Potty Training: Day 1 and 2 Summary

Day 1

GOAL:  Addison to achieve as many successful attempts to go potty.

• Set up:  Put a potty chair in the play room (just outside the half bath) with a little water in it; placed a few books beside the potty; placed her treat jar beside the potty; placed her favorite baby doll with a diaper (one of Caleb's from when he was born; size 1)
• Woke up, put on a dry/clean diaper and had a semi bland breakfast.  Breakfast was bland to encourage thirst and hunger later in the day with the hopes that it would increase the number of potty successes.
• Doll:  Immediately following breakfast, we walked down to the potty and asked Addison to feel the diaper on the baby doll (Sarah) to see if she was dry or wet.  She of course responds with "dry"; we all celebrated with Sarah and gave Sarah one treat for being dry and clean; Addison partook as well.  Next we set Sarah on the potty (remember we put water in there earlier) and a few moments later, we all exclaimed "HORRAY SARAH WENT PEE PEE ON THE POTTY!".  After the horrays died down, Sarah and Addison both had two treats.
• First Attempt:  Following in the excitement of Sarah's success on the potty, we ask Addison if she is dry, obviously yes.  Horray, one treat.  We sit immediately on the potty.  Our goal was to keep her on the potty at least 3-5 minutes at each attempt no matter how we needed to keep her there-books, ipad, music, video, anything.  Luckily all it took was singing and books but we were prepared to use any means.  Why?  Because the most successes we had at the beginning, the faster she would learn the sensations leading up to, during and after needing to potty.
• Frequency:  After each successful attempt, we waited 30-45 minutes before checking her dry/clean status and sitting on the potty.  After each unsuccessful attempt (unsuccessful being she sat on the potty and did nothing), we waiting 12-20 minutes.
• Drinks:  Addison rarely drinks anything other than water or milk so the special juice boxes she picked out were a fabulous incentive and opportunity creator :)
• Sleep Times:  She wore a pull up during sleep times (nap and nighttime).
• Focus:  This was the focus for the day.  One parent was always with Addison encouraging the process the other took care of Caleb.  We earmarked Saturday to Tuesday for potty training, so we planned to not go anywhere.
• Accidents:  She had only one accident, first thing in the morning.
• Fun Story:  After the first few times she went pee pee on the potty, she figured it out so she went 23 times in a row standing up shouting with excitement.  Immediately after she would get a treat, she would say she needed to go again!  HAHAHA!

Day 2 

Goal:  Addison to achieve as many successful attempts to go potty.

• Differences:  The only difference was we offered less juice, otherwise day two was identical.
• Accidents:  She had only one accident, first thing in the morning.

Overall:  We considered it an amazingly successful first two days.  

What would we do differently?

• Dry/Clean rewards:  I feel like we rewarded for this inconsistently.  Now (Day 6) she gets upset when we praise her for dry/clean.  She even gets upset when we ask her to check her dryness.  I am not totally convinced she responds with way due to inconsistency.  There have been other areas of her life when she prefers attention NOT be drawn to her success.
• Others involvement:  If a grandparent or friend could have come over during the process and taken her potty a few times it would have been great.  On day 6, Addison still refuses to potty for ANYONE other than me or Matthew.  She held it for 7 hours at school and 7 hours for a sitter.  Wow.  I am uncertain if that would help, but perhaps it would.  That is just one of the challenges of living far from family.  It will pass.
• Timing:  In hindsight, I think it would be better to have more time between dropping her sleep time paci and potty training.  I think I needed the break more than her but it was a lot of changes at once--move across the country, paci, potty.  

Future....day six, only two accidents to date.  More to come.  I have lots I would do differently between day three and six