Sunday, November 9, 2014

Potty Training at 20 Months: Week Two.

Back for more!  Click here to read Part One.  Click here for the fabulous potty training book we are mostly following.



We've had to go back down in clothing sizes without her big, fluffy cloth diapers!  Myra was in 24 month/2T pants (the photo shows 24 month) but is now back in 18 month and even some 12 month pants.



Saturday, October 18.  Day Eight.
We left the house for a decent chunk of time this morning.  Grandpa asked if Myra wanted to go feed the ducks, so that's what we did.  We timed it to give her the best chance at success, but I was still curious if she would get excited and forget about holding it.  Myra did great!  I got lunch ready and when she was in the middle of destroying some mashed potatoes and spinach, she said "poop" (which sometimes means pee).  I checked and she had a tiny little wet spot on her pants, so off to the bathroom we went.  The toilet and both of our clothes looked like they got hit with a potato/spinach tornado, but after a while of sitting, still no pee.  She asked to get down so I said okay, but it was earlier than usual so I committed to staying in the bathroom to wait this one out.  I knew it would happen eventually.  She sat on my lap and I tried to be boring, she started getting antsy, but I tried to hold off a little longer.  Once she let a little pee leak onto my pants, I plopped her on the toilet and told her to "listen" so we could hear the pee.  She really fought to stand up, which wasn't surprising because I think the combo of sitting and letting the pee go at the same time is part of her issue, but she did it! She peed on the toilet!  Not counting the little dribble on my pants, this was the first time she actually sat on the toilet and peed, rather than starting to pee on the floor and one of us rushing her to a toilet.  Yippee! (I got a little behind on the updates, and from here we are really seeing progress, so these are about to get a little shorter).  I'm totally drawing a blank on how the rest of the day went, after Myra's nap.  I'm pretty sure we had no more toilet excitement, but little to no toilet drama either.
Toilet pee count: 1.  Toilet poop count: 0.

Sunday, October 19.  Day Nine.
Thanks to pregnancy insomnia, I was awake from 4am-7am this morning.  Myra, the little angel that she is, plays quietly in her crib for a long, long time after waking up.  Trevor had gone downstairs early this morning to study and work on applications, and I ultimately fell back asleep until after 9.  This kind of threw off our whole morning "schedule" (I use that word loosely).  I got Myra up, but she didn't have her morning bottle until 9:30 or maybe even later.  Then we went to visit some friends who were in town for a wedding, no accidents or peeing while we were out.  We had one toilet pee before nap (around 2pm I think?) with some resistance, but not with actually wanting to get off the toilet.  Myra got really anxious and tensed up right before peeing, but I could tell she really let it all out once she peed.  We did our happy dance, she got to be all proud of herself then flush.  We ran downstairs to tell daddy; she really likes walking into the office and saying, "I did it!"  By the time she went down for her nap, slept, and woke up it was about 4:30.  Bedtime is 7:00, so I had her try, but didn't expect much given that pretty short time frame.  No luck, but no drama.
Toilet pee count: 1.  Toilet poop count: 0.

Monday, October 20. Day Ten.
Big progress today!  Myra did her little dance, so we went to the bathroom.  Nothing happened, she asked to get down, and I didn't fight her.  I was letting her play solo for a while, and while I was up and down stairs she pooped.  She told me "poop," so we went to the bathroom, flushed it, and changed her pants.  When she was eating lunch, she said "toot," which she sometimes says for other bodily functions, so I checked and she had a small wet spot.  I told her we were going to go to the toilet so she could finish.  Almost as soon as I sat her on the toilet, she peed! No fighting, no resistance, no freaking out or any signs of anxiety/discomfort, just a nice, big pee!  After her nap and bottle, it was a mad dash to run to Target and the grocery store.  I ended up not finding anything I was looking for at Target (yes, this can happen!) and we were on our way to the door empty handed (this, too!).  Myra said, "I did it!" and I was like "uhh...." She had a small wet spot, so I quickly got her to the bathroom and crossed my fingers.  She sat on the toilet fine, but wanted to get off pretty quickly.  I didn't want a traumatic first public bathroom experience, so I didn't push it.  It wasn't long before she started peeing on the floor, so I quickly got her on the toilet and she finished a nice, big pee with no issues.  Holy crap--did not expect a public bathroom pee this quickly, or this easily.  I had an extra pair of pants in the car so I changed her and we went to the grocery store.  Trevor got home shortly after we did, I made supper and we ate.  As we were cleaning up the kitchen, Trevor noticed Myra peeing.  He scooped her up and off to the bathroom they went.  I could hear a bit of a struggle, then she started crying "Mommy!"  I let it go, then decided it might go a little more smoothly if I were at least in the room, for now.  I slowly made my way upstairs and waited a few steps outside the bathroom door (they couldn't see me).  She was still whining, but I wasn't going to go in unless it escalated.  Before I knew it, she was peeing and all kinds of excited about it.  We got her in clean pants, played and read some books, then it was bedtime.  Funny story, when I put her diaper on at nap time, she looked right at her baby and said "sleeping...learning."  We are still telling her diapers are only for sleeping because she is still learning.  Ha!
Toilet pee count: 3.  Toilet poop count: 0.

Tuesday, October 21.  Day Eleven.
No drama to report today!  More pregnancy insomnia resulted in a morning very similar to Sunday.  I was up from 3:45-6:30/7ish and fell back asleep until 8:30 or so.  Myra was quietly playing in her crib.  Our morning was fine, I got a bunch of cleaning done, uneventful blah blah blah.  No signs of needing to pee, but around noon it was getting to be lunch time and I didn't want Myra stuck in the high chair when she had to go.  So, I went to the bathroom then told her it was her turn to pee.  I put her on the toilet, told her to pee and she did! She stopped herself, so I just asked her to do it again and she did.  Repeat x 2.  Finally, she was grunting and pushing and I had to chuckle and tell her she was probably all done.  No drama, no leaks, no wet pants, and a big pee on the toilet!  Myra took a nice, long nap then we went for a short walk.  After I had been busy cooking for a bit, I noticed a big trail of liquid on our kitchen floor and her pants were wet.  Even with my superhero pregnant lady nose, I really couldn't tell if it was pee.  I really think it was water, she was walking around with a sippy cup, "drinking" some, then letting it dribble out of her mouth everywhere.  And I'm pretty sure I would have been able to sniff out the pee.  At bedtime, I took her to the bathroom, put her on the toilet, counted to three then told her to push it out.  She peed another big one and did her happy dance, got ready for bed and that was that!  I'm hopeful this is all winding down a bit and gradually just becomes more natural for all of us.  I'll round out week two (because you're all invested in this by now...), but hoping that'll be all I've got for the big updates! 
Toilet pee count: 2.  Toilet poop count: 0.

Wednesday, October 22.  Day Twelve.
Myra got a slight curve ball today because Grandma was here.  I actually forgot to write this Wednesday night, so I'm hoping I remember this correctly.  Myra peed (not on the toilet) while Grandma was getting lunch ready, and I don't think she was in a mood to finish on the toilet at the time.  I forget how things went after her nap, but by the time I got home Myra was ready to pee.  She staggered it a bit, so she'd start and we'd get her to the toilet.  Then 10 minutes later, repeat.  By the end of the night, she for sure had one good pee on the toilet, plus a couple half pees from when Grandma was here.  I thought I had written this out last night-oops.
Toilet pee count: 1.  Toilet poop count: 0.

Thursday, October 23.  Day Thirteen.
Myra was a rock star today.  I'll keep this short and sweet.  She peed on the toilet SIX times today, kind of seven if you count the genuine attempt/possible tiny pee at bedtime.  One of the times was even at a friend's house.  Trevor and I had my volunteer appreciation dinner for Big Brothers Big Sisters, which was awesome by the way, so Myra go to go play with her gal pals.  She didn't pee at all while we were gone, but she gave me a nice, big one when I tried with her there.  She didn't fight me at all any of the times at home, and only very briefly at our friend's.  I put her on their regular toilet though, without a smaller, toddler insert seat or anything.  She's definitely got the "sleeping...learning..." figured out when we put the diaper on her for naps/bedtime and she likes to make her babies pee after she does.
Toilet pee count: 6.  Toilet poop count: 0.

Friday, October 24.  Day Fourteen.

Well, folks.  This will be the last of my daily pee updates.  Myra had school today, so we went a little early so she could pee before her class started.  She sat on the toilet no problem, gave it a good effort, but nothing.  Her class starts with free play time, then circle time, then separating from the parents time.  So, towards the end of the free play time, I took her to try again...pee!  She went again on the toilet at home twice before her nap.  Between nap and bedtime she went on the toilet two more times.  No resistance, no accidents, no leaking, no drama!  That's a nice little wrap up to the last two weeks!
Toilet pee count: 5.  Toilet poop count: 0.

Update: Saturday, November 1.  Day Twenty Two.

I said I was done, but I thought if any of you made it this far, you'd like one more update.  Myra has been rockin it!  In the time I haven't been documenting, she has only had one accident and I blame myself and basically knew it was coming.  I took her grocery shopping after a 5oz bottle and should have had her go after we paid for our groceries, but I didn't.  Instead, I pushed it and went home to drop off the groceries (leaving her in the car), then went to my dad's.  When we got to my dad's, she had peed in her car seat.  I had a feeling that would happen but took the risk anyway.  Besides that, we have done so many things and she hasn't had one accident!  She has been grocery shopping, to school, spent a day in the combine with Trevor's parents (edit: twice!), Trick-or-Treating, walks, etc. with no issues at all.  She will stop what she is doing and tell me she has to pee.  She's still going commando just because it's working, but I think I could easily do underwear at this point.  She is still wearing a diaper for naps and night time, but has woken up dry from naps maybe 1/3 of the time and that is improving now that she's getting better and better with it all.

Update: Sunday, November 9.  Day Thirty.
Not much to report here, still going great!  At some point, we moved from being boring and frank about "you peed" to giving the girl some excitement.  She still thinks it's fun and when she's done peeing she says, "I did it!"  She even told me, "you did it!" after I peed once (LOLOLOL).  Diapers for naps and night, and Myra still reminds us, "sleeping...learning..."  We'll see if she works that out herself, otherwise deal with it later since she still gets so much liquid in her diet.  She has always pooped at naps, so we haven't had a ton of luck with pooping on the toilet yet, but overall she is doing awesome.  She pees on regular toilets anywhere, even large, scary public restrooms.  So glad this is out of the way before we have a newborn! I never thought I would have two in bottles (even if new baby doesn't get them often), but not in diapers.  Now I have no excuse to buy more cute cloth diapers for this baby ;)

10 comments:

  1. I know you posted this journal two years ago, but I had to comment because it hit so close to home for me. My husband and I are currently potty training our 22-month old, roughly according to the methods of the book you mentioned, and it is the most challenging thing I've done as a mom. We just finished day 11 and it is so frustrating - for me and her, I imagine. We get occasional pees and poops on the potty; she clearly knows and communicates when she has to go; but she still can't seem to relax enough to sit and release. We're still mostly at the "constant potty dance; going to the potty; constantly sitting then getting up; starting to pee on the floor, catching midstream, and finishing on the potty" phase. It is just good to read that we're not the only ones who are going (or have gone) through all this! I know the hard work (for all of us) now will be well worth the end result.

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  2. Thank you so much for posting your progress with Myra! I also used Jamie Glowacki's book, Oh Crap! Potty Training, and didn't see any real progress for the first week and a half. I hung in there and we're on day 13, and we've just started having self-initiated pees on the potty! After 7 or 8 days, I was getting really frustrated and wouldn't have stuck it out if I hadn't found your blog. Thanks again!!
    -Relieved Mama

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  3. Thank you for this post! Found it while doing google search because my daughter is on day 4 and doing a very similar thing with the pee holding. It is 3:45pm and she has yet to pee on the floor or potty today. Stressing. me. out. But it is really reassuring to know that your little lady made it through just fine. Thanks! -Heidi

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    1. Hang in there!! She’s now almost five and sticking out the early days of this was so worth it. I will say we had a few car seat accidents over Christmas (chaos plus extreme MN cold!) but being diaper free was worth it. She’ll get there :)

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  4. Readjng this makes me feel as if we are going in the right direction. We are on day 5 and dd is holding pee for 3-4 hours in the morning. But your post gives hope. Reading it I can almost feel like it's is my daughter you are talking about. Same exact reactions to potty training.

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    1. Hi! So sorry, I am just now seeing your comment. It got buried in the depths of spam I guess. I hope you’ve had success since January!

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  5. Thanks for this awesome post about pottying a younger toddler. We're just starting with our daughter and reading this is so encouraging! I knew it might take her longer to pick up the potty habits than an older toddler, but it's easy to start feeling discouraged, especially because pottying a younger toddler is a bit abnormal. Weve had a little progress in the past few days so hopefully things will click soon!

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    1. Hi! So sorry, I am just now seeing your comment. It got buried in the depths of spam I guess. So, now that it’s two months later, how’s it going?

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  6. just found this post and it gives me so much hope. We are on day 5 here and resistance is at an all time high. Hoping we can stick through it and make it to the other side!!

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    1. Oh yay!! We have since potty trained another (almost a year ago) using the same method. Sending you good potty vibes :-D

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