Potty Power

This week we started potty training Audrey.  She was showing all signs of readiness and seemed pretty excited to get started.  With the help of my good friend Alli, I began on Monday with these tools in hand:

1.

Potty Power DVD

2.  The ebook 3 Day Potty Training by Kaylee Collins

3.  All kinds of princess panties, hand-picked by Audrey

I followed the book almost exactly, with the exception of night time training.  I wanted to conquer day time training first so Audrey wears pull ups at night and at nap time.  The author of the ebook says to make them wear underwear to bed and just wake them up - YEAH RIGHT!  Other than a few changes to the plan, we jumped in with both feet.

Day 1 - Monday
Today went as expected.  We woke up, made a huge deal about her new big girl underwear, and put away all of her diapers.  We turned on Potty Power and I kept her contained in one room to minimize the damage to our carpets.  I set out lots of fun drinks on the coffee table so she would have to go more often (creates more teaching moments if they have to pee a lot).  She loved wearing her underwear and loved that darn Potty Power DVD!  I would say the DVD was the biggest help in our potty training endeavor.

The first time she peed, she looked at me like, "what the heck is happening?!"  I simply told her "uh oh!  Pee goes in the potty!"  Wash, Rinse, Repeat. :)  Like I said, as expected.

Day 2 - Tuesday (aka false hope day)
Audrey really seemed to get this whole potty training thing.  She was telling me when she had to go and we had minimal accidents.  They were usually as she was running to the bathroom.  I stupidly bragged to my mom and sister that I hadn't cleaned up a single poop accident because she had gone in the toilet!  (Just wait...)  Accidents went from four the first day to only two the second day.  I was certain I had a potty training wiz on my hands.

Day 3 - Wednesday
We woke up and as usual made our way to the toilet right away.  Suddenly Audrey HATED it.  She screamed and cried and refused to even sit on the toilet.  I didn't want to push it so I let her go and told her to tell me if she needed some toilet time.

Long story short, I ate my words about the whole "no poop accidents" thing, and we didn't have a single success in the toilet that day.  Ugh.

Day 4 - Thursday
Audrey did great in the morning.  She stayed dry at dance class and went potty before nap.  Please note that this pre-nap potty was our last success of the week.

Thursday afternoon through Saturday were NOT GOOD.  I think the novelty of potty training wore off and Audrey just decided it wasn't fun anymore.  She didn't seem to care that she was having accidents left and right, and I had the most horrible time cleaning them up.  (I'll spare you the details.  I know I'm talking about pee and poop, but I don't want to be THAT person.)  I was ready to give up, stressed out, and Audrey was in a horrible mood.

I took the night off, put Audrey in a pull-up, and Tony took her on a date.  It was what we all needed.  I think we were just all feeling a lot of potty training pressure and taking a break seemed to help.  I emailed my friend Alli, and she reassured me by saying they went through the same things.  (Seriously, Alli, couldn't have made it through this without you!)

After Saturday's set back, we decided to change our approach a bit.  Audrey is a lot like me - we're finding out - where the harder you push her and make her feel bad about messing up, the more she resists.  The whole "I'm so sad you had an accident!" stuff was making her feel bad and not want to even try.  So, we decided to keep it all really positive and encouraging.  I first asked her if she'd rather switch back to diapers.  If she wasn't into this yet, I was fine to wait a couple months.  I said, "Audrey would it make you feel better if you wore a diaper?"  She told me, "NO MORE DIAPERS FOR ME!  I don't like baby diapers.  I like big girl underwear.  I can go potty in the toilet!"  So we went with it.  It was really nice to hear that she was still on board with all of this.

We went from treats as rewards to a potty sticker chart.  I decked it out with princesses, got princess stickers, and hung it on the bathroom wall.  We told her that when she filled it up, we'd take her to the store and let her pick a brand new toy. When she had an accident, we'd approach it very matter-of-factly.  Instead of saying how sad or upset we were, we'd simply say "uh oh!  You peed in your underwear.  Where does pee go?"  Audrey would tell us "in the toilet" and we left it at that.  We had confidence that she knew what to do, she just needed to feel encouraged, comfortable and unafraid of messing up.

I'm happy to say that our new approach to all of this seems to be working!  Tony was a rockstar yesterday at getting Audrey to go.  He was so positive and encouraging.  It's so nice to have a husband who is willing to help out and who is supportive of my crazy methods.  I think Audrey prefers that he help her go now, because he makes her feel so good about herself.  Potty bonding.  Precious, isn't it? ;)

Audrey proudly put the final sticker on her chart before nap time today.  When she was done she turned around and said to me with all the seriousness she could muster, "You can take me to Target now, and I can buy Merida princess."  I agreed and off she went for her nap.  I'm really proud of her, and while she's still not totally accident-free, she's getting the hang of this potty training business.  We just have to work on her telling us before its too late.  In typical kid fashion, she gets too distracted when she's playing to think about going.  I'm not worried though, she'll get it.