The Potty Training Diary

So.

A few months ago I posted that Lyla was a Big Girl and had been using the potty, right?

Well I was still just letting her get used to the idea, and she was using it a few times a day, but there was no pressure or reason for her to want to consistently use it since she was still wearing diapers.  I heard about the 3 Day Potty Training method (developed by Lora Jensen) and was really eager to try it with Lyla because I was positive she would catch on quick, but decided to wait until she was 22 months old like the method recommended (this seems to be the age where it "clicks" the easiest).

Well, perfect timing because her 22 month old birthday fell on my Christmas break, where I had some extra time to devote to it.

Basically, the method involves staying at home and glued to your child's side for the 3 days, and getting rid of all the diapers in the house and just throwing them away so you can't use them as a "crutch" to fall back on.  You switch straight to big girl panties and use lots of positive reinforcement.  You remind them a million times a day to tell you when they need to use the potty.  They wear just he panties and a shirt around for those 3 days so you can see as soon as they start to go potty.  When they do, you rush them into the bathroom so they can finish in the potty.  Supposedly, after the 3 days (if not sooner), this will just "click" and they will be potty trained.  This same thing goes for daytime and nighttime, on road trips and on outings.  You're not to ever use diapers or pull ups and it always focuses on positive reinforcement.  Here is what our 3 days looked like:

Day 1:  I woke before Lyla so I could shower, get ready, and mentally prepare myself.  After breakfast I let Lyla throw away all of her old diapers and we put on her first pair of big girl panties!  (I should note first:  I always bought Target brand diapers, which I thought were cute with little blue and green polka dots on them.  Well her little boyfriend Ethan wore Pampers diapers, and they had Elmo on them.  They liked to switch diapers and Lyla would get SO mad at me if I didn't have an "Elmo diaper" for her to wear.  So I thought I would be smart and buy her some Elmo panties....I bought 2 packs of Elmo and 1 pack of Dora...I should have never gave her choices...).  Our first struggle was her making up her mind on which pair to wear.  I tried Elmo first, we got those on, then she wanted Dora panties.  Once those were on she wanted Elmo.  Then we had to switch to Dora.  I finally got her distracted enough so that she couldn't keep changing her mind!  We started doing some activities together so I could keep a close eye on her.  I kept saying "Remember to tell mommy when you have to go potty!"  I wondered in my head what it would be like once she started to go potty in her panties, but kind of brushed it off and thought the panties will absorb the liquid enough so it doesn't make a mess.  Yeah, I was pretty much wrong about that.  The first time she started peeing I was horrified to see that it shot straight through her panties and on to the carpet (side note:  we bought a Kirby vacuum/shampooer about a month ago and I am starting to see that it is the best investment we ever made).  When I got her cleaned up to change her panties, we had the Elmo/Dora struggle again, and after I got a pair on her to stay, I put them all up somewhere where she couldn't get to them so I could just blindly grab a pair and stick them on her.  So all was going good, we were bonding and playing with all of her new Christmas toys.  And then the diarrhea starts.  Are you kidding me?  Today is the day I choose to NOT put her in diapers?  Yes it crossed my mind a million times to wave the white flag and surrender.  But I have always been one to finish what I start, and I chalked it up to this will be a lot of opportunies I have to teach her to get to the bathroom in time.  By nap time she had went through 11 pairs of panties, and probably half of those were poopy.  I am not going to lie, I felt like I had been swimming in pee and poop and I was mentally drained and physically exhausted.  I got her down to nap and I was convinced that she would wake up after 30 mins soaking wet....well after 3 hours she was still sleeping, and it was getting late and she had been on a really bad schedule since Christmas break so I decided to wake her up.  She was dry!  Halleluja!  Getting her to the potty was another issue.  She wakes up much like her mama does, and that is really grouchy.  After awhile she finally used the potty, and praise the Lord the diarrhea was gone.  We had a much better evening and she was catching on and telling me when she had to potty (she usually started going a little bit and then stopped to hold it until we made it to the bathroom).  I was scared of what the night time would bring, but put her to bed in just panties and hoped for the best.  She woke up wet at 5 am, I took her to the potty (she was grouchy again and didn't want to go), changed her clothes and her sheets and got her back to sleep.  She slept a few more hours and woke up wet again (this I totally expected).  I think we went through maybe 16ish pairs of the panties (out of the 21 pairs she has).

Day 2:  Woke up praying for no diarrhea and not sure if I could deal with another day of cleaning poop out of panties.  We started off on a really good note, she would pee just a teeny tiny bit in her panties and then finish in the potty.  Oh and by Day 2, she decided it was time to potty train me.  She would say "Go Potty" so I would RUSH her to the bathroom, breaking a sweat and pulling a muscle in the process, get her there, pull her panties down and sit her down and she would jump up, pull her panties back up and point to the big potty and say "No, mommy go potty!".  Like, 25 times of this in 2 hours.  I couldn't help but laugh, because clearly she was catching on to my whole method and she was being a pretty good teacher herself!  Nap time went well again, although she woke up a little wet and then finished in the potty.  No poop at all that day, so clearly God answered my prayers.  Went through about half as many pairs of panties as the first day.

Day 3:  This was the last day and I wasn't convinced that it would just be DONE by the end of day 3.  Turns out, it was done by the end of Day 2, because all day long, she did not have a single accident...not even the tiniest little drip!  Pooped 2 times, both in the potty, none in her panties!  She took a short nap, and woke up after about an hour and she was still dry.  She used the potty after a few minutes and then the rest of the day, used the bathroom like a pro.  Still expected her to wake up wet sometime at night.  She woke up in the middle of the night (maybe midnight or so), and I rushed in there and asked her if she had to potty.  I picked her up and started taking her to the bathroom and she yelled at me, "NO!  I go ni-night!"  So I layed her back down and off to sleep she went.  Woke up that morning completely dry!  I was so amazed, I can't even make it all night sometime without getting up to go to the bathroom!

Day 4:  She acted like she had been doing this her whole life.  Told us every time she had to go, we didn't even have to remind her a million times either.  She woke up from her nap again after an hour or so (grumpy again), and I asked her if she need to potty, she said "Uh huh".  I got her to the potty, and she screamed "NO, I go ni-night!"  Ok, let's go back to sleep.  Got her in her room, "I go potty!"  Ok, let's go back to the bathroom..."NO, ni-night!".... like, 5 times back and forth of this.  I knew she had to potty but she was just really disoriented from just waking up and being tired.  She was giving me a run for my money but making me laugh at the same time.  She finally used the potty, and did not go "ni-night" again for her nap after that.

Day 4 also brought out the crazy in me....and by crazy I mean stir crazy.  I will say that I did enjoy the "bonding" Lyla and I did these last few days, because I made sure I was by her side the whole time and completely focused on her, rather than trying to half-play, half-clean the house at the same time.  But 4 days of not getting out of the house and not doing much of anything around the house and I was starting to feel like the walls were closing in on me.  I was also scared to leave the house with her, because life is completely different now without diapers!  Luckily I was able to run a few errands while Chad stayed with her, for my sanity's sake.

So there ya have it!  22 months old and potty trained in 2 days.  Yes those 2 days were 2 of the longest days I've had in a long time....but wow, I can give up a few days if it means saving hundreds of dollars in diapers and not having to do the potty training struggle for the next year or so!