Family Life

Mission: Potty Training

Mission: Potty Training

Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to teach your child to pee and poop in a potty without losing your mind or staining your carpet. This diaper will self-destruct in five seconds.


Potty training sort of snuck up on me this time around. For the last six months or so, I’d been offering the potty to Kay on and off, no big deal, and she mostly said no. A few weeks ago, we were having yet another casual conversation about using the potty, and I reminded her she’d be able to wear big girl underwear just like her sister if she would only pee on the potty. I offered to show her a set I’d been keeping aside for her, and when she saw them, she was gung ho to put them on RIGHT NOW.

magic underwear

The magic underwear!

I was totally not expecting this though , so of course they weren’t washed yet. But she settled for a pair of Elmo underwear and spent all afternoon in them. Not one accident! (I did wash the magic underwear that evening so she had a pair ready to proudly put on the next day.) I will admit there might have been a teensy bit of emotional blackmail involved, but all’s fair in love, war, and potty training!

FB status

In the weeks since, she’s had just four accidents: twice because she forgot she wasn’t in a diaper, and twice because she was too busy playing to listen to her body. She was a little upset, but we all told her it was okay. Her big sister gave her a big hug and told her she used to pee in her pants too, so she shouldn’t worry about it. Heck, I’ve been nine months pregnant twice, so she’s not the only one who’s had little accidents. No judgment here!

For the first little while we kept her potty seat in the living room (hardwood floors, for the win!) tucked away between the couch and the wall. This area is affectionately known as Poo Corner (anyone with kids ought to recognize this Winnie-the-Pooh reference!), so called because that was where she liked to hide to do her business. The first few days with Kay in underwear, she demanded a diaper for her number twos. She refused all offers of the potty, bribes of chocolate, etc., until I suggested we put her potty in Poo Corner. You should have seen her face light right up! Problem solved – Mom’s a genius!

After a couple of weeks, I explained that potties go in the bathroom and moved it over with no issues. Next up will be getting on the toilet, but Kay’s still so little I think it might be a while before she can climb up there independently.

Potty in Poo Corner

Poo Corner

Currently Kay is still wearing a diaper at night. When we first started potty training, she woke up wet every morning, but just in the last couple of weeks she’s been waking up dry about 50% of the time. If I recall correctly, her big sister started waking up dry about three or four weeks after she got out of daytime diapers. Next step, underwear overnight!

When it comes to outings, we take a second potty with us when we go out so we can pull over and whip out her trusty red potty whenever she needs to go. I’ve seen her go over two hours before she has to pee, but we all know at this age, if you gotta go, you gotta go! With Tee I had to remind her constantly, and it was a fight every time to get her to go. We had accidents – not many, but enough. In comparison, Kay rarely needs reminders. She takes herself off to her potty independently and is so proud of every “accomplishment”. It seems like we were just waiting for the right time!

proud Tee

Woo hoo! Another milestone in my quest to get away for the weekend alone with hubby! Hang on, Vegas, we’re coming soon!
 

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10 Comments

  • Congrats on the potty training, my daughter is having so many problems with her little one, she is stubborn and her mother is starting to pull her hair out, she can be so good going on the potty and then the next minute she wants absolutely nothing to do with it, it would be nice for her to get into big girl pants, but one day at a time!!

  • Awesome! It sounds like it’s been a fairly stress-free experience! There’s nothing like having no diapers to change, eh? I’m loving having a break from diapers between baby 3 and 4! By the time baby 4 is born in January, I will have had a whole year off from diapering!

  • We put our potty in the living room too. It was the only way I could convince our son to sit on it. We had to transition ours very slowly to the bathroom. I even had to put it in the tub and lift him in there every time he had to go for a few days!

  • We’ve recently had a breakthrough with potty training too, and it makes me so happy!! Our first child was fully potty trained by 2 years, 5 months whereas our second child has been very stubborn about not trying at all. Then she was responding to bribery, but then changed her mind not long after. Now suddenly she is interested again, and initiating potty use on her own instead of having to be asked, so this has been a huge, and welcome, change!!

  • We delayed even beginning this process longer than most people would, and heard everyone’s opinion about our choice. But when we decided to “go for it”……it just all fell into place. Success in less than 2 weeks, only 2 minor accidents, and none during the night. For a good month I insisted on diapers at night, but as of this week, we are done done done with diapers. And she’s now enjoying the big potty as opposed to the little one of her own.
    I never would have guessed that my stubborn little girl, turning 3 in two days, would have co-operated so well. 15 yrs ago with my boy, it was all about bribery lol.

  • We’re currently attempting to potty train also. We have been doing the no pants/underpants method with great success. I’m slowly adding underpants but that isn’t going so well. Here’s hoping it gets better.

  • Congrats on potty training! I’m almost there with my son but he’s afraid of the potty I think…or at least hates to sit on it naked. I’m contemplating letting him try and stand up to pee but then again all I can think is oh what a mess that will be! LOL

  • I’m bookmarking this bad boy for when my son is ready to potty train! I know that’s going to be a joy…and I’m sure our landlord won’t appreciate pee on our carpet, haha. Thanks for sharing this!

  • That sounded so easy! I had such a hard time potty training my eldest. I’ll have to reference this post when my youngest starts.

  • Congratulations! That’s a huge success 🙂
    We succeeded around the same time and I still can’t believe that. It was so nice to finally throw out of my head all the diapers prices, coupons and where to get them 🙂
    It was very quick for us. By the time we started to be insistent she was already able to hold everything for so long that we could never “squeeze” anything out of her. And we would get everything in the diaper as soon as she went for a nap or night sleep. Once we were able to catch her a couple of times, she practically potty trained herself in 3 days with 1 small incident. Ever since I even stopped asking if she needs to go – she seems to know it better 🙂 It’s like she never wore a diaper at all. Nights are the next step…
    We do use candy rewards (I bought small organic real juice gummy bears), but she didn’t know about them until she actually peed in the potty for the first time and we often “forget” about them now if she doesn’t ask (which is often) 🙂