Poop A La Mode: Day 1 of Potty Training

Note: I wrote this post on Friday but was too tired to post it until today. 

Well I didn’t realize how tired I was until we put Elle down for bed. I’m pooped! It has been a long day. As you can guess, we started potty training boot camp today. We plan to try to get her used to/initiating going to the potty within 3-5 days. I read the book Natali recommended and got a few tips from friends on Facebook before we started the process. Elle is 21 months but can be pretty stubborn and I wanted to give potty training a go before it got worse.

Here’s why I felt Elle was ready:

• She has been peeing less frequently during the day and pooping zero to two times a day
• She took her diaper off, started peeing and stopped herself so I could put her on the potty
• She knows what poop and pee are

I have to say she was a gem today. She was happy for most of the day and was very cooperative about sitting on the potty. We had some successes and few misses but overall I feel like we are off to a good start.

Here’s how I prepared for today:

• Read Potty Training Boot camp and had my hubby read it too
• Bought a little potty months ago so she could get used to it and most recently bought a potty to go on the big potty since she likes imitating mommy
• Took her with me when I used the bathroom (she wouldn’t let me go by myself if I tried :)
• Always took her in the bathroom when we dumped her poopy diaper so she could wave bye bye to the poo poo and sometimes flush it and wash her hands
• Rented and bought some potty books such as Once upon a Potty, A Potty for Me, No More Diapers for Ducky and Princess Potty
• Bought some different rewards at TJ Maxx and Target that included hand stamps, stickers, baby doll, bat and ball, textured ball, little people house
• Baked brownies to reward her for peeing on the potty (this girl LOVES sweets!)

Here’s how our day went: 

• Woke up, had breakfast with lots of milk and took off the diaper; continued lots of fluids throughout the day
• We read Princess Potty to get her excited about wearing a crown and decorating it if she used the potty
• We colored her Potty Training chart I got from PottyPatty and wrote her name on it
• I set the timer on my phone to go off. When it did, I made a big fuss about how it was time to get on the potty. Jumping around, screaming in a funny way about how we had to hurry! She loved it (this was her favorite part of the day. She loved when the timer went off.) My goal was to get her to sit on the potty for at least five minutes at a time, hoping she would pee then. She was great about sitting on the potty. I brought books in for us to read, stickers, etc. and we were doing great. 

Our biggest hurdle was that she didn’t pee until 10:40 a.m. I had taken off her diaper at 8! We had been going to the potty at intervals that whole time. Of course the moment she stands to take a break from sitting on the potty she starts peeing but at least we got a little in the potty. I cheered and made a big deal.  We flushed, washed our hands and rushed into the kitchen to update our sticker chart and to give her a reward: brownies!

Since it took so long the first time for her to pee, I decided not to put her back on the potty for an hour.The timer went off and we raced to the potty. No more than a minute or so later, she was peeing! SUCCESS! I was so elated and felt she was really getting it! I made a big, big deal out of this but she was more interested in her iPad than my cheers. Silly girl.

We had another success following this while she was sitting on the potty but she went on the floor a bit after getting up so that was a miss.

I kept rewarding her with brownies or stamps, whichever she’d prefer, and putting her stickers on her chart. 

We got one more good pee pee on the potty this afternoon. I had put her on the potty and went to wash my hands and she peed! Yahoo! We were on a roll.

Things went a little downhill after that. She peed on the floor again and pooped under the dinner table right during dinner! I knew she was looking around like she wanted to…I should have scooped her off to the toilet but I’ll know better next time.

What did we accomplish today?

Well, she went pee pee in the potty and understands the concept! We had more pee pees in the potty than out of it!

She still hasn’t self initiated but I hope that will come with our training. I’m just ecstatic that she’s going along with the whole thing (so far!)

What I wish I would have done better?

I wish I was better at disciplining her when she peed on the floor. I forgot to have her clean it up the first time. Also, I attempted to do these drills that the book recommends but when she became upset, I didn’t want to turn her off from the whole potty thing.

Tomorrow we’ll put on underpants so she can get used to the whole pulling down your pants thing and so she’ll see how they get wet and are yucky vs dry diapers. Wish us luck!

Comments

[Ashley]

That is so awesome! It sounds like she really did great!! And don't feel discouraged if she doesn't self initiate for a while. Even after Hudson was trained for a while, we'd have to remind him some and also they would at school. He was just too busy to remember!

Way to go Elle! Sounds like you are going to be one potty trained big sister soon!