Friday, June 27, 2008

Potty Training

Well, my baby is growing up. She's 2 years old now, well actually 26 1/2 months to be exact. And we've started the oh so fun endeavor of potty training. This is extremely bittersweet for me. While it will be awesome to not have to change Audrey's diapers anymore, I can feel Audrey's "babyness" (yes, I know that's not a real word) slipping away. Once the potty training is done the only sign of her being a baby that will be left is her crib (and I do not plan on changing that until a new baby needs it or she starts climbing out of it, whichever comes first).

Onto the fun tales of potty training. Audrey first went in the potty a little over a month ago. I've been thinking about starting her training process for a LONG time and I've been struggling with when the right time/age would be. (As any parent knows, it's hard to not compare your child with others that are the same age, so when you see a kid that is doing something, like using the potty, before your child it's hard not to feel like you're failing in some way.) After getting over my own pride and just deciding to take my cues from the princess herself, I asked her if she wanted to try and the first time out she peed and pooped in the potty!! As a side note, I've had her potty chair in the bathroom for like 6 months now (at least) and she has known what it is and has even sat on it (clothed) for that whole time.

She has now gone potty 28 times (according to her star chart)!! We're slowly, but surely working our way to big girl panties. I've just got to remember not to get ahead of myself or push Audrey too hard. She has gotten to the point where she will ask me to use the potty sometimes. I still ask her sometimes if she wants to use the potty and there are times when she wants to and times when she doesn't. Something I also have to remember is that what works for one child might not work for another. My sister in law just recently went through potty training with her son and one thing that worked for them was putting the potty in the living room for him to use at his convenience. Well, Audrey peed in the potty within 2 minutes the first time I did that, but later that same day when we tried again I was greeted with a big "log" right NEXT to the potty on my rug!! So I ended that for awhile. We tried again yesterday and she did pee at first in the potty, but I'm just not confident enough to let her rum around in the nude yet!!

Something that's been working for us is her star chart. I have it pinned to the bathroom wall at her eye level. This chart came with her potty book, it has four rows of ten spaces each for stars, at the end of each row there's a spot for a teddy bear sticker (all of the stickers came with the chart). Every time she uses the potty (at home or elsewhere) she gets a start on the chart and one for her shirt. Each time she gets a teddy bear sticker we also go to the dollar store for a "surprise"! Right now she has 28 stars on her chart. After we are through with this chart I'm going to make one of my own, but I might change it up a bit. Also, right now she is still 100% in diapers. After she's done with this chart I'm going to start introducing the pull ups (she actually already knows what they are and is fascinated with them). To start out with she will get to wear a pull up anytime she uses the potty, but if she wets or messes herself she'll just wear a diaper. We'll see if that works. Yesterday I decided to try her in panties at home and that lasted all of five minutes! She had just used he potty and I put her panties on and within minutes she came to me semi-freaking out because she had wet herself. It wasn't even that much, but she definitely was not used to the sensation that wet panties have! My goal at this point is to hopefully have her daytime trained by October. If that happens then GREAT, if not then I'll know she just wasn't ready. As long as she's trained by the time the next one comes I'll be ecstatic!!

Anyways, I guess that's about it for now. If you actually read through this, BLESS YOU!!