We
decided at the end of last year that we were going to begin potty training Evie
right after Christmas. I had a few days
off work and I arranged for Grandma Rita and Aunt Sha-Sha to come on the days
that I had to work. As luck would have
it, both kids caught a mild stomach bug and I decided that trying to potty
train during that would not only be a nightmare, it would also be
counter-productive because Evie would probably have accidents no matter how
much she tried. Fast forward a week to
New Year’s Day. Evie was finally feeling
better and we decided to give it a shot.
I’ve
made no secret of the fact that I was dreading this. Evie is a very stubborn and strong-willed
child and, up to then, she had been extremely reluctant to use the potty at
all. The first time that she ever used
the potty, several months before, she was excited about it…until she actually
went. Then she cried and pretty much
refused to use the potty again. We
talked about what a big girl she’d be.
We bought princess underpants and pull-ups. We got books from the library and read each
one over and over again. Her babysitter
encouraged her, her grandparents, aunts and uncles encouraged her. My mom even promised her a purple present if
she went. She went once, got the purple
present (a purple Rapunzel nightgown) and refused to try again for a long
time. I tried not to stress over it too
much. To be honest, diapers were easier
in a lot of ways and I wasn’t in a hurry to give up the convenience. But then she started waking up with dry
diapers. She got up one morning and I
noticed the dry diaper and immediately encouraged her to go on the potty. She didn’t feel like it, but I said I’d give
her a marshmallow if she went. She sat
down and suddenly I heard “Mama – I did it!”
I looked to see the tiniest, itsy-bitsy bit of pee in the potty. Geez!
Oh well. Since she did go, I got
excited, gave her the marshmallow and yelled upstairs to Pat “Daddy! Evie went on the potty!” A few moments later, Pat came downstairs and
said “Evie – I have a surprise for you!” and gave her a stuffed Simba. Seriously?!
I give her one mini-marshmallow and he gives her a stuffed animal. Wow. Wonder who she likes more?! Unfortunately, she
didn’t express any more interest in going after that and, with the craziness of
the holidays, we didn’t push it.
With
the dawn of the New Year, we decided to try again and went in with the mindset
that we were going to do this no matter what. I read a few tips and tricks on how to go
about potty-training and talked to parents about what worked for them. I got some mini-marshmallows and small pieces
of chocolate as rewards. My mom
suggested I try Playdough and gave me several different colored play dough
containers to try so she could pick a new color each time she went. We already had big-girl panties and her little
potty chair so we just went for it. We
decided on no diapers during the day and just dealing with the accidents that
happened. We started in the evening
after dinner by setting a timer and having her sit on the potty every 15
minutes. She was excited about the
treats and never put up a fight when we asked her to stop playing to use the
potty. We went 3 hours without an
accident – woo hoo! Pat and I praised
Evie and she was so proud and happy. The
next day, I started out by reminding her to go every 30 minutes. At first, I made her sit whether she had to
go or not. However, as the day went on, I’d
still ask her every ½ hour if she had to go, but if she said no, I took her
word for it. I didn’t want her to be
relying on me to remember to go. I
wanted to her to understand what having to go potty felt like so that she could
decide for herself. I figured there
would be accidents, but I hoped that the accidents would help her learn. Sure enough, she waited too long to go and
wet her pants. She was upset and didn’t
like the feeling of wet underpants. I
explained that she needed to remember to stop what she was doing and go potty
so that her pants would stay dry. From
that point on, she has only had a handful of accidents during the day. After a few days, we stopped asking her if
she needed to use the potty and let her tell us. This has been interesting because she figured
out pretty fast that we will stop whatever we are doing if she tells us she has
to go. Bedtime has become an aggravating interesting time. One night, I think she came downstairs 3 or 4
different times and said that she had to use the potty. I knew she was stalling and didn’t really
believe her, but I didn’t want to take the chance that she would have
accident. She’s wearing Pull-Ups to bed,
but we have been adamant from day one that Pull-Ups are not diapers, and
surprisingly, she has accepted that.
While she does wake up dry almost every day, I’m not willing to trust
her in underpants overnight just yet. We
have enough issues with sleep in our house with adding wet sheets to the mix.
Our
life changed a good deal when potty-training started. Now, when we go out, we need to know where
every restroom in Central Ohio is. We
have to be willing to sprint through stores to find a restroom and squeeze into
tiny stalls if necessary. We’ve only had
two accidents while we’ve been out and, of course, both times were when she was
wearing underpants and not Pull-Ups. Messy
and not fun. Pat hasn’t had to take her
to the restroom when we are out just yet, but I’m sure that experience will be
one for the books. New restrooms are
also new adventures for Evie and she makes sure to take full advantage. We went to the mall a few weeks ago and,
while we were only there about 1-1/2 hours, she managed to use the potty 6
times. She wasn’t impressed by the
restroom in Macy’s, but the one next to the food court had a family restroom
with a toilet and sink ‘just my size!’ and she was excited to be a big girl all
by herself. She also absolutely loves
automatic faucets, soap dispensers and hand dryers. Automatic paper towel dispensers have proved
to be fun as well. One machine would
spit another paper towel out right after you tore one off so she just kept
grabbing them. Needless to say, I had to
intervene so that she didn’t clean them out of paper towels! We’ve also encountered the situation where
she had to go and there wasn’t a restroom readily available. On a warmer day a few weeks ago, I took the
kids to the park after work. This park
has restrooms on site so when Evie said she had to go (5 minutes after we got
there) we ran over to them, only to see big signs posted on the door that said
“Closed for Winter”. Try explaining to
little kid that is about to pee her pants that the doors are locked. She didn’t understand and she kept knocking
on the door and saying “Hello?” and “Open up!”
I told her that I would put a diaper on her so she could go and she
looked at me like I had 2 heads with an expression that said “Are you kidding
me?” There was no way she was putting a
diaper. She said “That’s ok Mama. I fine” and wanted to continue playing. I was a nervous wreck that she would have an
accident and I kept pushing her to go home, but she wanted to stay. We only stayed about a ½ hour, but we made it
home accident-free! This’s impressive
for us given Evie’s propensity in the past to go #2 when we go to the park!
It’s been
about about a month now and she is really doing great. We’ve gotten more comfortable when taking her
out sans Pull-Up and most of the time she only rocks those at night. She does great at the sitter’s house
too. Our babysitter has been an amazing
source of support for us during this process and is a big part of the reason I
think Evie is doing so well. Evie
doesn’t want to use the little potty at all anymore or even a potty ring. She wants to sit on the ‘big potty” like a
big girl. She had made us so proud and
we are thankful! I can only pray that it
goes as well when it’s time to train Mitch.
I have a feeling we won’t be as lucky!
