Potty Training: Day 3 through 9

Day 3 though 9 Summary

Goal:  Slowly challenge her skills in independently recognizing her need to potty as well as going potty away from home.

Set up:  Potty chair along with books and treats stayed in the half bath.  Occasionally at night we would bring it upstairs where she bathes.

Doll:  Doll no longer helped us through the process :)

Drinks:  Drinking was back to the usual protocol; milk with meals and water between meals.  Occasionally she has diluted juice as an afternoon snack.

Dry/Clean Rewards:  Our orginal intent was to follow the Pottywise method to focus rewards not only on GOING potty but remaining dry/clean.  The thought behind it is, it helps minimize accidents because they are being praised for not JUST the result (GOING potty).  Around day three (this was the first day my focus was split between the two kids because Matthew was back to work of course), when I would ask her to check if she was dry/clean she would freak out.  She screamed NO!!!  I thought maybe she was scared she had failed, but I checked her anyways and would say "YAY you are dry and clean", let's go get a treat and try to sit on the potty.  She responded with "NO, dont say yay.  Dont say it.  I dont want a treat."  Wow.  I did not expect that.  All I can figure is, she ONLY wants to make a trip to the potty if she is certain she will be successful.

Success rewards:  We continued to reward with two treats (skittles, M&Ms or fruit snacks) after each successful potty trip.  At day ten, we changed the reward strategy, so stay tuned

Mandatory potty times:  Once we figured out that Addison strives for only successful trips to the potty, we decided to only expect her to sit and try at certain times.  We expect (and even endure a tantrum) an attempt before nap, bedtime, video time (which is once or less a day) and before an outing.  These mandatory times started off as a huge battle ground which is NOT what I EVER wanted, however we stuck with it.  Now at day 12, she generally complies with these mandatory times.  I believe once we established a CONSISTENT expectation of mandatory times, she felt confident and content.

Asking to potty vs. independent recognition:  When we noticed that Addison did not want to take a trip to the potty unless it would be successful we started giving her longer to TELL us she needs to potty vs asking every 15 minutes.  She asks to go potty about 50% of the time and the rest of the time she is going because she was asked and realized she needed to go.

School:  We held off on starting her back to school until day five of potty training.  Our desire was to set her up for success and the best way to do that was to stay at home and focus on potty training several days in a row before venturing to "foreign" pottys.  Day five was her first day at a new school and she went from 8 am to 2:30 without going potty!  WOW!  However, no accidents.  Whenever the staff asked her if she needed to go she cried.  When I picked her up around 2 pm I took her to THEIR potty with the teacher and she still would not go.  Upon our return home, she did both.  Twice.  I felt bad that she held it that long, but was impressed with her control too.  More to come on this.

Naps:  She sleeps with a pull up mostly because she is still in a crib and would not be able to go potty if she needed to.  She has been dry every time and clean all but twice.

Bedtime:  She sleeps with a pull up; I am NOT worried about nighttime control for a LONG time.  She wakes up wet every morning.

Independence:  Towards the end of day 7, 8 and 9 Addison started exhibiting the desire to go through the entire potty process independently--pants off/on, sitting alone, reading alone, etc.  This brought me encouragement!!

Accidents:  Accident Free!  WOOT!!!

What would I do differently?

Consistent expectations:  As I mentioned under the mandatory potty times, establishing consistent expectations for mandatory potty times would have been helpful.  We believe consistency is the key to much of our parenting success; this is no exception.

Focus:  A three day weekend with Matthew home an extra day would have been helpful.

School:  I am not sure WHAT I would do differently, but I would do something different here.  Perhaps we should have waited until she was comfortable with the teachers before potty training.

Dry/Clean rewards:  I love the idea of rewarding for something other than successful trips, however in hindsight I think I was inconsistent with this.

Independent recognition:  I should have started allowing her to TELL me she needs to go sooner; many meltdowns may have been avoided.

I am sure I will have more on what I would do differently as I get further along in the process.  Some mistakes take a while to haunt us :)