Feb 23, 2015

Potty Talk

We are officially in the potty training stage! I have to admit I was eager to start McKinlee on the potty, because I wanted to give her enough time to fully adjust before baby girl comes in May. I figured 3 months would be a good amount of time and hopefully she won't regress too much when the time comes. We started prepping her for this way back in November. We bought a toilet seat for her to use on the big girl potty at first. I thought this would make it easier for her to use a big girl potty in stores and while we're out and about. She used the potty a few times (for potty AND poop!) and I thought we were making some good progress! Then we went to my sister's place in Chicago and McKinlee got to try out her cousin's little toilet and LOVED it. So we decided to pick one up when we got home. My sister has this one and I like how small it is. This one is a little bigger, but McKinlee does great on it, so we're good. (We also bought a second potty to take in the car with us. I've heard this can be helpful when we're running errands. I'll let you know when we get there.)



When she stopped progressing, we decided to take it more seriously and try the 3 Day Method. It's basically spending 3 days naked in the house with a focus on going potty. The book tells you to give them lots of fluids and take them potty every 20 minutes the first day. I tried setting a timer and after 2 times, she decided she didn't like the timer. I trusted her, so we went without. Instead I would ask her every 10 minutes or so if she needed to go potty. I knew if it was on her mind, she would be less likely to have an accident and eventually she would say yes. Sure enough it worked for us!




The book also makes it clear that these 3 days are really devoted to your child. I chose 3 days that Stafford would be around so if we needed to run an errand, one of us could stay home with McKinlee.
I started out with 12 pairs of little panties. The smallest I could find were 2T-3T, but they work just fine. I got her some My Little Pony ones because I wanted her to have something to be excited about. I've heard lots of people take their kids to choose some out, but I ran to the store the night before we planned to start and just didn't have the energy to take her along ha! I also picked up this little M&M dispenser and some candies. I thought this would be a fun way to encourage her to use the potty.


Day 1 started out great. We woke up, I let her take her time to get going and when I was ready to change her diaper, I took it off, wiped her bum and showed her the new panties. She was excited at first and put them on. We face timed daddy at school to show him how pretty they were. As soon as I asked her if she wanted breakfast, she started asking for a diaper. Luckily I hid all the diaper supplies in our room the night before. I told her we were wearing panties today and going potty in the big girl potty. She threw a little fit, but moved on. She went potty successfully 2 times that morning! I think the excitement was still there. She loved getting praised, and candy. We face timed daddy each time and she just loved that. I was concerned when she wasn't going every half hour or so, but as long as it was in the potty I was happy. As the morning went on, I was still feeling positive about the experience, which is good because I was already tired. It is pretty exhausting. I really focused on her wants. We played play-doh, colored, used stickers, etc. It was a good morning. Then came nap time and a little rejuvenation time for me. I put a diaper on her for bed and took a little nap myself. The rest of the day went pretty well with no accidents at all. That's right... NO accidents. Now when I say this I guess I should include that right before she would go in the toilet, she would get a little drop on her panties, stop and exclaim "POTTY!!" then proceed to take off her panties and run to the toilet. I considered this a win, because I knew eventually she would be able to tell she needed to go before her panties got a little drop on them. We went through lots of panties because of the little potty she got on them and sometimes she just wanted to change into the next pony panties. Not a battle to fight at all in my book.



Day 2 was a little harder because it was Saturday. From the book and from others I heard day 2 would be a little depressing at first because it's much like day 1 in the morning, but it gets better. I kept a positive attitude going into it. We had the same morning routine, except daddy was home. I should've known better because McKinlee tends to be a little whinier when daddy's home and she thinks she can get away with more things. I blame it on the fact that daddy can't say "no more candy" to that cute face... I mean... Can you blame him? So she struggled a bit in the morning. She had 2 accidents that day. I think it was harder on her to have Stafford home because it's different than our norm. Usually he's gone all morning until dinner time (except for the weekends). Overall I think it worked out fine because a weekend was bound to happen eventually and I'd rather her get used to going potty with mommy OR daddy sooner than later. The day got better after nap time. Since we had been cooped up for a week because of bad weather, we decided to get her out of the house to let her get some fresh air. We went to a park to play on the playground and touch the snow. For this we put panties on first and then a diaper. I knew she would go in her panties, but the book suggests this so she can feel the wet instead of just letting a diaper absorb it. I was a little bummed to take her out, but I knew she needed a break from the house. After our little outing, she had no more accidents that night, and she even went poop in the potty (she's done this a few times, but it was still exciting)!

Day 3 was awesome. We put panties on right away. No accidents at home. It was Sunday, though, so we went to church. I was torn. I thought about having Stafford and I take turns staying home with her through church, but we decided to just do the diaper thing and go for all 3 hours. She was wet when we got home, so we put on a fresh diaper and put her down for nap. The rest of the day went great with no accidents. I was one proud momma! This gave me courage for the week ahead of me with no Stafford.


The 3 Day Method is awesome and I definitely suggest trying it. We saw that McKinlee was ready and we wanted to take advantage of it while we could. I will admit that the whole first week was exhausting. We really avoided taking her out after the first weekend. I wanted to give her the best chance to be completely potty trained. The next Sunday was the first time we took her out without a diaper. I was SO nervous, but Stafford took her to try once during the first hour and she totally went in the big potty at church! I was surprised. She'd never gone anywhere but home. I was still nervous to take her out by myself for a while, but we did attempt a few trips later that week and she was able to stay dry the whole time! While we're out and about, we always just make sure to ask a lot and she will tell us for the most part. Sometimes we just have to take her to try and she'll either refuse to sit or she'll go for it. We can confidently leave her in nursery now and they'll bring her to us when she says she needs to go. I am so proud of her! We still give her m&m's when she remembers to ask for them after going. Hopefully that will taper off more and more as time goes on.

Whew! So yes, this was a long post, but I know when I was gearing up for potty training, I LOVED reading other's experiences and what they did. This blog post in particular really helped me gain some courage. Good luck to all you other mamas out there getting ready for this exciting mile stone. It CAN be done! haha

2 comments:

  1. Woo hoo!! This is so great to hear! I'm gearing up to potty train Mia and I think we are going to have to go with the 3 day method! I'm super nervous but Mia is showing signs that she's ready so wish me luck when I get enough courage to start potty training! Ha!!

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  2. I have to admit potty training my children has been my least favorite part of mothering, thankfully once they were trained, their trained. I am dreading training my son though. Its a whole new territory for me with a boy.

    Congrats on having a potty trained kid! Its so nice not buying diapers for two. :)

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