Day 1: What a difference 5 months makes! Today went surprisingly really well! Lexi is really starting to get it!! Woo hoo!! We had four successful pees in the potty, only one complete miss, and even a huge poop in the potty!
I was really going back and forth about weather to start today or not. I had planned to start today for a few weeks now, but then yesterday Lexi came down with a cold. I didn't know if I should go ahead with it and risk her being in a horrible mood and not receptive because of being sick, or if I should push it off for another week. I really didn't want to delay it again, and Lexi woke up in a good mood this morning, so I said lets go for it.
We started out sitting on the potty every half hour. She didn't want to sit at first, so I started rewarding trying with 1 m&m. She sat every time I told her to after that. The first pee of the day, Lexi told me she was leaking and I got her right on the potty right away. 90% went in the potty! Success! Reward of 2 m&ms. The second pee was after I told her to sit a few hours later. The third and fourth times she yelled "mommy I have to go potty!" I rushed her over and all the per went in. There was one attempt at poop then. She said she had to go and was really concentrating while sitting, but there was just a wipe of poop on her bum, none in the potty. Reward of 2 m&ms for trying. The fifth pee was a complete miss, and I'm still not sure why. She was sitting on the couch with the potty right next to her on the floor and I was about 10ft away in the kitchen door way. She said she had to go pee pee, so I rushed over to her, but she didn't move at all. She just sat on the couch and peed. All the other times she had tried to get herself to the potty when she felt she had to go. It was really disappointing. I explained that we don't pee on the couch. Pee belongs in the potty and that I was not happy that she had peed on the couch. We sat down for dinner after that and in the middle of eating she said she was going to go sit on her potty. I said ok. She went over, sat down, and pooped! It was an awesomely huge poop, too!! She had been holding that in all day! Lol She was very proud of herself for pooping on the potty, and I was, too!! Rewarded 5 m&ms (she asked for 10 haha, so that was the compromise).
Day 2: 5 complete pees in the potty, one mostly miss, one big poop in the potty. Rewards: 1 m&m for trying, 2 for pee in the potty, 5 for poop in the potty. It was a good day considering the major interruption...
I wanted to go out for a run. It takes me about 40 mins to go 3.5 miles right now. Lexi had just peed in the potty and I had just fed Evan. KJ said he could hold down the fort, so I went out. About a mile down the road I passed a house. The people had just got home and let their dog out... And it came right for me. The dog attacked me. It ripped my clothes, broke skin on my back and left arm, and left bruises on my right hand and arm. It's a good thing it was cold that day because I was wearing a pretty thick hoodie, which definitely padded the bites. If it had been warmer and I was only wearing a long sleeve t, or just a t shirt... It could have been a lot worse. I called the police and the owners of the dog will be cited. The dog will be in quarantine for 10 days, in case of rabies. I'm on antibiotics to prevent and infection, and I had to get another T-dap shot.
I'm still really mad about the whole situation. A dog like that should have been tied up, period. This should have never happened. My back and arms are sore. I feel like I can't go running any more in my own neighborhood. I'm scared, and I'm mad about that.
Anyways, back to potty training. KJ had to put a diaper on Lexi in order to put her in the car to come get me. Then I had to go to the urgent care to get checked out, and she had an accident at home with KJ. So what was supposed to be 40 mins turned out to be a three hour ordeal. But Lexi went pee and poop on the potty after dinner, so at least we ended the day on a good note.
Day 3: All five pees in the potty, one poop accident, and one poop on the potty. Same rewards as yesterday. Lexi did really well with getting herself to the potty on time. With the accident, a little bit came out and she realized she had to get to the potty, but it all came out before she got there. Same thing happened the second time, but got to the potty before she lost it all.
I had to go out to see what the house number was where the dog was at, because they Health Department wanted to know. So I waited until Lexi had just peed, put her in pants, and ventured out. She was only in pants for about 15 mins, but she stayed dry! Definitely a step in the right direction! All in all it was a good day!
Day 4: Four pees in pants, six pees in the potty, one 50/50, one poop in pants, and one poop on the potty. Rewards, 2 m&ms for pee, 5 for poop.
Well, we started off the day trying pants and it was a big old fail. It's like she treating them like diapers. She's not saying she has to go. She's not making any effort to get to the potty. Very frustrating! But, I had her go naked again for the second half of the day and she did great again. So, it's the pants that are giving us the hang up.
It was a nice day to day (45 degrees! Heat wave!), so I waited until Lexi had just peed and put her in pants to take her outside to play. We were out for about a half hour playing and having a good time, then I notice that her pants are wet again :/ I asked her if she had gone pee pee or had an accident and she said no... I asked if her legs felt wet or cold and she said no... Ugh
I don't really know where to go from here. How do I get her to wear pants and still pee in the potty?
Day 5: Four pees in the potty, one complete miss, two 50/50, one poop in pants, one poop in the potty. Same rewards as yesterday.
I asked a group of my mommy friends how they added pants in while PTing and they had some good suggestions. First, we have to just forge ahead with pants. There will be accidents, but Lexi will eventually get it. Expect an adjustment time. Second, the legging pants I was putting her in might have been the problem. They might be too snug and feel too much like a diaper. So, they suggested using jeans or khakis instead. I never buy her jeans because they don't fit well over our cloth diapers. Since they don't stretch we'd have to size up, and then length becomes an issue. But sizing up on shorts works because length doesn't matter, and I don't like her to wear shorty shorts anyways. Anyways, I got her shorts out of storage and I saw a definite improvement. She still had some accidents, but she was actually recognizing that she had to go and made an effort to get to the potty. We're still working on pulling pants up and down. She can do it, but isn't very quick yet. We are making progress.
Day 6: Four pees in the potty, one pee in pants, and one poop in the potty.
Progress! Lexi made it the whole day in the same pair of shorts until the end of the day when she had an accident. We switched on and off today between shorts and a skirt. The skirt is really easy for her to pull up and down and she still has that naked feeling, so she remembers to go to the potty.
Every time she has an accident I just keep repeating myself, "pee pee goes in the potty, not in your pants". I show her the wet pants and ask her what happened? She says she had an accident. I ask where pee pee belongs? And she says in the potty. I say right, pee pee belongs in the potty, not in your pants.
Day 7: Three pees in the potty, one poop in the potty
Today we went to story time. It was the first time we've ventured out all week! I put her in a pull up, just in case, but I told Lexi we were still going to use the potty and pee doesn't belong in her pants. (We've been doing pull ups at night and calling them her "fancy nighttime underwear". We will tackle night training down the road.) She stayed dry the whole time! She really doesn't pee a lot in the mornings, so that definitely helped. I still don't have long jeans for her to wear and it's way too cold to wear shorts out, so that's why I did the pull up under her legging pants. One of our neighbors has some 3T jeans she said I could have, so I'm hoping to get those tomorrow. Then this weekend and next week we can work on doing outings while commando in jeans. I hope it works!
Well, in one week of PTing we've gone from diapers full time, to 80% of pee and poop in the potty! Very exciting!! It's really true what they say, you have to wait until your kid is ready. Looking back now, I can see how Lexi just wasn't ready yet, even though I really wanted her to be. This time was soooo much easier than last time. We made so much progress just in that first day because things were actually clicking this time. She was ready this time. Lexi is on her way to being potty trained!! Yay!!!
Lots of Love
KJsbabe
