If you’ll remember back about two months ago we tried potty training for the first time with not so great results. Well, this weekend we decided it was time to give it another go. Eleanor has continued to show the signs of readiness and we figured that she probably has developed that bladder control that she was lacking two months ago.
What really prompted this weekend’s attempt was that all last week Eleanor was talking about and asking to use the potty. Each day after her nap she asked to use the potty while I was changing her diaper. So I let her go pantless and diaperless and she immediately walked to the bathroom, sat on her potty, and peed! So exciting! She did this almost every day last week and then again on Saturday, so after talking it over we decided to make Sunday her first (well really second) official potty training day! Just like last time we set her free and diaperless and asked her to tell us when she needed to use the potty and then took her to sit on it once every hour. We had one successful potty use and one pee on the carpet. Aside from that she didn’t seem to need to go except when she was napping or eating when, of course, she had a diaper on.
Monday was not as successful. I continued the previous day’s pantless and diaperless policy except while eating and napping. We had two carpet pees, one bathroom floor pee, but no potty pees. I think that she doesn’t quite have the patience to sit and wait to pee nor does she want to stop whatever she is doing to walk herself over to the potty when she has to go. At least she wants to help me clean up. After every accident she runs into the bathroom and grabs a bunch of toilet paper which she uses to help, “keen up!”
I’m determined to continue our potty training and make it work. I really do think she is ready and the timing is right for us. Hopefully we’ll have more success over the next week and then we can move her to pull-ups and eventually big girl underpants! It’s terribly exciting to have such a big girl ready to reach such a big step! And lord almighty am I ever sick of diapers!
Wish us luck! And if you have any potty training tips, please comment, we’d love to hear them!
2 Comments
Good luck! K does the same things. She WANTS to sit on the potty, but doesn’t have the patience to wait to pee or if she’s busy, she doesn’t want to stop to go to the potty. (sigh). I have read that when you’ve committed to potty train, to put them in big girl panties. If they wet them- they wet them, but they’ll get how uncomfortable it is. Supposedly this happens a few times before they catch on. So that’s my two cents coming from a mother of a non-potty-trained child.
Having successfully potty trained three little ones, I offer you this:
1. wait till she’s ready (sounds like she is!)
2. put her in big-girl pants and NEVER go back to diapers. Use “nightime” underwear or “naptime” or “grocery store” underwear (a/k/a pull-ups) when needed.
3. make her help clean up the messes.
Seriously, it’s never taken me more than a few days to day-train my kids. This is all about control (as you probably know) so as long as you keep your cool and be consistent, it’ll be a short-lived process.
Good luck!