Friday, March 6, 2009

Ready or NOT!



I'm not sure I'm ready for this (actually to be honest I'm definitely NOT ready for this) but apparently my 2 year old is so we are entering the world of Potty Training!...I hate this world! I know I am going to LOVE it when I don't have to spend half the grocery budget on diapers and having two in diapers is a challenge BUT I HATE potty training!
My experience with Potty Training hasn't been too good. With Hannah I bought a book "Potty training in a day"...can it get better than that! Anyway I followed the instructions (although it broke my heart...it is definitely a "tough love" book...I was more of a drill sargent than a mom...I even made my little 2 1/2 year old cry...more than once...it was awful!) By the end of the day (like the book said) Hannah was telling me when she needed to use the toilet and was "accident free"! The book stresses that you DO NOT put your child back in diapers, even for bed and I hadn't thought anything of it until it was time for bed and all I had was diapers! So I left the kids with Jeremy and ran to the store for some pull-ups. When I got back Hannah had had 2 accidents! I was devastated...I had been such a mean mom all day and for nothing! I went to bed defeated thinking I had just wasted my whole day! In the morning when Hannah got up she told me when she needed to go to the bathroom and has been potty trained ever since...it really worked! When it was time to potty train Wynnie I wasn't up for the whole "drill sargent" method...it was an emotional roller coaster and I just wasn't up for it. I tried to incorporate a lot of the techniques but I wasn't as strict as I was with Hannah. Well, for those of you that know Wynnie she is a tad bit (VERY) stubborn. Part of the process was to get your kid to drink a ton of liquid (water, milk, juice, whatever they wanted and LOTS of it!) This gives you more chances to "train" them because they will have to use the bathroom more. Anyway, I gave Wynnie a TON to drink but she was SO stubborn that she refused to go potty. I kept asking, we kept "practicing" but she didn't go...she didn't have any accidents either. I wasn't sure what to do (part of the process was "shaming" your child when they did have a accident so they learned not to...the book didn't say what to do if your child refused to go to the bathroom!) I just went about the "training" as best I could until finally at about 5:00 PM she fell asleep on the kitchen floor! She proceeded to wet herself..and I couldn't get mad (although it was a TON of pee!) because she was asleep and had no idea what she was doing! We went through the rest of the night about as productive as the first part was. The next morning Wynnie came up to me and put her arms around my neck gave me a BIG squeeze and asked me if she could PLEASE have her diapers back...so I let her! To my defense I was 6 months pregnant with Sophie and I had heard that older siblings can have issues reverting back to diapers once babys come along so I didn't want to have to "train" her twice! I just asked her when she would be ready to be a "BIG" girl and go potty in the toilet..she told me when she was 3 and she kept her word! Once she turned 3 she started using the toilet and has been good ever since! I really liked that method…letting her tell me when she was old enough…until today! When Sophie told me that she wanted to start using the toilet I thought REAL hard about just ignoring her...I don't think I AM READY (it’s all about me…right…not her…who cares if she is in diapers until she is 20!) She's not quite as old as the other 2 were when I tried with them but I guess we will she how it goes...cross your fingers and wish me luck!

Potty training update: I just put Sophie to bed and it was a tie she had 3 accidents and she went potty in the toilet 3 times! I’m not really liking these odds…if she asks for her diapers back in the morning I just might give them to her :)

2 comments:

The Bates' said...

Yeah potty training sucks but sure pays off in the end. Stick with it...you can do it. Give your self a bonus when she does get pottie trained...with the money you save on diapers. That is birth control for me right there.

Coley Ru said...

This was hilarious! I read it outloud to my fam! I think we can all relate in some way. Ryker peed every where but in the toilet until Shane finally told him if he didn't use the toilet he had to go outside. That totally worked (he thought he was doing his service to nature by watering the trees). Thanks for the laugh though!