Adventures in Potty Training

Our adventures in potty training actually started accidentally right around when Skylar turned 1. She kept pooping in the tub EVERY night, so I bought a little potty and every time she strained to go in the tub, I would take her out and put her on the potty. While it was just a convenience at the time (who likes cleaning poop out of their tub EVERY night??) - it slowly evolved into her going in the potty BEFORE she got in the tub. I started doing some reading and asking around about potty training when she was about 15 or 16 months.  I knew our daycare wasn't set up to do potty training before she was moved to the toddler floor (18 months+) and I knew that kids have very little bladder control prior to 18 months anyway. So we just kept at it, encouraging her to go on the potty every night before bath and rewarding her only with praise when she was successful.

After she turned 18 months and made the transition at daycare to the toddler floor, I read through all the information and policies the daycare had on potty training. They require the child to initiate the process, a parent-teacher conference, no pull ups, and a pre-potty training checklist to determine readiness. Skylar had all but 2 of the items on the readiness checklist marked off (the 2 she didn't have were that she doesn't ask to wear underwear and that she can't independently undress herself). On days when I am home with her (4 out of 7), I was asking her to go to the potty every 20-30 minutes for about 2 weeks.  It seemed like she really had the whole thing under control and was having zero or 1 accident on most days. The 3 day weekend before I asked the daycare to start the process, I had her in underwear with no diapers and things went well.  I was really hopeful the successes would continue in a different setting.

That bathroom setup at her daycare is 2 miniature toilets hooked up to the plumbing.  At home we have 1 bathroom with a seat on the adult toilet and the other with your standard plastic kid potty. She probably uses them just about equally, some days preferring one over the other. She has struggled with expressing her need to "go" - often times just grunting instead of saying the words "pee pee" or "potty" - so in order to encourage her to use the words (because really, in a room with 12 kids, her teachers aren't going to be able to hear her grunting that she needs to go like I do when it's just her and I),  I started rewarding her with 1 m&m every time she would use the words to get my attention instead of grunting. She has really improved over the last few weeks with this and forward progress is good, right?

Over the last 2 weeks she's been having anywhere from 1-3 accidents on the days she's at school. She has yet to have an accident-free day. At home she has 0-1 accidents per day.  Again, I attribute this to the fact that the teachers have 11 other kids to attend to and she's not exactly consistent about letting you know she needs to go.  Well, today she started to throw me a curveball. Her teachers told me she is flat out REFUSING to sit on the toilet.  As stubborn as she is sometimes, I took their word for it.  I even stopped in the bathroom on our way out the door to try to get her to go and she reproduced the refusal behavior for me  to see.  Very strange. I asked her if she wanted to go in the small potty I keep in my car before we drove home and she said yes...but she didn't go. So into the car seat she went and home we drove. When we got to the house I told her she needed to go, put her on the potty seat, and she sat and did her business with no problem. She went on her potty at least 5 times between when we got home and when she went to bed.  I'm hoping this day of being out of sorts at school is just a fluke because all I am seeing at home is success 90% of the time...talk about frustrating.

This whole potty training thing reminds me of when you introduce solid foods to your infant - it adds a whole different dimension to the way you go about your day and it's certainly more complex than just nursing or making a bottle when the baby is hungry! The days of putting a diaper on and forgetting about it until it stinks or the kid complains are over...packing 5 sets of clothes, going back and forth to the potty 50 times when they tell you they need to go, but really don't need to, and washing lots and lots of laundry are in! Everyone I've talked to has said it has taken a solid 2 months or more to really "have it down" - so here we are about 2 weeks in and I am worn out!

I've always wanted a blog...

So, I've never had a blog before.  I've seen lots of friends' blogs, I've helped friends make their blogs, and still I haven't bothered to cross the threshold to my own until now. I've really enjoyed reading some blogs lately and feel like I need an outlet for a lot of what goes through my brain.  I think I'll blog about my passions: being a mother, finding good shopping deals, car seat safety, and pharmacy/drug related issues.  Yeah, that's a bit all over the map isn't it...well we'll just see where this goes and if I can actually stick to it or not! Happy reading!