I Love Potty Training

Lies lies lies. I loathe potty training. Ask anyone that knows me, and they’ll tell you how animated I get about how much I disliked it when I did it with Hadley. Maybe it had something to do with wintertime, no outdoor play, no husband, no wine, two major regression periods (once when Sadie was born and again when Jamie came home from deployment two months later), but regardless, it was kind of a miserable experience.

Man, I sound dramatic. Ha. I told you that I get a bit animated. 😉

Though Sadie has been “ready” to potty train for a couple of months (though I’m honestly not sure how to tell for sure if a kid is really ready…?!), it was me that just wasn’t. I was thankful that we had a good bit going on the last few months so that I could put it off, plus it just didn’t seem like it made sense to potty train before she was 2? Like, she’s wasn’t really ready, was she? Who knows.

I decided about a month ago to finally buckle down and potty train Sadie when I got back from Turks the last full week of May, but we ended up having company stay a couple of days longer that week… plus my motivation was low to get ‘er done. Weeeeell, this past Friday night rolled around and I realized that we only had about two days worth of diapers left.

Crap. Do I go spend $30 on diapers tomorrow or should I just buckle down and DO THIS?

We were staring at a very quiet Memorial Day weekend that only consisted of two outings: a little friend’s birthday party Saturday and a Memorial Day church service at my parent’s church that they invited us to weeks ago. I decided those weren’t good reasons not to potty train, so my mom came over to watch Sadie while we went to the birthday party, and Jamie and Hadley went to church without us (and then my parents treated them to a fun pizza lunch afterwards while I was “stuck” home with a toddler and a potty chair. Who got the raw end of the deal here?) As for Sadie, she stayed home for three straight days and kissed diapers goodbye.

On Saturday morning, I took off her diaper and explained that we were going to pee in the potty from now on. She was angry and super confused why I wasn’t putting a diaper on her (she can throw a fit with the best of ’em), but bribing her with M&Ms (her favorite) to sit on the potty did the trick. She peed after about 20 minutes but cried while she did it before she probably felt so uncomfortable.

Throughout the morning we gave her a ton (!!) of liquids so that she would pee constantly. She had two accidents before we moved it outside and spent the rest of the day there.

She sat on her potty chair outside as soon as we got out there and successfully peed (her second success of the day). About half an hour later she came running over from the swing set saying that she had to pee, and I shrieked and basically threw her on the potty out of sheer disbelief. I kid you not, she’s had it down ever since. I kept her naked on her bottom half all day Saturday (day #1) and Sunday so that it would be easy for her to run over and use her potty.

On Sunday night she got to put on panties for the first time, and she was so tickled with herself!

She’s wearing Pull-Ups at nap time and bedtime. She usually wakes up from her naps dry and then goes to the bathroom immediately (only because I demand that she do so). She has woken up every morning wet. I anticipate we’ll be in Pull-Ups for a while, which is normal. Hadley was in them for probably close to a year after she potty trained.

If you don’t want to read about poop, this is where we’ll say goodbye as you exit out of the browser. 😉

Sadie’s #2s have been a wreck. She usually goes about three to four times a day (…I know!!), but she’s only gone on her own twice in almost a week. (One was an accident on our floor, and the other was in the potty by pure luck I think.) On Tuesday I was thisclose to absolutely losing my you know what because she was screaming in pain all day that “booty hurts” but refused to go poop. I left my house in the blinding rain from Tropical Storm Alberto to get some Miralax, but it didn’t help. We finally gave her a liquid suppository () and it did the trick (p.s. I can’t believe I just linked to a suppository. Talking about poop is what my life has apparently become. Send help.) We’ve done it twice now which relieved her pain but hasn’t done any good for teaching her how to not hold her poo.

I had zero issues with getting Hadley to poop in the potty, so this is a new ball game.

In general though, I am so dang proud of Sadie, I just can’t stand it. I don’t understand how she nailed going #1 in a matter of three hours, but she’s telling me when she has to go and hasn’t had an accident since the first morning. I don’t think her success with this part of potty training had anything to do with me but everything to do with her personality. I guess she really was just ready.

I used the method with Hadley (highly recommend reading it before potty training your first child), and her progression with potty training happened the exact way the book says. I don’t think Hadley was totally “textbook ready” at 25 months old, but I needed her to be potty trained before Sadie came along. I followed the book’s advice to a tee and had a lot of success with it, even if it made me want to pull my hair out at times.

I used the same practices with Sadie for the most part, especially when it came to keeping her naked and never putting a diaper back on her again, no matter how much she asked.

I know from last time though that getting kids to successfully go in the potty is really just step one. Now we have to work on going in public places, using the “big potty” (which she did at a friend’s house today and shocked me!), and dealing with finding bathrooms at inconvenient times or places where they may not be accessible right away. We’ll see! I know it’s a process, but I’m glad this major first portion is over.

Let’s chat!

Any tips welcomed regarding lovely #2s. 😉

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