I feel like a blog post about potty training is neccesary, mostly because I felt like potty training was like a long, hard winter that will never end until I tried this method and then it was more of a freak blizzard quickly giving way to a beautiful spring. That's not to say that all our potty training problems are fixed, just yesterday I found Aubrey peeing in her pants on our lawn. When I questioned her about this choice her response was, But I wanted to pee on the grass, Mama. But the accidents really are very few and far between at this point. Far enough apart that I don't feel like I'll be jinxing myself by typing this post.
Aubrey was not a willing potty training particicpant. I'd been half -heartedly trying to get her to pee on a toilet for months with no avail. Finally, during my maternity leave, I really buckled down using a method I found somewhere on pinterest (and I can't find the link). I'm not sure if the method has a name, but it should be called House Arrest. For a solid week you put yourself, and your child, on house arrest until he/she learns how to use the toilet. I would maybe say this method doesn't work for everyone and cleary, I've only trained one child this way, but the woman who originally posted it trainied six children between the ages of 22 and 28 months doing this and Aubrey's training went basically to a T as she had described.
Here's a handy breakdown of the steps involved.
Plan on going NOWHERE for a week.
Put NO PANTS on your child
Place them on the tolet EVERY THIRTY MINUTES
Only use diapers for going to bed at night. Use underwear for naps (lay a towel on the bed)
That's basically it. This seems like the most frustrating process in the world for the first two days. (In a thirteen hour day with a two hour nap in the middle that's 22 times a day you are setting your child on the toilet) and Aubrey, did not go to the bathroom in the toilet for two whole days! I told Martin at the end of the second day that I was going to jump off a cliff if she didn't go by the third. Luckily, she went right before bed at the end of the second day, just a half hour after she had unabashedly peed all over the kitchen counter. So, twelve pairs of underwear later and we were finally off to some sort of start.
As the days progressed Aubrey continued to get better and better. I confess that I bribed her a little by giving her jellybeans when she went in the toilet. This backfired slightly as on the 5th day she forced herself to pee 14 timesjust to get a few jellybeans. After this day I told Martin I was worried we would never be able to get her to pee without a jellybean incentive.
Martin: I think you're being a little ridiculous. It's not like we're still going to be giving her jellybeans at her graduation. She'll walk out of the bathroom and come over to us for her treat and we'll just be like, 'Don't worry. It's just a family thing'
By the eighth day she really was good to go and we were able to go places! She still had a few accidents here and there (only at places she felt really comfortable, though) like both sets of grandparents. And the pooping thing wasn't quite happening yet.
But things progressed and now we're mostly only peeing in our pants when we get weird urges to pee on the grass.
Yay for not buying or changing diapers!
