The Long-Awaited Potty-Training Post

Wednesday, Feb. 3, 2010:
We woke up as usual and had pancakes for breakfast. The whole time I was explaining how Naomi was going to be a "Big Girl". After breakfast, we took off her diaper and threw it (and every other diaper-type item) away. We put a pair of "princess underwear" on her and I explained how she was to use the toilet now for peeing and pooping. And if she needed to go, or started to go, she was supposed to tell me right away. And we started saying, "Keep it DRY!"

She did fairly well the first morning. She stayed dry for about 2.5 hrs. Then she had her first accident. For the next hour, we went through 4 pair of underwear, including a major peeing accident at the lunch table. But we persevered.

I caught her in the act for EVERY accident and rushed her to the potty.

Thursday:
More of the same with ONE SUCCESS! She told me she had to pee, and then went to the toilet, and peed!! That was enough to give me hope. The e-book said that it takes some children until the end of day 3 for things to click.

Friday:
More of the same. Only one success. And by the time we put Naomi to bed, I was really ticked off at the author of the book and frustrated that the method had not worked for us.

Saturday:
Day FOUR of the 3-Day Potty Training. I was still discouraged. And I didn't know what to do. We stuck with the technique for one extra day, and still things didn't click for Naomi.

Sunday:
JR woke up sick, I didn't know what I was going to do with Naomi in an out-of-the-house-situation, so we stayed in from church. After discussing things with JR we decided to revert back to our method for potty-training that we used with Gideon (minus disposable pull-ups). And, we started having some successes. We were able to celebrate almost every hour as Naomi peed/pooped on the toilet when we made time for her to go. The only accidents we were having at this point were when we failed to make her go, and during her sleeping times.

Monday and Tuesday we stuck with our method with the same results.

Wednesday has been our best day so far. I headed (with both kids) to Searcy for Naomi's 2 yr. well-baby check-up. She peeded before we left for the 2 hr. trip. We stopped for lunch in Wynne where she peed in the KFC/Taco Bell bathroom. She then peeded in Heather Burchfield's toilet when we arrived in Searcy. Then, while waiting in the doctor's waiting room, she pulled out her toilet seat and told me she needed to pee!!! (and she did!!!) She only had one accident ALL DAY LONG and that was when she was so engrossed in playing with my old My Little Pony stuff and I didn't put her on the toilet. She did GREAT!

Thursday we headed back to Memphis. She continued her success. However, when we got to Wynne, I asked if she needed to go and she said, "no." But then, when we were in the middle of no where, she told me she DID need to go. But there was no where for her to go. Since she is in one (of 3) waterproof pairs of underwear, she just had to go in that. :( But she did great for the rest of the day.

She has remained dry while we have been out and about several times. She stayed dry when we played in the snow the other day.

She is successful as long as we remember to have her sit on the toilet. However, she is very dependent upon our prompts. I have continued to be in contact with the woman who wrote the 3-Day Potty-Training book. I hope she can give me tips to help things "click" for Naomi.

We have NOT gone back to diapers. And I'm re-considering my use of waterproof underwear at bed-times, since she's not learning to control her bladder since she's protected.

So, these days, I'm doing a lot of laundry. But I'm not changing any diapers. As long as we keep an eye on Naomi, she does great. I'd say we are about 80% potty-trained.

(But going from 0% to 80% in 2 wks. is still ahead of what we did with Gideon.)