#PottyTrainingSuccess
Thursday, September 27, 2012 at 12:37PM
Oh. My. God. To sum it up, the first two days were dreadful. I thought I had failed. But by day three, I could see the light.
It began a little less than two weeks ago when my husband and I marked off a weekend where we could focus on potty training. We decided on the Three Day Potty Training boot camp. To get started I referenced Nathalee’s, Jennifer’s and Natali’s posts on potty training since they have all potty trained their Baby Betas. Similar to Nathalee we primarily used the Three Day Potty Training: Diaper Free potty Training method. I’m not going to go into all the details because Nathalee did a great job describing the method in her post.
About my experience.
Day 1
At the end of day one I wanted to quit. I was so discouraged. Reese had only one success (more if you count drops that made it in after being whisked to the potty after an accident). But mostly, it was messy and I took it kind of personally that day one didn’t go better.
Instead of giving her stickers, toys, or candy (I thought about jelly beans) after each success I tried giving Reese the Gerber Fruit and Veggie Melts. She gobbled them up like they were going out of style so we stuck with them as her “treat.”
Key Learning: Take joy in the little victories. Count the small drops as a success. It’ll make you feel good.
Day 2
Day two was much better because we spent a lot more time on the potty. No accidents! But seriously, my daughter was on the potty A LOT playing with my iPad! Jennifer talked me off the ledge and gave me a ton of support and encouragement to keep with it.
Key Learning: Don’t do it alone! Unfortunately my husband had a work event that day, which we were unaware of when we planned our “3 day potty training boot camp” (so he claims….kidding, kidding), so I was home alone on Day two. Not fun but I got through it. If you can plan to have support from your partner or a family member, do!
Day 3
Day three made it all worth it! My daughter self initiated and told me every time she had to poop or pee. Only once accident all day and it was on an outing. Oh joy! Up until Day six there was about one pee accident each day.
Key Learning: Even if they say your child says they don’t have to go potty before you leave the house, get them to sit on the potty for a few minutes. It works! Jennifer shared this tip with me and Reese has gotten good at going pee before we leave the house and as soon as we get home.
Now we are on day 12 and (fingers x’d) we’ve had no accidents for five days. I am a very proud Mommy over here. Although potty training started out terribly, I am feeling great about the progress we’ve made in less than two weeks.
I had the most questions after Day 3 of potty training when I was out of the house more. I’ll share what I learned in a future post.
How was potty training for you?
Reader Comments (2)
Congrats! Haven't tried it yet with my 2 year old, but I do have a question as we prepare: did you get multiple potties to put in bathrooms/areas within your home? Or, did you just have one?
Thanks Sandra! For the first week we had multiple little potties around the house. One in the bathroom and one in the living room for easy access. Our place is pretty small so this worked well for us. I found this helped especially during the first few days until my daughter learned to hold her pee until she made it to the restroom. It's been three weeks now and we only have the one potty in the restroom and that seems to work just fine. Good luck! Please let me know if you have any other questions.