I Guess It's Over

Amaryllis is doing great. I/we really don't think about it anymore.

So, unless she has a huge regression when the new baby arrives (I don't think that will happen), then I suppose we are done with potty training for now.

Wahoo! Potty trained by 2 yrs old, and before baby #2 comes. That's all I wanted.

Our next step will be to tackle naptime and nightime wetting. But that won't happen until after she is in a big bed and probably not for another year.

Until then---

Slight Regression?

The past 4 days, Amaryllis has had one wet accident per day. All 4 of these occurred around dinner time. I am partially to blame. I know she should go to the bathroom about 3 hrs after she wakes up from nap. But I just can't seem to remember to take her! Allow me to blame my 9-month pregnant belly but "lazy" is now my middle name.

I had hopes she would come get me (she has been doing that recently so I've begun to rely on it). But alas, the past 4 days she comes after the incident has already soiled her undies.

PS: I'm still grateful for the training undies that give extra absorbency. Nothing even gets on her pants and there are no puddles on the floor.

I am wondering if the birthday (she is now 2 yrs old!) and the new toys have some role to play in this. Is it really so hard to tear yourself away from new toys? Apparently so.

Also, the past 4 days, she has been SO DEFIANT and throws a fit when I tell her to go sit on the toliet. This only happens at home. But this has been the case with other things as well (putting on her shoes, putting on her socks, time to go to bed). Are we entering the terrible twos? Maybe. I'm just glad we've got the bulk of potty training done before this little tantrum phase emerged. Phew!

She continues to be very good in public restrooms. Even with pooping. She pooped at my office and at the church--it takes about 15 minutes and a few good books--but nonetheless, she has not had poop-undies in a long time. I'm so grateful because cleaning up that kind of mess is the worst.

She wears a pullup during nap, during Nursery on Sundays just in case, during long car trips, and at night. The rest of the times she wears undies.

Month 3 - Update

Amaryllis continues to do well and she will turn 2 this week. I feel like potty training is over now. I suspect we won't tackle the sleep-wetting until she is in a big girl bed.

The past week I have let her be in charge of coming to get me. And she does, every time so far (knock on wood). She really only needs to go once every 4 hrs which amazes me.

She comes careening around the corner shouting POTTY! It's cute.

As for pooh, she tells me now too. Lollypops have been a huge reward and incentive. She has not gone pooh in her undies in a long time (since Christmas) except for a small accident in her pull-up during Nursery, in which she did go tell the teacher but I don't think they made it in time. She finished up at home that evening.

I still put a pull-up on her during Nursery and long car trips just to be safe. Other than that, she is in undies every day except during sleep.

She has not gone pooh in her crib (she wears a pullup at nap) since I started asking her not to. This came about because she had an explosive pooh episode where poop actually got all over her crib sheets and in the grooves of her crib. Imagine me with my large pregnant belly trying to clean that up. I was so mad. I made a big deal while cleaning it up and made her watch and kept saying ewww yucky. Then she had to watch her beloved special puppy go in the washing machine and THAT really was punishment for her.

So now, when I lay her down before nap, I say "remember pooh goes in the potty not in your crib, ewww, yucky" and she says OK. That amazes me---all I had to do was ask and she stopped doing it during naptime. I really underestimate this child.

Still working on using a normal toilet seat instead of a trainer seat. She freaks out though and says she is going to fall.

Everyone tells me she is going to regress when the new baby comes, so I'm mentally preparing myself just in case it's true.

A Year

I just realized, per this first blog post, that Amaryllis has been sitting on the potty for a year now. Wow.

As for her "real" potty training (as in the day we moved strictly to undies only), it has been 2 months. She is doing fabulous.

Naps and Night:
I still put a pull-up on at nap and an overnight diaper. She does not get "diaper confused" like the book said. She knows undies are for the day. I will not approach the nap/night wetting until later. She simply sleeps too long at night (14+ hrs) and it's not like she can get up and walk herself to the toilet. We'll tackle that later when she is older and in a big-girl bed.

Wet Accidents:
She rarely has any wet accidents. If she does, it is just a little squirt (not even enough to warrant an change of undies) and she runs to the toilet to finish up.

Pooh:
We've had our ups and downs. There was a week awhile back where she went pooh in her undies like 3 times that week. It was during Christmas vacation. I couldn't blame her--who wants to stop playing with cousins and sit on the pot? Anyways, I was SICK of it b/c it is so messy and gross. My mom overheard me scolding her and say "gosh Emily, you're so nice. Be mean to her". Up until now I haven't been mean because the book said you might make your child scared to pooh and they would become constipated. I would just softly explain that poop goes in the toliet and say it's gross to get our undies messy.

Anyways, so I got mean. I changed my tone of voice and told her from now on, if she went poop in her undies she would have to sit in time-out. She definitely knows what that means. She doesn't like time-out and the threat of it still works on her.

Pleased to say that the mean approach also worked with her. I remind her a couple times a day that if she needs to poop, it goes in the toilet. If she gets her undies messy she'll have to sit in time-out. I say it in a stern voice. She is very solemn and says Ok.

Since Mean Mom came into play, she has pooped on the toilet at a ratio of 3 out of 4 on an average week. The fourth time is usually when she poops in her crib/pullup during naptime. I'm ok with that b/c cleaning a poopy pull-up is way easier than a poopy underwear.

Note: she goes poop way less (about once every 2 days) than when she was a baby in diapers which I've heard is normal.

Another note: I now have a method of removing then cleaning a poopy underwear. If you ever need to know it, please ask. It is too weird to write down.

Disposition: Some days she fights me and cries on the toilet. Some days she could care less. I don't think it is toilet related, just the age (like some days she hates sitting in her carseat or stroller).

Cues: She only initiates the potty maybe 1 out of 5 times. I'm usually the one that has to ask/take her. She rarely comes to me and tells me. She still can't reach the toilet by herself, so I'm there every time. It is much faster than when we first started. There is no more sitting, waiting, coaxing, etc. Strictly business.

Next Step: I think my next goal will be to get her comfortable sitting on a regular sized toilet seat since she still uses a trainer seat. Her bum is so teeny though and her upper arm strength isn't quite there. It is annoying to carry the trainer seat around and when baby #2 comes, my diaper bag will be getting heavier. We still use and love this trainer seat since it folds compactly.

All in All: I'd say in 2 months time we have made great progress. I'm not sure if this is a normal time frame but it seems like she picked it up pretty quick. Perhaps it was because I started her out so early and she was already potty-aware?

I trust her and don't worry about her having an accident anymore. I'm glad that anxious feeling is gone for me. She can hold it for up to 3-4 hrs.

I can't believe she will be 2 yrs old next month. I'm SO SO SO glad I did the potty training thing early. It is worth it. I can see her personality developing, and I think if I had waited any longer it might have become an authoritative game.

Yes, for my next little girl, I will most likely start potty training between 18-24 months as well (assuming she seem ready). I think people underestimate toddlers this age...they are so smart and adaptable!

First Wedgie

Well I had to document this, the day Amaryllis experienced her FiRst wEdGie. A First Wedgie only happens once in your life, so it is important enough to write down.

Up until today, she has been wearing training panties which are more boy-cut and have some extra cushion in the bum.

But this morning, she noticed a pair of regular undies that I had been trying to hide (they are thin and not as absorbent, so I was hiding them until wet accidents weren't as often).

Being the upcoming 2 yr old that she is, lately she has gotten very picky about what she wears and SHE wants to pick things out. It's very annoying and I don't know how much longer I'll fight her on it.

Anyways, so she got to wear her her first big-girl undies. And by the way, these are not the white tighty granny pantys that we all grew up with (you know, the ones that go up to your belly button and down halfway to your thigh for maximum coverage). Apparently they don't make those things anymore. All toddler undies nowadays are slightly bikini-cut in style. Scandalous, I know.
I suppose because of the cut/style, that's why it hasn't happened until now. I noticed her walking towards me in that bow-legged, straddling weird walk with a grimace on her face, and I thought she had an accident. She kept saying "hurt" and pointing to her bum.

I checked her and, sure enough. Full on major wedgie. It made me laugh so hard.

Broke Our 9-Day Streak

Well we were doing so well and didn't have a single wet accident for quite awhile.

Then mom got lazy.

I'll take full blame. We were at a church Christmas party and I kept thinking I should take her, but then I thought "no she'll come tell me". She was quite wrapped up in her own little world and did not come get me. I only realized it when she walked over to me, all wide-legged with her legs straddled-like, and a very concerned expression on her face.

Let me tell you she was SOAKED. I realize now that her previous wet accidents weren't really even accidents (just little leaks). This completely soaked everything, dribbled down her legs, soaked her socks, etc.

And apparently pee burns because when I was wiping her legs it was stinging her. Her legs had a red rash the next day.

Bad mom. She had to walk around pantless like a white-trash redneck baby the rest of the party.

Anyways. We are back on track and I'm going to be more diligent when we are at events where it is easy to forget.

Also I did want to record that I love the Potette Plus portable potty. We have 2 other toilet seats for our bathrooms and I wish I would've just gotten Potettes for those ones as well. It is just so much smaller and can fold up nicely. Doesn't seem as cushy for the kid, but whatev.

I also want to say that the flushable wipes are quite useful, so have those on hand too.

And last but not least, surprisingly the Target pullups are even better then the name brand. They have a nice little velcro strip along the side so that, should the toddler poop in there, it is easier to undo instead of having to tear it. Keep in mind I don't use pullups as longterm diapers so I'm not sure how they fare on absorbency, but for the stage we are at I like them. Go Targy.

PS: Home Depot still wins at having the nicest, roomiest, cleanest bathroom. So sad that I have resorted to rating pottys all over Cary, but trust me we have visited them all.

3rd Week is a Charm

We are now in the 4th week of potty training (I think...it all seems to blur together).

By the 3rd week of undies something just clicked with Amaryllis, and we have not had a wet accident in over a week. The first day Amaryllis stayed dry was quite a nice pat-on-the-back for me, but I thought it was a fluke. Then she did it again the next few days and I realized that she just gets it now.

However, may I say during the 3rd week it is with me being the one to initiate going to the potty. I take her about once every hour.

More recently, the past few days, she comes running to me saying POTTY and so it is nice that she has taken the initiative to come tell me.

Thus, everything seems to come in stages. We rarely have anymore cry-fits when I sit her on the potty because she is learning to just pee and get it over with. It takes less than 1 minute. In hindsight, I realize I was forcing her to go too often, and sit on there too long during weeks 1 & 2. But who's to say that hurt or helped?

POOP: We have had a few success on the potty. We've had many accidents in the undies. We've mostly had poopy pull-ups during nap. Or she just doesn't poop for 2-3 days which is fine with me!

Poop in the undies is gross. That's all I can say about that. There's not really an easy way to clean it either.

She does get concerned and tell me she needs to poop, but when I put her on the potty she is impatient and won't wait around. So off she goes and within 5 minutes she's either back on the potty again (but still too impatient or uncomfortable to go), or back off and has gone in her pullup/undies.

All in all, we really don't worry about her wetting her undies anymore and it is a GOOD feeling! She can hold it up to 3-4 hrs (car trips or church). She still loves to go in public restrooms.

Now our main focus is getting her to consistently poop in the toilet. We are on the right track (she is verbal and tells us she has to go), we just need her to have patience and sit there!

I feel like potty training was really easy. Then I remind myself those first few days were exhausting. But it's funny how quickly you forget once you are reaping the benefit.