Wednesday, March 23, 2011

Potty Training

Now that we're kind of on a roll with the potty training, I thought I would do a post and share what's worked for us so far. I definitely don't want to come across like a know-it-all or like I think I'm now an expert because I've been potty training my child for two weeks. Ha! Aubrey definitely is not "fully potty trained" yet, and I'm still learning what does and doesn't work for her. I know every child is different, but this has been our potty training experience so far:

Several months ago, we bought a little potty for Aubrey just to see how she would do and to introduce the concept. I was in no hurry, but I wanted her to get used to the idea of going on the potty at some point. Well, she LOVED the potty. A little bit too much. She wanted to sit on that thing all the time. She would just sit and sit but never do anything. I really think she started to think it was a toy, which I didn't want. I wanted her to learn that you "do your business" on the potty, and that's it. No sitting for hours looking at books. Haha! So, I decided that she wasn't ready, and we put the potty away.
A few months later, my mom bought Aubrey some cute little princess panties. I wasn't really ready to try again, so I just didn't show them to Aubrey. Well, she found them (it wasn't all that shocking that she did considering I left them in the floor of her room - ha!). Of course she wanted to wear them immediately, so we tried again. And she had many many accidents in the panties. She did go on the potty a few times, but she was going in the panties way more than the potty. At that point, I don't think she quite understood how to recognize the urge to go before she went. I think we probably could have pushed through at that point and she would have caught on, but I was just tired of cleaning up tee tee, frankly. So, we went back to diapers.

A little time passed, and I didn't really even think about potty training. It was in the back of my mind that we probably should start working on it soon, but I really just didn't know how to go about it. Everyone says, "When they're ready you'll know." Or, "Don't rush them." I really wasn't sure how I would "know" when she was ready, though. Well, the way I knew was that she suddenly started telling me that she needed to "tee tee." Pretty hard to miss. Ha! So, we got the potty back out and gave it another go. This time, she has done great! I decided to just let her run around without any pants on because I wasn't thrilled about the idea of washing 27 pairs of panties a day. That has actually worked REALLY well for us. She hates the idea of getting the floor all wet, and it's only happened once. She has been great about going on the potty. I don't even have to ask her a million times if she needs to tee tee. She will just run to the bathroom, and when I follow her in there, she is sitting on her little potty. Too cute! It's really been great. She gets one jelly bean when uses the bathroom, and she LOVES that :-) We have been putting panties on her a little more lately, and she has done pretty well with that, too. She has had a few accidents, but not many.

Right now, she is still wearing diapers when we leave the house. Someone recommended that I get some of those plastic panties to wear over her regular panties, and we did get some, but they were massive. Seriously, I think the size 2T would fit me. Haha! We laughed so hard when we opened those things. When we realized that they weren't really going to work, I got some pull-ups. They seem pretty pointless, though. When we are out and about, she never wants to go on the potty. I don't know if she is just too busy, or if going on a big potty scares her, but we haven't gotten to that point yet. That's definitely the next thing we need to work on. I don't know if I should just put a pull-up on her and make her sit on the potty every once and a while or what. We're still learning!

So... what's worked for us so far:
-Waiting until Aubrey was ready!
-Taking her pants and diaper off.
-Giving her a reward when she goes.
-Using a little potty.
-Being patient and not getting frustrated when she has an accident.
-Getting really excited when she goes on the potty.

Hopefully in the next month or so, we will be totally potty trained! Every time I buy diapers now, I think that might be the last time I buy diapers for Aubrey. Bittersweet!

3 comments:

Angie Acapella said...

this is almost identical to how our daughter is handling the whole potty training thing. She literally has to be bottomless or she will just go in her panties or pull up. But if she's naked all day, she really will go by herself a million times a day! lol She's only gone #2 once, but she did that on her own as well.

Whitney said...

Way to go Aubrey! Avery is using the potty for our sitter some but not at home, so we aren't pushing it. I'm glad to see that worked for you too. The sitter wants to let her wear training pants outside this spring, and I think we're going to have the same sizing issues. Hope she continues to do well! We hope to have an Aubrey too one day, btw!

Jesy said...

Hi Carrie,

My name is Jesy and I'm posting from Pampers Kandoo. We have a great potty training program and we would love for you to be one of our mom bloggers. You can visit us online at www.pamperskandoo.com - click on "Contact us" and send us your information and in the message let us know that you want to review our products! Thank you.