Or otherwise known as three of the most stressful days of my life, but it was successful so I guess it was worth it.
Friday was nothing but accidents. I can't remember if we had a successful trip before bedtime now or not, it's such a blur, but every other time was an accident. Two things I had to do differently from the method I found on Pinterest : (1) I put Anne in undies, not let her run around naked. For one, I don't have linoleum or tile floors, I have carpet. The undies helped keep a handle on the mess (though still not great, but better than nothing). For two, she didn't want to be naked, she wanted to wear the undies and it wasn't worth fighting her over; and (2) because Anne refuses to sit on the kid potty, we didn't have the option of staying in one room with a potty in the middle of the floor for her to run over to. Fortunately Anne is very verbal already, so we worked on her telling us she needed to go and then we would run to the bathroom. Or we would run as soon as she started to have an accident.
A tip for carpeted floors: cover the floor in baby blankets or towels in the rooms you plan to stay in. Whenever Anne had an accident, I could just pick up that small blanket or towel and throw it in the wash, and it helped keep most of the mess off the carpet. I still feel like I need to steam clean my whole house, but it definitely helped.
Saturday showed some improvement but it was a roller coaster of Anne cooperating with sitting on the potty and screaming and crying whenever we set foot in the bathroom, despite the fact that she had told me she needed to go. The first time she fought me like this, I gave in and we went back downstairs...and she had an accident 5 minutes later. So for the rest of the day, whenever she said she had to go but then tried to back out of it, we hung out in the bathroom until she either gave in and sat or started to have an accident. There were times that we didn't leave the bathroom for 45 minutes because Anne has master bladder control and would hold it just to try to avoid sitting on the potty. Fortunately for both of us, I'm more stubborn than she is. But at the end of the day we were getting more pee in the potty than out of it, so I felt like we were making progress.
Another thing that helped other than hanging out in the bathroom (and therefore inches from the toilet in case she started to go) was that I took a baby doll meant for the bathtub and filled it with water and let the water drain out into the kid potty. The drain hole is conveniently located to simulate peeing. So I would let the baby doll "pee" into the kid potty and then I would praise the baby. "Good job, baby! You peed in the potty! yay!" Anne thought this was the best game ever, and I think it gave her a visual to see what we were trying to accomplish. Regardless, she seemed more cooperative after we started doing that.
Sunday was much like Saturday, but with less accidents, and less time spent hanging out in the bathroom before she would agree to sit on the potty. Still a lot of resistance when I would take her into the bathroom though and that was extremely frustrating. Then we went to Kristian's parents' house and Anne walked right in and peed like she'd been doing it her whole life and I felt much better that she got the concept and knew how to do it, even if she was being stubborn.
I also discovered that part of Anne's resistance was that she didn't like me just swooping in and pulling her pants down and putting her on the potty. She wanted to be in control so I started telling her to tell me when she was "ready" after we got into the bathroom, and encouraging her to use the step stool. This made a world of difference. The sticker board and glow bracelets also continue to be a huge hit.
Monday morning I felt confident in sending Anne to school in undies, though I was prepared for her to have several accidents (the teachers had warned me that her first week would probably be a little rough). She did ok her first day, but not great. More accidents than anything else. Tuesday was the same. Wednesday, however, she had no wet accidents, only poop. Thursday was the same as Wednesday.
And then today...today I got Anne to poop in the potty and I couldn't have been happier. This time I had to do the naked method. She tried to go, got up, and I just left her undies off because I knew she'd been holding it all day. Sure enough it worked, within 5 minutes she was wanting to go back to the potty. I just reassured her that I knew she could do it and we just waited and it happened. She was so excited to finally get a "poop prize" and she wanted me to read her "Princess of the Potty" book again...and then called herself a "Potty Princess." I think she recognized that she had finally done everything the girl in the book does. Here's hoping that once is all it took to convince her that using the potty for #2 is not only something she *can* do, but something she prefers doing.
She also went potty at the park, and got out of the tub halfway through her bath to avoid peeing in the tub. Today is day 3 of no wet accidents, and day 1 of zero accidents at all. I don't want to jinx it, but I think it might be safe to say that I have successfully potty trained my 21 month old daughter :-) It took about 8 days total (4 of which were at daycare). But I think those initial 3 days were crucial. Granted, we still have night training, but she's been staying dry at night since she discovered she has control of her own bladder. So I'm thinking that might be a breeze...hoping anyway. :-)
Best tip I got : Put her in underwear and go for it. Definitely worked and we didn't have a long drawn out process with pull-ups. Everything else was tailoring the process to my daughter's personality and needs.
I am a happy and proud mommy :-D
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