On Friday morning July 16, we embarked on an adventure that I'm sure we'll never forget...potty training with Lauren Elizabeth Berry.
At the recommendation of Dr. Rachesky, I bought and read "Potty Training in One Day" written in the 1970's and Potty Patty, a doll that teetee's on command. The title of the book is misleading as it clarifies itself that you will notice a pattern of urinary continence in about 3 days and will be able to really take--off with training and scheduling after that. The doll is supposed to encourage the child to praise it and teach it how to potty train. You first teach the doll, in front of the child, how to use the potty and praise it by cherring and candy. Then, when the parent makes the doll have a teetee accident on the floor, the child can instruct the doll on what to do to teetee in the potty instead of having an accident. I started the process already very nervous and with dread. I had NO idea what to do except for just follow the book's instructions.
At the recommendation of Dr. Rachesky, I bought and read "Potty Training in One Day" written in the 1970's and Potty Patty, a doll that teetee's on command. The title of the book is misleading as it clarifies itself that you will notice a pattern of urinary continence in about 3 days and will be able to really take--off with training and scheduling after that. The doll is supposed to encourage the child to praise it and teach it how to potty train. You first teach the doll, in front of the child, how to use the potty and praise it by cherring and candy. Then, when the parent makes the doll have a teetee accident on the floor, the child can instruct the doll on what to do to teetee in the potty instead of having an accident. I started the process already very nervous and with dread. I had NO idea what to do except for just follow the book's instructions.
"See my big girl panties?! Yeah, we have 17 pair of Minnie Mouse, Fancy Nancy, and different colored panties!"
If you were to peak in on our house during the 1st 2 days of training, you would have thought we'd lost our minds. There was a lot of running to the potty (any of the three that we were using--porta potty chair in the living room and a potty chair attachment for each of the 1/2 bath and Lauren's bath), wild cheering and dancing at the slightest of dribbles into the potty, talking to a baby doll repeatedly, reading the same books ("Brown Bear, Brown Bear" and "Peter Rabbit") over and over again until we didn't even have to look at the pages to read them, and an obsession with M&M's (we went through 2 packs in 7 days--one given for sitting for 5 full minutes and two given for teetee'ing in the potty).
At the end of this post, you'll see our schedule of potty events. We had her sit every 20 minutes (every 30 towards the end of the week) for 5 minutes and then would ask her 1/2 way through the 20 minute process we as her "Are you dry?" All of this, I realized, is hard to do when your two year old is very limited with her vocabulary.
I should also note that the book stressed the importance of forcing and encouraging fluids, so the nurse in me took this order to the max! Poor little Lauren had taken in so much Apple Juice, water, or milk within the 1st 3 hours of training, that she was walking and peeing at times. Her bladder was probably about the explode!
We also watched "Mary Poppins" and "Annie" a few times during the weekend training.
We needed a little break from teetee, so we went to the beach for a little fun.
Lauren helping Dada up...
Week 22
1st time baking with mommy...Snickerdoodles! They were delicious and Lauren seemed to enjoy it!
More potty training. We needed to get out of the house, so the two of us went to the front porch while dada was at work.
Potty. Watermelon. Book. The fresh outdoors. And we still had an accident.
By the time 7 full days had passed, we could tell that she just wasn't making any progress and wasn't ready to be potty trained. She was still having accidents and seemed to not even realize it until we pointed it out to her.
Here is my letter to Miss Heather the 1st day that she worked that week. I'm sure I'll make fun of myself in the years to come. :-)
So, we ended the week with a mama and dada taking a huge sigh of relief and a little girl without any pressure to do anything every twenty minutes . We're not fully quitting and will keep trying periodically but not as regimented as we've been. I also think that we'll stop using diapers and only use pull-ups (although I know they have to feel like diapers, I'll not lay her down to change them and only clean her while standing up).
This picture is of her 1st day of playing with play dough. Miss Heather texted me the picture while I was at work.
