Potty Training SUCCESS! Finally!

I had no idea that this would be such a HIGH for me! When your little one tries and succeeds at something its so exciting. 🙂

Potty training was a BIG hardship for us. We tried. We tried again. I thought baby sign language and special potty chairs might help. They may or may not have.

Every time we tried and there were more than two accidents (with no successful hits in the potty) in a day I gave up, defeated and sure she wasnt ready yet. Her third birthday came and went (last month) and I thought, It has to happen soon maybe I need to push harder.

We had incidents that drove me to tears (taking her poopy diaper off in her bed). I wondered how I would survive and how in the world moms trained their kids in less than a week. HOW?

And finally, after being encouraged by my mom to try something besides begging and asking Emma if she wanted to go in the potty (smart woman), I tried another way. I told Emma she needed to stop making dirty diapers (YUCK!) and go in the potty. And it worked!

A couple of times I found myself asking (out of habit) if she wanted to go pee in the potty and she shook her head and said, Uh uh.

I said, Oh yes you are, young lady!. She wrinkled her nose but did it. She DID IT!

Power struggle?

We had a few accidents but not more than one or two in a day, and when she did go in the potty we made a HUGE deal out of it. And she is SO proud every time she goes! In the big potty, by the way. She didnt want anything to do with the potty chair.

I really didnt think that when she finally caught on and wanted to go it would be this exciting. Im so happy! My little girl is growing up. 🙂

Oh, I should mention the other things that highly motivated her to go in the potty. Using toilet paper and being able to flush the potty is a huge incentive. She wanted to play with it before she was going in it but I told her she could only flush and use toilet paper if she actually went in the potty first. I had to stay firm and she didnt like that one bit. But it worked and she loves it. I also told her she can have five Smarties every time she pees.

And yes, of course she was trying to pee every 10 minutes. 😉

We still have a little bit to work on she hasnt actually gone number 2 in the potty. I think it must be a bit scary for her. She still wears diapers during naps and bedtime, and I havent tried going out diaperless yet. That is scary! Tomorrow is church but I think Ill wait until next week or the week after to attempt that. We may as well get more into the habit.

Anyway, I just wanted to share that. 🙂 Im so happy to have a potty trained little girl! One out of diapers, one to go. 🙂 He has aways to go, but Im hoping to be able to train him more around 2 than 3. We shall see!

How old was your child when he/she was potty trained, and what worked for you? What didnt work?