Potty Training Success!

I told you I'd keep you along for the Potty Train.

Raise your hand if you are tired of reading about it yet?

I'm kinda over it too.

Jasmine has done a Superb job and I am ready to call it finished.

She has not wet her underpants since Monday at home.  We call her Grandma every day to update her on her progress and Daddy is super proud of her, but a little uncomfortable continuing with the "Good job pooping on the potty Jasmine!!" talk from his cubicle when we call him at work. Hee hee.
 :)

We have been playing potty all week and she has had quite the moral support of friends who have come along for the ride:

 Dollhouse Baby on the potty.

Mickey on the potty.

Hello Kitty on the potty.

Barney on the potty.

Tiana on the potty.

And even:

Dream lite on the potty.

And my favorite:

Big sister on the potty!!

I know we will still have accidents when we leave the house. 

My plan for that is pullups OVER underwear.

I did this with Vivi and it worked beautifully.

Tomorrow will be a fun mall day to celebrate Vivianna turning 6 years old...so she will get to try out:

 Jasmine on a public potty.

We will see how that goes!

If all goes well again tomorrow, I will be able to officially say Jasmine has fully potty trained in 3 days, two weeks before turning two years old.

Potty Training- Day One

This evening, Jasmine ditched the diapers!

She received her potty training launch pack and immediately put on her underwear. We started late in the day because we ended up having to spend our entire afternoon shopping for a new washing machine.

 It is always something around here...

The spin cycle on our old one broke just in time for all the wet underwear I am going to be washing over the next week. Good grief.

The new one is installed and working beautifully.

Jasmine spent a little over 3 hours tonight diaper free. 

She had three pees on the floor and two in the potty. She remained interested in the process, so we will see how tomorrow goes. 

I sure am thankful for all the tile in our house!!

 The progress I hope to see tomorrow includes: the ability to stop and start peeing by her own control, the ability to get to the potty and get her underwear off if need be, and making sure she remains positive about potty training and doesn't get so discouraged she shuts down.

I will keep you all updated as we board the Potty Train!

Potty Training Chronicles...A Week Later

Okay, unless we hit a snag in our training- this will be my last post on the subject. We have been training for a whole week today and Vivi is trained! As of this morning, she said potty and we went in and she pooped before church. Then on the way to church she said potty and so before Sunday school, I took her to the bathroom and she peed. And the best news of all is that the teacher said she told her she needed to go potty and went! So she made it all through church in a dry pull-up! Yeah, Vivianna! When we travel out of the house, I put a pull-up on her. This avoids the inevitable messes of a distracted and hurried child and Mom. However, so far she has gone almost completely in public restrooms and has not had to rely on her pull-up, keeping it dry. She did this at Little Gym, American Airlines Center, McDonalds, the mall, the zoo, and now church.

The trick with pull-ups is to make sure at the beginning of your toilet training, you stay home for 3 days and have them wear only underwear (except for sleep times, of course). You have to stick to this if you are going to experience success in the short-term. If they get used to being able to pee in a pull-up, then they will continue to do so and you will be training your child for weeks- if not months. I have seen kids take up to a year to fully train because of the crutch of pull-ups. Now, here is how it works- if you train them on underwear for 3 days at home, then you should be able to put them in pull-ups outside the home (church, daycare, school, etc.) and they will not use them as a crutch. If they are truly trained, the pull-ups only serve as a back-up- not the place they will choose to pee. This is necessary to avoid your Sunday school teacher and daycare provider from having to deal with the stress and mess of wet pants. If however, your child has not trained at home- they will continue to use their pull-up to pee and poop, just like a diaper. So don't go spending that extra money for pull-ups if you are going to treat them as diapers. That's just silly. Diapers are much cheaper and you get more in a box.

Young children, like Vivi- are still learning bladder control. This makes pull-ups necessary for the car seat, the stroller, anywhere you can't get to a bathroom quick or your child is going to be too distracted to tell you they have to go (just ask our waiter at Red Lobster how he felt cleaning up our accident when Mommy chose not to put little Vivi in a pull-up for dinner. Whoops!)

So the final potty training lesson is - ONLY use pull-ups outside the house, and for a only a short time. We pack panties in her little back pack along with a change of clothes, that way when we get to the mall, or wherever we are going, we can take off the pull-up she wore on the way there and put on the panties, avoiding them being used as a crutch. Have your little trainee pee before you leave the house, then don the pull-up for traveling. Go straight to a bathroom when you arrive, pee and then put on the panties. Before you leave your destination, visit the bathroom- pee- and back into the pull-up. Therefor eliminating the cleaning of a soggy car seat if you get stuck in traffic.

Vivi has had accidents (i.e. the Red Lobster incident) only at times I have deviated from what is now being referred to around here as "The System". This usually involves one of us forgetting to take her to a bathroom upon arriving at our destination. If all the adults involved with your child understand The System and will follow it precisely, most children can train in just a few days to a week. The trick really is in getting your child to tell you they have to go potty, so you are not constantly nagging them with "do you have to go potty?" which usually illicits a big "no!" followed by a puddle on the floor. Vivi is great about telling us and the few times she looks like she needs to go (crosses her legs, grabs at herself) I say "let's go potty!" instead of asking, and off we go.

If you have been following along with the potty posts, and are ready to train your little diaper wearing tot, just remember these tips:

~Start after naptime on day one so you don't wear yourself out

~Go straight to underwear during the day

~Do NOT be discouraged if they wet all their underwear before bedtime. Buy more.

~Give them liquids all day long on day one and two.

~Cover all furniture they will sit on with beach towels

~Do use a doll or stuffed animal as a demonstration

~Take them to the potty every 15 minutes or less on day one

~Do use a sticker chart/reward system (avoid the temptation to bribe with candy)

~Do NOT leave the house with your child for atleast 48 hours.

And lastly, DO NOT put them back in diapers.

It is not worth the setbacks that will ensue.

Here is the link to my other potty training posts.

And please do not tell your friends/sister whose child potty trained at two that they are "lucky". It ain't luck people. My child is not smarter or more talented than yours (although I may think so, Ha!) Just kidding. Stick to the system. It works. Don't pay for fancy potty training books or advice, get them at the library if you have to. Just remember that too much advice can confuse and discourage you. Most 2 year old girls and 2.5 year old boys can do this. I have now done this with 3 children. If you do it right, it will work. Thank you for following along on our potty training journey, and your words of encouragment!

Now onto getting the child to not eat crayons...

Potty Training Day 4

Well I can sincerely say my child potty trained in 3 days.

Yesterday was her first real outing and she peed in her first public restroom.
She went before Gym class. Then in the middle she grabbed herself and said "potty!",
I took her and she peed again in the toilet. Her pull-up was dry.
She had only one accident all day and it was while she was strapped in her booster seat for
lunch. She not only peed every time in the potty all day, she pooped TWICE!
And we are not talking about a child that has to be reminded. She says potty when she has to go.
Of course I know she may hit a relapse, she will have accidents here and there. But the point is, she says potty- holds her pee until she sits- and has begun to poop on the potty.
And the major accomplisment, will pee in a scary public restroom and has NO problem flushing that giant, noisy toilet!




And of course she was thrilled to be out of the house and
able to practice her amazing gymnastics skills.

WAY TO GO, VIVI!!!

Potty Training Day 3

Well, we are continuing the progress!

Yesterday afternoon she wet maybe half the panties

she had wet in the morning.

Today she is averaging 1-2 wet an hour,

which is a huge difference from day one.

She tells us everytime she has to go

(although sometimes she has already done some).

We have found that the dresses get too wet when she goes,

so she is running around in t-shirts and underpants only. We have not had any carpet clean-ups, she is holding it back really well.

Our little potty trainer has not left the house since Sunday morning. Tomorrow we will venture out to Little Gym with a pull-up on, but it is important that you stay home with your child for the first 48 hours, so they can really get the technique down.

We have not had a poop in the potty yet, so we are holding out for that. But she always tells us when she has gone and holds her butt- so that is great! I have lessoned the liquids now, so she is having to pee less frequently which is good because day one was a beating,

though a necessary step in the process.

The trick is not giving up! The accidents will continue for days, maybe weeks. She has the steps down, tells us when she needs to go,

and shows excitement- so we are on the right track.

Training Day Two

It is almost 1 p.m. and Vivi is down for a nap. It has been an exhausting morning! She has been training since 6:30 this morning and by naptime ran out of underwear. The good thing is that most of the time she pees just a little in her panties and says potty, doing some more in the potty! So the messes have been minimal. The bad thing is that she is not emptying her bladder, which has her peeing literally every 10 minutes or less. I haven't had to set the timer to take her in there because she is going ALL the time. I'm glad she isn't completely sick of it.

She filled up a chart and has had a lollipop, so we are experiencing lots of successes. But this is the toughest day. Usually be the end of day 2, the child is getting it. She has shown some real good recognition already, as she says "Potty" every time she has to go or has gone. This afternoon I am going to lessen her liquid intake to hopefully get her to a place where she can spread out the need to pee longer than 10 minute increments.


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The underwear sizing is interesting. We have discovered that Elmo and Dora fit her really well. Minnie is a shade big and the generic underwear sags and hangs everywear. All the of them are sized 2T-3T. So if your child has a tiny hiney like ours, go with Elmo and Dora. They are snug and oh so cute!

Potty Training Day One...Overactive Bladder

Today we began Vivianna's potty training after her nap at 3:00. We started with 13 pairs of underwear. We ended with 2 pairs at 7:00 p.m.

It was a successful day.

I gave her this toy for her b-day. It is a doll's potty kit. We had a doll from last year that pees, so that worked out well as our demonstration.We had our potty launch and gave her this basket.

She loved the potty books, chart, stickers, and panties.

Here she is with Aunt Vicki going through her basket.

***Note the double layer of beach towels on the sofa.

This is the only place on furniture she is allowed to sit for week one.

This keeps the messes to the floor.

A beach towel on the bathroom floor works well too.

We started off by hanging the chart, doing the doll demo and having her begin her fluid intake.

Then she got to model her nice Elmo panties.

So she pretty much peed every 10-15 minutes for 4 hours. We set the timer, but she rarely made it. After an hour or so she began to hold herself and say "potty" or "poo poo", so we could see she was cluing in. She also began to hold it and release it multiple times in a 5 minute span- so we know she has that muscle control.

When we put her in her pull-up for bed she even said she had to go potty and did some more on the potty. Yeah, Vivi!

Now, you are thinking...11 pairs of underwear wet and that is a success? But, yes- for day one. She was clearly showing signs of getting the technique down which will help us major tomorrow.

It is best to start after nap on day one so you don't wear yourself completely out by starting in the morning. Keep giving them drinks so they have to go ALL the time. This gives lots of chances for success. Also, don't worry about it staining your carpet because if you are hydrating well, it comes out clear not yellow. Just get some good stain remover for pets that takes the scent out of the carpet, LOTS of paper towels, about 15-20 pairs of underwear and you are good to go!

I will discuss the various underwear sizes we discovered in the 2T-3T range tomorrow.

Stay tuned...

Yep...

Even though Vivi calls anything she does in her diaper "poop", I will not be getting her this book to clarify! We have been reading lots of potty training books and she has consistently told me she needs a diaper change. So I feel like we are well on our way! It is wild to imagine in a little more than a week from now, we will begin our potty training.

We did have a little victory, the other night she was making some funny noises in the bath tub and I said, "Vivi, what are you doing?" and she said "Poop!" So I plucked her wet rear out of the tub and sat her down on the potty with a towel around her shoulders. I walked away to get her pj's and she says "done!" I thought, yeah...she didn't do anything and to my surprise I was wrong! She filled it! So now that she knows she can poop on the potty, hopefully she will when we do our potty launch.

Almost every time I take off her diaper she says potty and runs to sit on it. So that is good too. The trick is going to be getting her to sit for awhile to actually go. I will be distracting her with books and bubbles. So next week as I put the finishing touches on her b-day party, I will begin to print off her potty charts and get her potty launch basket together. I'll post pics of that when we give it to her. With Isaac, I took him shopping for his training supplies. With Vivi, I am going to surprise her by giving her a potty gift basket on the day of our launch.

Ideas for the basket: potty board books, coloring book, potty chart and stickers, bubbles, flushable wet wipes, panties, training pants, a new sippy cup or juice boxes (you want LOTS of fluids those first few days), lollipops, fruit snacks. I don't use the candy as a reward at first, just as a way to get them distracted long enough to sit. "Sit and suck on your lollipop!" sometimes works better than "sit and poop".

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Next week I will blog "Getting Ready to Board the Potty Train!" and talk about all the things you need to get going with your launch. So if your little one is over the age of two, you can do this!

And as I train, I will blog....the battles, the victories, all the soggy details! I promise, I will try NOT to gross you out with pictures or details that are too much information!

Potty Readiness

And so begins my first installment of my potty training series. As most of you know, our little daughter will be turning two in just one month from tomorrow. Big milestone as this means that for atleast another year or so, my baby days are over. :(

I am not happy about this as excited as I am for her and her development.

But regardless of my missing my baby, the fact remains that kids grow up. And part of growing up is getting out of diapers! I personally don't mind changing her diapers. Not a big deal to me, but since she was 18 months old- she has been showing signs of potty training readiness. Our ped. wanted us to start her back then, but I am a firm believer in 2 being the youngest appropriate age, for a more timely success, unless of course your child just "potty trains themselves" as some Moms claim. Then more power to you and your diaper free baby!

My anxiety is heightened about the fact that I have never trained a child this young or a girl before! Both the boys I trained were two and a half. They trained in 3 days. So, I anticipate my little darling taking longer simply because of her age. But we are going to give it our best effort!

Step One- Educate yourself!

I checked out the above book from the library and finished last week. Today I will be getting a different one. I like to speed read through them to glean people's varying ideas of what works and what doesn't. The consistent theme in these books is one that I hold to- once you determine to take them out of the diapers and have done so, don't go back! This can set you back months. I have seen it from other children I know, it's true.

The biggest mistake I see parents making is getting all ready to do "potty training boot camp" as in, getting them trained in a day, and by noon the Mom has pooped out and put her little darling back in diapers, stating the child is just not ready because she peed in her panties 14 times. Well, I think the more accurate account is that Mom is not ready. Those first 24 hours are exhausting!! And there are WAY more failures than successes, but most potty training experts will tell you that if you stick to the plan by the end of day 2 something usually just "clicks" with the child and they begin to get it. I have seen this! It happened for Isaac on evening two at The Olive Garden!! Now that was exciting!

Step Two- Look for Readiness Signs

You can read this signs in books, or google them- so I won't bore you with the extensive list here, but I will share Vivi's personal readiness signs:

**Tells us when she needs a diaper change by grabbing at it and saying "poo poo" or bringing me a diaper when she is wet, as she did this morning. They do not have to do this every time. Just most of the time.

**Can pull her pants down

**Says potty and goes to it, wanting to sit

**Wakes up from naps dry (again not all the time)

**Can go 2 hours without peeing in her diaper

**has a regular schedule of pooping

**wants to imitate family members

**Is atleast 18 months old

So with these readiness signs, it appears as though she could potty train, and therefor we will begin it the week after her birthday.

Step Three- Begin To Purchase Your Supplies

We have our potty chair set out in the bathroom, and she sits on it when she wants. Ikea has some really cute little ones that are less than $5 a piece, so if you live in a big house, you can get one for every bathroom. I bought a dora potty training chart and stickers at Target but will also be downloading free ones from the internet. I will also be getting a toddler toilet seat that goes on the big potty and a step stool. I have been purchasing underwear in her favorite characters, over the past few months to make sure we are well stocked, and of course- carpet cleaner. We have a baby doll that "pees", so we will be using that one when we are ready to train. Wet wipes that are flushable are a must, and pull-ups for night time.

As I am reading books from the library, I have also checked out some items for her.

These DVD's we will be getting from Netflix in the coming weeks.

I bought her this book.

And we checked this one and others out from the library. The library has a lot of great resources on potty training, and they are free! So take advantage of it!

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I will go into detail further on the remaining steps as our time nears. The reason I don't just strip her of her diapers and GO right now, is because timing is key. You have to make sure your schedule is free that for atleast 2 days so your child does not have to leave the house. I am waiting until Spring Break for the perfect timing. Also, it helps to not go it alone if possible. A Sat and Sun where mom and dad can tag-team the wiping, cleaning, and washing of all the mess and the constant trips to the potty, means you set yourself up for success. Support is neccesary so that you will not doubt yourself and your methods. When my friend was potty trianing her daughter last summer, I talked to her or emailed her almost every day to encourage her to keep going. She did, and within days her little one was on her way to full-time success!

A cheerleader and another helping hand makes the whole process a lot less stressful!

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So, if you are currently ready to get your little one going and you think they are ready to take on the task, follow along with me over the next few weeks as we get ready to board the potty train!!