I mentioned in an earlier post that AR had recently started showing signs of potty training readiness. I want to blog about our first day and what we did...especially since I have another one that will be doing the same thing in a couple of years!
I had found a site on pinterest a while back and pinned it: http://www.instructables.com/id/How-to-Potty-Train-a-Child-2/?ALLSTEPS. There are tons of articles and books on PTing though.
I think the big thing is that they really have to be ready. It makes it a lot easier. AR had been showing signs for a little while and had really been wanting to go potty for 2 weeks and we just now had the time to stay at home for a couple of days. I blocked out a whole week (just in case) but 3 days for sure that we wouldn't go anywhere! I got my groceries on Sunday so we wouldn't have it to worry about and Monday was just ALL about PTing! FUN! :) Last week, on one of our Target trips, I let AR pick out some big girl panties that she liked. The Easter Bunny had already bought her some to hopefully spark the interest but I wanted her to be excited about the kind she picked. I also had the training pants and pull-ups for naps and bedtime. We had been reading books about Potty Training and she was so excited. We had a long talk about it the night before about how she was going to be a big girl the next day and say "bye bye" to her diapers!
She woke up and I put the training panties on her. She drank lots and lots of juice and water. When I say lots, I was basically giving her one after another just so she would have to pee a lot. I also allowed her to have more snacks (even salty chips at 9 am) just so she would drink more. I took her to the potty every 15 minutes or so...nothing. (The potty stayed wherever we were, to make it easy) Then, she walked in the playroom, out of my sight for 2 seconds and peed in there. SO...we started over. MORE juice, more water, more snacks. At one point she had drank so much water that I KNEW she had to pee...her tummy was so tight. I knew if she would ever pee on the potty, she would get it what was going on and maybe it would start clicking more. At this point, we had it in the den and I let her just sit on it while watching one of her shows hoping she would pee pee. No...she held it the whole 15 minutes she sat there and then once again walked in the playroom and peed there. I was starting to get a little discouraged but my friend Mandy (who Potty trained her triplets in a week!) gave me some advice and encouragment and we were ready to start again! I know it is completly normal for them to not go in the potty the first day but it still discourages you a little!
Finally, after we pee peed twice in the floor. I was about to put more panties on her and she didn't want them. And then she wanted her shirt off. So, she went naked the rest of the day. She sat on the potty and finally she squeeze the tiniest drop but it was enough to make her tune on her potty play and we made the BIGGEST deal out of that little drop. She got a treat (mini Reece's) and a high five! She was SO proud of herself.
A few minutes later, she wanted to read with me and she was sitting in my lap and starting pee peeing and so I put her on the potty and she finished there. We made a big deal out of it...got a treat, etc. From then on, she seemed to "get it." She would say "I have to pee pee" and just run sit on it and because she was naked, she didn't have to worry about pulling anything down. Then, she really got where she wasn't even telling me, she was just getting on the potty by herself. She had pee peed by 10 am and then poo pooed by noon.
When she poo pooed in the potty, Riley was home for lunch. So, we made a really big deal and I had some Melissa and Doug hand stamps she had gotten for Christmas put away in the closet just to pull out later and she got to play with them and of course some Reece's!
I put a pull-up on her during nap and then we started again when she got up. She didn't have any "accidents" all day. And she was very good about just running to the potty. I also put a pull-up on her at night for bed-time.
When she got up this morning, the pull-up was dry.
It was a lot easier with AR than I expected but she was really ready. I think she was more ready that I was. I want her out of diapers but I wasn't ready for her to be at this stage yet! I hope we continue to keep moving forward!! The rest of the week, we will be working on training with panties on and learning to clean up after and venturing out with just big girl panties on! OH FUN! haha
