Potty Training Boot Camp! :)

Disclaimer: This post deals with potty training and contains some potty talk (although I've left out the gory details!) Also, no pictures in this post!

This week my sweet girl went through three days of potty training boot camp, and as a result we are ready to ditch the diapers! I've been thinking about doing some serious potty training for the past month or two, but I was waiting until we got back from our big family vacation. This week was perfect, as we had nothing at all on the schedule, so it was no problem to find three days to devote solely to potty training.

People seem to be a bit surprised when they hear me talk about potty training such a little one, but Savannah was showing some definite signs of readiness. Starting around 15/16 months, she began to occasionally tell me when her diaper was wet and almost always tell me when it was dirty. As the months went by, she became increasingly bothered by wet/dirty diapers, often telling me right away, and even getting to the point where she would bring me a diaper, lay down, and try to put the new one on herself! It wasn't that she was doing this every single time, but it was happening a lot. Every single morning for the past month or two, the first thing she tells me when I come in her room each morning is to get that wet diaper off of her! We bought a potty chair a few months back and she has used it occasionally, but not really with any regularity. We started what I would call very casual potty training, which meant that when we were home I would occasionally ask her to sit on the potty, and sometimes if the timing was right and she was patient enough to sit for awhile, she would have success!

Overall, though, despite the signs of readiness that I was seeing, Savannah was being stubborn about this casual potty training. She would often tell me that she did not want to sit on the potty, and she rarely sat still long enough to do anything. I began to think that we needed to take a different approach. I read a bit about the three day potty training method, where you basically allow your child to stay home for three days and go diaper free, and you focus all of your time and energy on learning to use the potty. I knew right away that this method would probably work well for my daughter for the following reasons:
- Savannah is a very all or nothing-type of girl, so this all or nothing method seemed like it would be a good fit!
- Savannah is stubborn and independent. She hates being told when to do things and likes to take the initiative herself. This method would allow her to sit on the potty whenever she needed to, instead of me telling her to sit on the potty every 30/45 minutes like other methods would have me do.
- Savannah has very good verbal communication skills, so I thought she would have no problem telling me when she needs to go potty once it became part of our daily routine.

This weekend we geared up for our big week by taking a trip to get some new big girl underpants! I also purchased a bag of white chocolate chips to use as a reward. On Monday morning, Savannah woke up, had a diaper change, and ate breakfast. During this time I picked up all of the area rugs so that the entire main floor of the house was ready (it's all hardwood flooring.) I also covered the sofas with sheets. I took Savannah's potty chair and placed it prominently in the middle of the living area. When Savannah got down from breakfast, I took off her diaper and told her that she was going to practice going potty like a big girl! I told her that she was so big, she didn't even need diapers anymore! I showed her the new undies and told her that after some practice, she would get to wear the cool big girl underpants! I told her that if she had to go potty she could sit on her potty chair or tell Mommy that she needed to go. I didn't bring up the candy reward yet, since I didn't want her begging and crying for chocolate chips. After the big pep talk I went about doing my normal routine downstairs. I gave Savannah plenty of liquids so that she would have lots of chances to practice. Sure enough, in a little while she started to potty on the floor (which is exactly what I expected would happen.) She stopped herself, looking shocked, and I said, "Oh, you have to go potty! Don't put your potty on the floor; let's put the potty in the potty chair!" and rushed her off to the potty chair. Sure enough, she finished up in the potty chair, and I made a BIG deal about how awesome that was. There was clapping and cheering and hugs. After we washed up, I told her she got to have one candy! She was thrilled. The next few hours brought two similar incidents; she started to go on the floor, and then we rushed to the potty chair to finish things off. Each time I gave her a candy for putting some potty in the potty chair and reminded her to go to the potty right away instead of putting her potty on the floor. I never reprimanded at all, but instead kept things very positive. We watched some movies from the library about going potty, and she really seemed to enjoy that. Then, two times right before her nap, she went to the potty chair and went, all on her own! I praised her a ton and she was so proud. After nap, she continued to go to her potty chair all afternoon and evening whenever she had to go. I was thrilled!

Day two came and we went about our day very much like we had the day before. She did have two or so incidents where she started to go on the floor, but stopped herself and finished up in the potty. She also had lots of perfect potty going! On day two we dealt with.......number two. I won't say too much about this in detail, but it was a little scarier for her and I think dealing with that is what caused a few accidents in the morning. Once we got over that, though, the rest of the day went very well. On day three, she had an awesome day and really seemed to have a handle on this potty thing! She went over and used her potty when she needed to, sometimes not saying a word and sometimes telling me "pee pee potty" or "poo poo potty." We even took a short outing on this day and she went before we left and when we came back home. She also told us that she had to go during dinner instead of having an accident while eating. On night #3 she stayed dry all night long and went potty first thing when she woke up. Yay!

I'm super proud of how well she is doing! We are now working on wearing underpants in the house and learning to take them off and on. I am using pull-ups for naps, nights, and trips out of the house. I do not expect her to hold it while she is sleeping, nor do I expect her to remember to tell me that she needs to potty when we are out and about doing errands or fun activities (she is only 1!) Those things will come in time, but for now I will consider her daytime potty trained in the house - woohoo!!

I realize that not every child is ready to potty train at an early age, but it was right for my girl. Now that we're using the potty, it seems to be more work for me in some ways. I'm constantly aware of how long it's been since she last went, and it's harder to just leave the house or even for me to get involved in chores or go off to take a shower if I feel like she may need to use the potty soon (because I know she'll need my help to empty the potty and clean up/wash hands afterwards.) I'm sure over time, though, it will feel more second nature for both of us. :)