Potty Training Adventures

First of all, you need to know that above all other things I have endured with Kate, it is potty training that I have most feared. Almost every parent has a story to share that quite frankly just never made the prospect of training a child to use the toilet any better. Those stories, along with the potential for some serious messes (which I of course abhor), would be enough to intimidate any mother, but add to it the stress that I could do something wrong or that if she had an accident then she would be mortified and just forget potty training at all until she was 4 or 5. So, I took baby steps and worked with much caution as I approached the subject of using the potty.

It’s been a long road, indeed. In January of this year, I bought Kate’s potty. I can’t remember when she first used it. Hopefully that made it into a blog post or my trusty calendar. We started by having Kate sit on the potty before bath and after bath. At some point after her birthday, Kate began going at that time of day fairly regularly. I began sticker charts to encourage her in May. During the summer, several of Kate’s friends learned to use the potty in what seemed to me record time…less than a week it seemed for most. I stayed the course and tried to encourage more use with some resistance, but also some success. Sometimes Kate would outright refuse to try to go potty, and would say things like, “I go in my diaper and you change it.” Yes, I’d say, but I would so much prefer it if you’d use the potty…

This October, as I hung the 4th sticker chart for “pee pee” success next to the poopy chart that had never once received a single sticker, I wondered if she’d ever come around. Like anything, it was darkest before dawn for sure. Kate was staying dry during the day for long stretches, even though she was always wet in the a.m. and after nap. I started encouraging use after morning outings when her diaper would still be dry. Unfortunately, Kate began refusing to go on the potty so much that I actually put the potty away one night resolved not to bring it out until she asked for it. The next morning, she inquired about the potty, but really didn’t seem to care that I had put it away. I resolved to bring it back out and try again. Amazingly, as she was sitting on the potty after lunch one day, she had a bowel movement. We were both thrilled.

I began reading up on potty training in my trusty reference book and online and resolved to attempt the naked potty training method. Kate liked running around naked and better still, she was very good at running to the potty and didn’t have any accidents. She even managed to go poopy without any assistance this way.

October 25 will go down as a great, groundbreaking day, and yet perhaps the worst day of potty training (one can hope). We started the morning off in undies. Kate went 4 hours without using bathroom, despite several attempts from me to get her to sit. Then, as she is crouching to pick up her box of trains, she flips out over pee-pee running down her leg and runs to the bathroom. “Mommy, it just all came out!” She manages to get most of the pee-pee in the toilet. We change into clean undies and eat lunch. After lunch and nap (nap in a diaper), she runs to the bathroom to go, but has trouble getting off the undies and leaks a little, but goes poopy in the potty all by herself. I leave off the undies to make it easier for her until we head to the store (and really, how much laundry do I want to do…). Next thing I know, she poops in the potty again. I think she’s just excited about eating M&Ms and pushed out a teeny poop just to get another. I tell Kate that we’re going to eat a snack and then go to the store. I was on the phone preparing her snack and she was in her room reading (still naked). I was talking about how well things were going with the naked potty training and how Kate had really made progress over the last week or so. She comes out of her room and I say, “here’s your snack.” She goes and sits down at the table in my chair and eats her peanut butter crackers & banana. I walk over and begin to wash her hands and face (yes I’m still on the phone) and I notice she has peanut butter in her hair and really everywhere. I say, let’s go wash in the bathroom. As walk in the bathroom, I am met with quite a surprise. Poop on the tile at the door and some poop in the big potty (that Kate does not use).

I am stunned and very confused at the sight. Eventually, I learned that Kate actually went on the floor in front of her couch in her bedroom and took it upon herself to “clean up the big mess” herself. She did such a great job; I could barely find the spot of the accident. I guess she was coming to tell me when I handed her the snack plate. YUCK!! I asked her if she washed her hands and she said she did. She didn’t get sick or anything, so perhaps she did. Since this occurrence, we have had no major accidents. Our biggest problem was that Kate wanted to try and take off her clothes herself at first, but after a couple of accidents, she realizes it’s easier to just kick me out after I help her get her pants down.

We’ve had several successful outings and Keith and I have changed only two poopy diapers since the 25th (both were from first thing in the a.m. before she got out of the crib). I know the time will come when we have to either use a public restroom or we’ll have an accident. I’m trying to be prepared and hoping that the worst has already occurred.