Day 75

We're back to Potty Training again. Turns out despite my belief that Lucy was ready to learn how to use the potty, I was not ready to teach her. My frustration levels were at an ultimate high and I needed time to contemplate how I could personally deal with accidents, stubbornness and tears. In the end, it not only made this a little more difficult for me, but definitely more difficult for Lucy.

Because I wasn't consistent, she keeps thinking that she can tell me "No Elmo Potty" (meaning, no I will not sit on the Elmo potty thank you very much!) and I'll let her get away with it. Not so this week....

We've started seriously potty training again and this time I'm sticking with it. She had dry diapers in the morning for over 3 weeks. I knew it was time and had to get myself mentally prepared. People can tell you what to do, how to do it and when, but ultimately what I've learned is that as a parent YOU need to be mentally and physically prepared. You can read books and ask advice, but every person is different (as is every kid). I think you need to come up with a plan for you and your child that works for both of you. We are doing a combination of the 3 day potty training and my own ideas. This includes lots of juice, stickers and planned potty breaks.

We started last week by at least sitting on the potty every single hour, regardless of the location. If I was at the store, we stopped everything to try. If we were on a walk, I would make sure we were home at the exact time we've been practicing. It was tough because my schedule was interrupted constantly. I could be in the middle of chopping up vegetables and it was time to take her to the potty where we would sit for 1, 5 or even 10 minutes. There was even a day we sat on the potty for a whole hour...but more about that later.

So far this has helped-not worked, helped. She started telling me yesterday when she needed a diaper or pull up change. I knew that it was coming-the dreaded 3 days of having her wear underwear. So this morning we started. We had a few errands to run and from the moment she woke up we talked about how after the commissary, we were going to start wearing big girl underwear! She was getting very excited and talked about wearing her new Tinkerbell undies. I don't think I could have made it any more cool.

When we got home, the first thing we did was sit on the potty chair and try to go. How do I know she has the control to go? For one, she has dry diapers in the morning-consistently. Two, the morning of our one hour sitting session, she lost control of her overly full bladder for a second and started to go pee. As soon as I started to cheer she stopped and begged for a pull up. That is how I knew she had the ability to control it.

So we've had 2 accidents-no big deal. Especially since she was running for the potty both times. We are stocked up on juice and treats, just waiting for that special moment when we can both scream "LUCY DID IT!!!!" So everyone, wish me luck. This is going to be a long week :)