Potty Time!

Sorry for the delay in blogging… as I mentioned, we planned to potty train over the weekend of Feb. 4-6.

And we did.

I used a method called “Three Day Potty Training” as I liked the sound of it and thought that it just made a lot of sense for Libby’s personality. (It also didn’t take anywhere close to three days for the concept to “click” for Libby – which is what the three day count is about). The method allows that things could definitely get messy and that if someone else was going to take over on Day 3, that she participate throughout the whole thing. My mom was the lucky winner of that position as she was watching Libby on Monday while I was at work. Additionally, I knew that I would need her moral (and direct) support if things got difficult.

Libby and I got started on our own Saturday morning by putting her panties on immediately after she got out of bed and took off her diaper. She’d already picked out a lot of cute ones at Wal-Mart earlier in the week and we’d been discussing what fun we were going to have this weekend and wearing her “big girl panties” and getting to finally use the potty instead of her icky old diaper. I also suggested that she might like to put panties on some of her favorite stuffed animals and she liked that idea a lot! That way they could go through this together and seeing them in underwear would remind her that she, too, was wearing them.

Well she took to it RIGHT away, not surprisingly. She has had very few real accidents, especially relating to tee-tee and we used mainly the praise method after every time she went properly. She quickly determined that this was, in fact, one of the best things she’d ever experienced and simultaneously that she hates and mess and didn’t want to have an accident as it was embarrassing and uncomfortable. So the pressure on herself began. Every five minutes, she wanted to use the potty. As the weekend wore on and it was obvious that she could determine when she needed to go and not have an accident, my attention to her would wane a bit here or there, but not to worry, if my attention was not on her for more than a few seconds, she’d let me know that she needed to use the potty again (whether or not that was true). Mealtimes were the worst – at least four trips to the potty during each meal. And when you’re caught in the change scenario, it feels like whatever the new problem is, will go on forever. She could barely sleep at naps or at night, as she would call and let me know when she needed to go so as not to have an accident! So when she was up, she could get a little cranky. Anyway- blogging hasn’t exactly been possible.

Thank goodness Marmena brought my of VHS copy of “Lady and the Tramp,” because she became obsessed with it as soon as I put it on for her on Saturday morning. It allowed her some rest and down time and it could hold her attention long enough that sometimes it would be closer to 20 minutes before we had to make another fun trip to the potty! When Libby gets tired and cranky, she also gets very affectionate, so we had a lot of sweet moments of just laying together and her letting me rub her back or hair. SO sweet – and good for keeping my frustration level down. Did you know that there are virtually no stories similar to this on the internet? We looked for any stories of kids that loved the potty/were scared to have an accident and what you did to keep them from going all the time or breaking this trend and there’s NOTHING out there.

By Tuesday, we HAD to get back to normal a bit and it really did help. While gymnastics was a bit of a disaster since she was so worried about going during her first trip away from the house and the fact that she wouldn’t use the big potty or her little potty that I’d brought along in the back of my car, we were able to also run to the grocery store and it was fine. On Wednesday, I got her out of the house even more and on Thursday, she used the little potty in the car!

To let the baby get some more sleep we went for an extra walk on Tuesday so she could nap in her stroller. I even tried putting her in pull-ups for nap and nighttime and she still wouldn’t go in them. But then she didn’t want to take them off in the morning! So, out they went.

Last weekend, she went to her grandparents’ houses having a little vacation while Michael has worked and we had his birthday dinner last night at Rathbun’s. Which, by the way, we felt absolutely lived up to the hype! Generous portions and we managed to clean our plates. I was still full on Sunday morning!

We also saw the American version of “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo” on Friday night, which we both thought was excellent.

Anyway, the grandmothers have had good success and the child is finally getting some sleep and becoming my happy girl again. And I asked GiGi to please have her go on the big potty with the little cushiony insert on top of it so we could in fact, use a public toilet (I have a travel seat to put on top of them) should the need arise and she rejected it at first, but then has used it since to great success! I knew she’d accept it better from a grandmother than me, and sure enough! Thanks, GiGi!

And a special thanks to Marmena, too, for being there for the whole thing. I know at times that I was likely more trouble than Libby! Those guilty motherhood feelings reared their head pretty frequently over the last week, especially when she was so sleep-deprived and when I was concerned that she was holding in the #2 and potential problems that could arise from that. (And then I’m not much use when I’m sleep-deprived, either.)

Seriously though- this has been a raging success overall (even if we're all more than a little tired) and we're SO proud of our big girl. Oh- one other thing, her knuckles are kind of red and becoming a little rough from so much washing of her tender baby hands, so another unplanned side-effect, but we are using the lotion frequently.

AND she wore pigtails to gymnastics on Tuesday and let me keep them in her hair until we got home! She even reminded me today that we need to wear them for gymnastics again.

She’s growing up so fast.

Happy Valentine’s Day!

Hopefully two more posts this week…