So the potty-training continued today. I gave Lily some apple juice this morning thinking it would encourage her to need to use the potty. Well, it would have saved us some time if I had just poured it on the chair for her instead of letting her drink it. She was sitting in Daddy's kitchen table seat (as a special treat since he was in Birmingham) waiting on me to toast the bagels when I gave her the juice. It couldn't have been two minutes later that she said "I spilled and need to change my panties." I was a little confused and said "Did you spill your juice or did you have a little accident there?" so she replied "I had an accident." Please understand that cleaning up accidents is the second biggest part of potty-training I want to avoid (the first is the fact that when the child has to go, she has to go NOW regardless of what you're in the middle of doing). I didn't want her to feel badly though so we went to the potty where she tee-teed a little more and put on new panties. I thought "okay, I'll ask her in about 15 minutes if she needs to go again since she's still drinking juice." Wrong thought. About 5 minutes later she was playing in the den when I heard "I spilled again." All I could think was "Are you kidding me?!" Of course, we simply went back to the potty, changed panties again and cleaned up the little puddle. Oh, and I took the juice away.
So, two accidents in about the first hour of wearing panties. Awesome. Then we went to our bedroom to separate out laundry. Lily was trying on my shoes in my closet while I got the laundry ready. I realized it had gotten very quiet, so I peeked in and she was huddled in the corner with her fists clenched. I asked if she wanted to use my potty; she said no. I said "Let's go to your potty in your bathroom then" and she agreed. She stepped up on her step stool and then started to freak out. "I want to change into a diaper! I don't want to sit on the potty! I want a diaper!" I asked "Do you want a diaper so you can go poopy?" and she said "Yes! I no go in the potty!" I didn't know what to do. I didn't want to force her to sit on the potty when she appeared terrified, so I changed her into her diaper, and I could see immediate relief on her face. I took the diaper off and put its contents into the potty. Lily flushed it away. I told her she could poop in the potty in the future, but she didn't look convinced. I also told her how proud I was that she realized she needed to poop. I figure that's an important step. So, any suggestions from experienced potty-training parents on how to convince her to poop in the potty?
Let me also say that I never thought I would share my kids bathroom habits with other people. Crazy, but this is the big stuff in our life right now.
Anyway, after we took the diaper off we put panties back on, and she did well the rest of the day. We went several more times before nap time, and then put a diaper on for her nap. Ryan came home during nap time, and I couldn't wait for Lily to show Daddy her new skills. Lily however apparently could wait. She refused to use the potty in front of him. We finally convinced her to try using the potty for him by telling her Daddy thought the special soap was blue and she needed to prove to him it wasn't. He took her in there three different times during the evening; she would sit on the potty but never go. I took her a couple of times and she did everything just fine. I don't know why there's the fear of going in front of him, but that's going to have to change.
So, two days down and they're going alright. I'm done with giving juice in the morning. Juice is usually a special treat for her anyway (she loves milk and water so that's what we stick with), so there's no need to get her in a juice habit and apparently, it goes right through her leaving no nutrients behind! Now the interesting thing will be school tomorrow. I am including an extra outfit, panties and diaper for her and have written a note to the teacher telling her to use whatever is needed to get through the morning. We'll see how it goes, but here's hoping for a good, dry day!
2 comments:
Sounds like you all are doing great with it all. Natalie did the same thing with #2 in the potty. She would beg for her diaper when she needed to go. Honestly I think it lasted about 2 months and I wondered if it would ever change. But I am here to say it did change. I remember one day her diaper was so messy and she hated how yucky it was and felt. I told her that she didn't have to feel that yucky mess any more if she just would do #2 in the potty. So she agreed and that was the end of that. I will add that I think a video called "Potty Power" really helped too. Lily would love it. It had this song on there about "no more diapers for me" and the kids are throwing away their diapers. So, when Natalie and I discussed the yucky diaper thing, I asked her if she was ready to throw them all away, and she said yes. I only had a few diapers left in the drawer, so I let her throw those away, but I had the rest of them in the closet so not to waste them in case it didn't work. so, those are my thoughts. just give it some time, get the video, and then see if she'll agree how messy it is since she is a big girl now.
I totally laughed out loud at the first part of your entry. Oh man. I was not excited about accidents either and we've been so fortunate with that. However, the poopy is a whole different story. In the beginning if Evynne needed to poo and tried on the potty without success, she'd end up constipated. NOT a good thing. So, we just let her have a diaper or pull-up for that. She wanted to try, but she just couldn't get it to come on the potty. Finally, she did. But then back to diapers/pull-ups. I told you about the special flushable wipes and that at least encouraged her to try. She got backed up last week and we had to start her on miralax (laxative we've used since she was very young). While it was really loose, she was able to poo on the potty bunches with great ease and that seems to have helped. She's still not always going on the potty, but I say don't push it. I never met a kindergartener in diapers! You're doing the right thing with your patience and encouragement!
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