Adventures in Potty Training

We explored uncharted territory this past weekend: Potty training!  The week Luke was born Meredith showed signs of being ready to at least try using the potty, but I definitely wasn't feeling it then.  Every weekend something was going on, so I finally marked this past Saturday on our calendar as the day to start training.  I checked out "Toilet Training in Less Than a Day" from the library, vigorously read through it, and decided to try its method first rather than the more traditional method of having your toddler sit on the potty at various times throughout the day and hope they potty.  I came across the book while doing a search on Amazon.  It was written in the '70s and basically teaches that you can potty train your child in a mere few hours.  Well, that's not quite the experience we had and I wish the next library patron the best of luck with the book (I wanted to renew it for another few weeks, but someone else wanted it and it had a hold on it, so somewhere out there another toddler is in the process of being potty trained).

Saturday started out good, with Chad taking care of Luke while Meredith and I locked ourselves in the bathroom.  We had all of our supplies ready:

For this method, you need a doll that wets.  Since we didn't have one, I took one of her dolls and used a squirt bottle to simulate the "pee".

We kept Meredith in underwear during the training.  Thus, the reason we stayed in a room with tile.

One potty chair.

You are supposed to have a "friends that care" list.  These are people such as Grandma, Grandpa, Mom, Dad, and fictional characters (Elmo, Daniel Tiger, etc.) that Meredith looks up to.  They would call in to congratulate her when she would potty; I also had this phone Meredith used to call out to tell Sesame Street characters that she pottied and was a big girl.

For clean-up purposes, obviously :)

Rewards.  I like that this method has you give the toddler rewards for staying dry, rather than everytime they go potty.

Meredith was to teach her doll how to potty.  We would offer the doll a drink, then we would take her to the potty and eventually flush and start the process over.  All the while, Meredith was also filling up on drinks.  It reminded me of one of my MBA classes where I had to read and dissect a chapter, then get up in front of the class and teach it to everyone.  I learned the material by teaching it to others.  Meredith really liked working with her doll and the first hour or so went well.  She got the concept.  Now to put it into practice.  It took a while, but after an hour and a half, she went potty for me.  Yay!  All went well until about three hours in, when I had to go and feed Luke.  During that time, she had two pee accidents.  Poor daddy had to clean up the mess.  Needless to say, I'm embarrassed to admit but I lost my patience, scolded her, and that was the end of day one's training.  As Chad was cleaning her in the bathtub, we had another first.  Her first poop in the bathtub.....ever.  Oh boy!

At one point later on Saturday when Chad and Meredith were in the kitchen, she told Chad, "Mommy isn't very happy with me right now."  She could definitely pick up on my emotions :)

I wasn't willing to give up so soon (although Chad thought we should abandon it totally, since day one ended with a mean mommy and a crying toddler).  On Sunday, we missed church to stay home and work with her some more.  It wasn't quite as bad, but she still resisted going everytime she should and it was pretty stressful.  I took away TV and storytime until she pottied.  I'm mean like that.

Fast-forward to Monday (day three).  I decided to try her in pull-ups during the day rather than panties, since there was no way I would be able to clean-up messes all day long while also caring for Luke.  I kept asking her if she had to go potty from the moment she woke up.  She kept saying no, so I even tried sitting her on the potty.  Nothing.  I finally mentioned to her that she couldn't watch the "Little Bear" show until she went potty.  Shortly after breakfast, she held her pants so I ran her into the bathroom and sure enough, she went pee!  The big success came a short while after her show when she came up to me and said "I potty".  I rushed her into the bathroom and she peed again in the potty.  This is huge because this was the first time she verbalized she had to go, rather than me watching her signs.  Long story short, by the end of yesterday, she gave me nine pees in the potty and stayed totally try in her pull-up with the exception of naptime.  Sweet success!  She did have issues with pooping and my normally very scheduled poop-by-ten-a.m. toddler held it all day and resisted my efforts to have her go on the potty.  She finally went in her pull-up while hiding in her playroom when I got busy with supper.  I'm sure that it will come with time.

It also helped that we watched the Daniel Tiger potty song on YouTube and sang it about a million times.  "If you've got to go potty, STOP, and go right away.  Flush and wash and be on your way."

Another funny that happened was when we asked Meredith if she pooped and she said, "No poop, I just fart."  I find myself asking her potty related questions at least every 5 minutes.

We are just so stoked that she now recognizes when she has to potty and goes in the bathroom.  I know this is a long road ahead and I probably just jinxed myself by writing this post, but at least we are one step closer to not having two kids in diapers :)