I blogged a while back about our potty training adventures so far, so I thought it was time for a little update! After that post, Aubrey was really to the point where I felt like she was potty trained at home, but she still wore diapers and then pull-ups when we ventured out. However, if she had a pull-up on, she wet it. I didn't really know how to advance beyond that point, until one day when we were getting ready to go somewhere, and Aubrey said she wanted to wear panties. I was a little nervous about that, but I figured what the heck? I just told myself, "If she has an accident, she has an accident. Not the end of the world."
Well... she didn't have an accident! She did GREAT, and I think having one successful outing in panties under our belt gave me the confidence to start letting her wear panties all the time. She's really been wearing panties everywhere since then, with a few exceptions. She has had a few accidents, but I just know that's to be expected, so we don't sweat it. Most of her accidents have happened in the car on the way to or from church (about a 30 minute drive). She doesn't really like for other people to take her to the potty, so David or I usually go to the nursery and take her between church and Sunday School, but she's even getting better about letting other people take her. So, I guess at this point, it's safe to say that Aubrey is potty trained! (I think I can say that even though she still occasionally has accidents, right? No one is perfect ;)
I really don't have anything to compare this experience to since I've never potty trained a child before, but I think Aubrey was really easy to train. We really just let her go at her own pace, and she just let us know when she was ready for the next step, and that seemed to be perfect for her. I think it was KEY that we didn't rush it. We took the potty training experience slowly, and that really worked. I'm sure some kids might require more of a gentle nudge, though ;) She still wears diapers to sleep. (The pull-ups leak.) I'm not even worried about that right now. It doesn't bother me at all for her to still wear diapers at night. I think bed wetting might be in Aubrey's genes, so I'm not stressing over that yet. HA! ;)
She still uses her little potty, but I would like to get rid of that soon. I feel torn about that, though. On one hand, I don't want to get rid of it, because she can go by herself, which is SO nice. It especially comes in handy when she needs to potty while I'm tending to Jude. On the other hand, I'd like to get rid of the little potty, because I HATE cleaning that thing. It would be so much easier if we could just flush! Haha! So, we'll see how long it sticks around.
So, that's been our potty training journey. All in all, it was pretty painless. I still can't believe that we have successfully potty trained a child now. How is our baby that old?!?
Showing posts with label Potty Training. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Potty Training. Show all posts
Tuesday, May 31, 2011
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.
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!
Thursday, February 24, 2011
Randomness
-We've all been a little under the weather here lately. We've just been passing a cold back and forth for what seems like weeks. I've never really gotten it, but yesterday I started feeling pretty lousy. I had a cough, and I just felt run down. I think the months of not getting a good night's sleep are just catching up with me. Jude has been sleeping worse ever since he was sick last weekend. I don't know what to do about that. I'm PRAYING that he will go back to only waking up once a night soon. Or, better yet, that he'll sleep though the night!! Anyway, David took the kids to church last night, and I stayed home and took a nap. Then we went to bed at 10:00, and Jude actually had a decent night. However, Aubrey woke up at 6:40 coughing :( I am feeling much better today after some rest, though. I'm ready for this cold/sinus bug to go away and stay away!
-It's been SO warm here lately. Yesterday it was in the 80's. It's great and beautiful, but I feel like I can't even really enjoy it because I know that warm springy weather in February is going to = tornadoes at some point. Sure enough, there is a chance for tornadoes tonight. I'm just trying not to worry too much and praying that nothing comes of it. The bad weather is supposed to be here late tonight/early morning (last I heard), and tornadoes anytime are bad, but I can't even imagine what it would be like to have to get the kids out of bed in the middle of the night to go take shelter in the bathroom. That would just be a nightmare. Of course, we'll do what we need to do. And no, I still don't have my storm shelter :(
-I think the time has arrived to potty train Aubrey. I can't believe it's even time to think about that. I've really been in no hurry, but lately she has started saying she needs to "tee tee" and she will go into the bathroom and take her diaper off and sit on her little potty. I guess those are signs of readiness. Ha! She has actually gone to the bathroom several times today with no accidents, so I guess we're officially potty training. I feel so clueless about how I'm supposed to go about it. For example, some people highly recommend pull ups and others say they are pointless and a waste of money. I guess we'll just have some trial and error.
-I've been making some small changes around the house. Nothing drastic! I'm on the hunt for a different coffee table and curtains for the living room/kitchen. I've brought SO many curtains home to try, but nothing has really worked so far. I'm trying to do this economically, but we have LOTS of huge windows, so that's proving to be a challenge. I would love to have them made, but that's just going to be ridiculous (as far as price). We'll see.
-Speaking of the house, several times I've started to take pictures of Jude's room to post on here, but I always just feel like his room is missing something. It just doesn't feel "finished" to me. I told David the other day that I kind of have regret that we didn't do the stripes in his room like I originally planned. I wanted to do a chair rail and paint very subtle, neutral stripes below it, but we just ran out of time before Jude was born. Now I'm thinking I might still want to do something like that. David thinks it's pointless since Jude is already 7 months old, and if our next baby is a girl, we would have to repaint the room anyway. (Sidenote: our next baby is not in the near future ;) But I think that if we painted stripes or something like that, we could leave them, because the walls are neutral. They would go with our girl bedding, or we could even use Jude's bedding for a girl. It's pretty gender neutral. We'll see how that all pans out ;-)
-Aaaad... I think that's enough randomness for one day. I'm about to go attempt naptime. It hasn't been going well this week (for either child), so wish me luck!
-It's been SO warm here lately. Yesterday it was in the 80's. It's great and beautiful, but I feel like I can't even really enjoy it because I know that warm springy weather in February is going to = tornadoes at some point. Sure enough, there is a chance for tornadoes tonight. I'm just trying not to worry too much and praying that nothing comes of it. The bad weather is supposed to be here late tonight/early morning (last I heard), and tornadoes anytime are bad, but I can't even imagine what it would be like to have to get the kids out of bed in the middle of the night to go take shelter in the bathroom. That would just be a nightmare. Of course, we'll do what we need to do. And no, I still don't have my storm shelter :(
-I think the time has arrived to potty train Aubrey. I can't believe it's even time to think about that. I've really been in no hurry, but lately she has started saying she needs to "tee tee" and she will go into the bathroom and take her diaper off and sit on her little potty. I guess those are signs of readiness. Ha! She has actually gone to the bathroom several times today with no accidents, so I guess we're officially potty training. I feel so clueless about how I'm supposed to go about it. For example, some people highly recommend pull ups and others say they are pointless and a waste of money. I guess we'll just have some trial and error.
-I've been making some small changes around the house. Nothing drastic! I'm on the hunt for a different coffee table and curtains for the living room/kitchen. I've brought SO many curtains home to try, but nothing has really worked so far. I'm trying to do this economically, but we have LOTS of huge windows, so that's proving to be a challenge. I would love to have them made, but that's just going to be ridiculous (as far as price). We'll see.
-Speaking of the house, several times I've started to take pictures of Jude's room to post on here, but I always just feel like his room is missing something. It just doesn't feel "finished" to me. I told David the other day that I kind of have regret that we didn't do the stripes in his room like I originally planned. I wanted to do a chair rail and paint very subtle, neutral stripes below it, but we just ran out of time before Jude was born. Now I'm thinking I might still want to do something like that. David thinks it's pointless since Jude is already 7 months old, and if our next baby is a girl, we would have to repaint the room anyway. (Sidenote: our next baby is not in the near future ;) But I think that if we painted stripes or something like that, we could leave them, because the walls are neutral. They would go with our girl bedding, or we could even use Jude's bedding for a girl. It's pretty gender neutral. We'll see how that all pans out ;-)
-Aaaad... I think that's enough randomness for one day. I'm about to go attempt naptime. It hasn't been going well this week (for either child), so wish me luck!
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