diaper train a little while longer.

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