Potty Training

The morning we started potty training started out with some daddy snuggles

 Warning, this post is graphic. Lots of use of the "pee" and "poop" with some descriptions. Don't read while eating or if you have an aversion to the realities of potty training.

A quick reflection on potty training... At her 18 month appointment, the pediatrician agreed that Macey could probably begin potty training since her vocabulary was pretty advanced. My mom also agreed so I had been shooting for a fully potty trained child by the end of 2011. In October/November, we set out the toddler potty and offered Macey a seat before bath time each night. The successes were so small and the peeing in the bath continued so we decided to let the potty just sit for a few more weeks. At the beginning of January, we were all healthy again, after our miserable infections in December, so we decided to try Potty Training, BootCamp style. We didn't leave the house for almost four days and tried to potty every 30 minutes. I'm so tired of sitting on our bathroom floor...

On Monday afternoon, January 2nd, I bought Macey 10 pair of big girl panties and some M&M's. Tuesday morning, after running to the grocery store, we exchanged her diaper for her new big girl panties and began our long waits on the potty. I encouraged her to "keep Dora dry" so often that when she laid down for her nap, I could hear her repeating "keep Dora dry, keep Macey dry, keep Mommy dry..." We were two for two the first day, with two times in the potty and two accidents. She was still excited to wear her Dora big girl panties and I felt good that we could do this.

Wednesday morning I ran in her room and got her out of bed as soon as I heard her wake up. She successfully peed in the potty and I was on top of the world that she already understood how this worked.We continued our schedule of sitting on the potty every thirty minutes for at least ten minutes; reading books, singing or just talking to pass the time. By lunch, she had yet to pee in the potty again since 8:30 that morning. I was getting anxious that as soon as I took her off, she would need to go since I had been pumping her with liquids. After lunch, around noon, I set her on the potty and ran to get myself some more water. I was gone a maximum of two minutes and when I returned, she was crouching on the floor by the sink with pee all around her and poop on the floor. I deflated so quickly and tried to hide my impatience. We had spent three and a half hours getting on and off the potty, up and down off the floor, just to end in this. I quickly put her on the potty where she was able to put a little more poop and pee. While she is sitting on the potty, she looks over at her poop on the floor and says, "mommy! look at that beautiful pine cone!" She was incredulous that a pine cone had suddenly appeared on our bathroom floor. And when she looked in the potty a minute later, she added "look at that stick in my potty!" Her surprise reminded me that this was all new for her. She had no idea that what she was seeing on the floor or in the potty was her poop. She could only relate it to things that she had seen. I laughed and held her and told her how proud I was of her for pooping in the potty. After her nap that day, she successfully peed in the potty around 2:30p, followed by two accidents at 5:30 and 6:30 and one last success of the day before bath time. 

The first evening accident on Wednesday. Talking to Jimmy on his way home, I grab my camera to capture her smiles and I capture her with pee running down her leg...

After the second accident, I went to the store to get toddler wipes and called my mom for some encouragement. I was feeling defeated with so many accidents on our second day and thought maybe Macey was just too young to start training. She really hadn't shown any signs that she was ready and only twice had told me when she was pooping in her diaper. Maybe I was pushing her too soon? My mom quickly encouraged me to keep trying and reminded me that Macey was a very very quick learner. She would get it but it would take longer than two days. I got myself a bag of M&M's at the store with her toddler wipes and we got back to bootcamp on Thursday.

I don't think we had any accidents on Thursday or Friday. I felt good that I could better guage when she needed to sit and try and Macey was doing better at feeling the pee sensation. When she would start to pee she would say, " I hear my pee pee" or "I can feel my pee coming." My favorite comment came while she was hugging me while she pooped and as soon she heard it hit the toliet she said, "I'm so proud of you." I didn't realize I had been saying it so much but I'm so thankful that was what she was hearing, and hope she had long forgotten my frustrations from the days before.

Friday night was our first test. We had stayed in all week while training and Friday night we met some friends for dinner. David and Amy have a two and a half year old who is also pretty much potty trained. I took Macey to potty four times at dinner with one success and no accidents! Maggie also convinced her parents to take her at least three times to try and she also was successful at least once. :) 

 Saturday we had friends over that evening and Macey did great on the potty during the day. Around 5:30p, when everyone was arriving and Jimmy and I were still frantically getting ready, (because we can never be ready early or on time... why is that?!) I hear Macey telling one of the little girls that she goes poopy in the potty. I ran in to the bathroom to see her sitting on her potty with pee running down her legs, around the potty and in the potty! She had made it to the seat but didn't know to pull down her panties and bloomers. I was so proud of her for at least attempting to potty on her own that she got several treats and I don't consider that a true accident. An hour or so later my girl friends are laughing that Macey is saying she is going poopy so I run in to the bathroom just in time to pull her panties down before she goes in her potty. Two successes with an audience?! I was pretty proud of my little girl!

Molly (2) Avery (1) were very interested in the potty...

But their favorite part about the potty process was washing hands and playing in the water...

Jimmy and I decided that we would not consider her truly daytime potty trained until she told us she needed to go. Sunday evening she stopped playing with Jimmy and started for the bathroom saying, "I go potty." Jimmy followed, set her on the potty and she immediately peed! So in under a week, Macey went from all diapers to only diapers at night. I still ask her to try several times a day in between her telling me that she needs to go. But I know that she can hold it while we are out and will tell me when she feels like she needs to go. Twice now she has started to pee a little while telling us that she needs to go. But she is able to control it and sits on the potty to finish. I'll take a little in the panties/pants over a flood on the floor any day!

Once she uses the potty, she immediately says "treeeeaaaatttts!" and gets to pick a couple of m&m's or marshmellows from her treat box. Then she helps me dump her potty into the big potty, walks around to flush it and hops up on her stool to wash her hands. (of course, there is a running commentary while she is doing all of this... "i go around to flush. i get my stool.") Washing her hands, i.e. playing in the water, is the highlight of any trip to the bathroom. She grabs the bar of soap and repeats over and over, "I washing my hands with the bar of soap!" Sometimes she addresses this sentence to me and sometimes it's to Duckie, who sits on the towel rack while she washes.

Of course, she still talks about the pine cone on the floor... "where's my pine cone mommy?" "I pee pee on the floor and the pine cone..."