the day she started (and did not quit) potty training

WARNING: This post uses the word POOP more times than I care to admit. Read at your own risk.

Notice the difference in the title from my last post about potty training? The day I started potty training versus the day she started potty training. It started about two weeks ago. On Halloween. I went to pick Eva up from preschool as usual. When I got there, her teacher told me that she had been doing a great job during bathroom time. Of course, I was a bit surprised. I asked if she meant trying or actually going. She said she had been peeing every day. When she saw I was surprised, she said “Aren’t you training at home? Eva told me she goes on the potty at home”. My 2 year old liar. Bless her.

On the drive home I talked it up and told her I was so proud of her for going on the potty at school. When we got home and sat down to lunch she told me she needed to go to the potty and poop. I told her to finish her lunch first because over the past weeks she had been using going to the potty as an excuse to get out of any and everything. But, this time, she was holding herself up on her seat and said “Mommy! I need to go”. So we went. And she went. Immediately. No hesitation. No fear. Nothing. She just went.

I was super pumped and of course praised her up the wazoo. Since it was Halloween, we were heading out after nap so I couldn’t do much more that day but I asked her the next morning if she wanted to be a big girl and go on the potty. She said yes. So, I pulled the little potty out, took of her dirty diaper and left her bottomless. Within ten minutes, when I was in the kitchen, I heard “MOMMY! CAN’T YOU COME CLEAN UP THE POOP?”

Uh oh.

I raced into the living room and sure enough she was huddled over a turd on the floor. TMI? Sorry about your luck. I was shocked because she had just had a dirty diaper and rarely goes twice in a row like that. But, as shocked as I was, I am pretty sure she was even more shocked than me. As I cleaned things up, I talked to her about how she doesn’t wear diapers any more and that she needed to sit on the potty every time she felt like she needed to go.

I thought “perfect, we’re off to a fab start”. Sarcasm font.

As the day went on, things got better and better. She put a lot of tinkles in the potty. Too many, in fact. I could tell she was forcing herself to go to get candy but for the first day, I thought that was just fine. The next day, she got even better. Many times, she took herself to the potty without prompting. And we had success with #2 on the potty too. On Saturday morning we added undies to the mix and she did great. Saturday afternoon we went a step further and put pants on. We even ventured outside to play and do some yard work.

Over those three days, she wasn’t 100% but she was doing pretty dang good. We decided on Saturday night to brave it up and head to church with her in undies on Sunday. And? That was her first 100% accident free day. She did wonderfully. Telling us during service when she needed to go potty and telling her Sunday school teacher, too.

Monday again, was 100% accident free, even during a 30 minute car ride and play date at a friend’s. On Tuesday, I decided to keep her home from preschool for one more day of practice. I had already told her teacher she’d been gone since we had been planning to visit Nana and Papa before all of this began. That’s when things started to go downhill. I guess after doing so well for so many days, I naively thought we were in the clear. Tuesday brought with it 2 pee accidents and 2 poop accidents and I was really feeling discouraged. I had stopped prompting her since she had been doing so well and after the accidents I was back on her like a crazy person and I think she found that annoying and stopped wanting to care about the potty.

At the end of the day, I was having major second thoughts about sending her to school the next day. Maybe I just needed to keep her home again. Eventually, Evan and my mom convinced me to send her, as that was the place the whole thing started. So send her I did. With four changes of clothes. And when I picked her up I fully expected her to be wearing different pants than I dropped her off in – but she wasn’t. She had stayed dry all morning and even held it in and only gone during potty time. That was a huge relief to me as well, as she was still usually going every 30-40 minutes at home.

Since then, we’ve still had our ups and downs. She is doing amazingly well with the pee portion. She hasn’t had a pee accident for me since Thursday afternoon and even stayed dry on the 1.5 hour car ride to and from my parent’s house, even though she was wearing a pull up. She did wet her pants when she was with a babysitter on Saturday, but overall, she’s done great. The whole #2 thing has proven to be more of a challenge. The first few days, she was awesome. She said, “I have to poop” and then pooped. However, since that Tuesday that she had 2 accidents, it’s been dicey. She will tell me she has to go, sit down and pee and then insist she’s done, freaking out if I try to make her stay on. Then, she gets off and has an accident. That or she holds it and goes in her pull up when I put her down for a nap. Yesterday, she even had a #2 accident at school which really surprised me since she would never have pooped in a diaper there. It happened just before I picked her up, on the playground, and she walked up to her teacher and said “I fink I need to ask my mommy to take me potty”. Bless her heart.

Right now, it’s pretty iffy. Some days she still tells me and goes no problem. Other days, not so much. In the 14 days we’ve been training, 8 days she has been #2 successful and 7 days she has not (4 times having full on accidents in the undies or in the tub, for the love, and the other times going in a pull up). So, I guess that’s still better than it could be. We are using a Dora sticker potty chart courtesy of Melissa in hopes that it will help her to get more successful with the #2s.

Some days are frustrating and stressful but I keep reminding myself to lower my expectations and that this too shall pass. Right now, we couldn’t be more proud of her. She’s been doing so well and trying so hard, despite her occasional accident. I know soon enough we’ll get there and she’ll be spot on.