Update on Katie

Right around her 2-1/2 year birthday (November), Katie decided she was ready. She began to keep her pull-up clean and dry all day, and asked for "big kid" underwear. Since then, she has only had a few daytime accidents - mostly when she's been sick. A few weeks ago, she decided she was ready for nighttime, too. She has had a couple accidents, again, mostly when she's been sick. There's a waterproof mattress on her bed, so it's not too hard to clean up. So hooray! Katie is completely potty-trained.

It was a long, hard journey. It took six months to achieve daytime dryness, and nine months for nighttime.

Where have I been?

Traveling, the home, busily slogging though each day, but most of all I haven't written because I've had nothing to write. What do I say? Not much has changed in the past three weeks.

Katie's attempted potty-training is still mom-directed. Her potty dance that I was so excited about never occurred again. She had numerous accidents, including poop accidents. It's rare to get through a day without an accident. We're still using pull-ups, and again, maybe that's the trouble. But I'm not willing right now to switch to panties. Maybe actual training pants would work, but I haven't seen them for less than $17.00, which is 40 pull-ups at the grocery store. That's a big stretch. Maybe if I can find some new ones on E-bay I'll give it a try.

Ellie, too, is still doing about the same. She is much more mobile now, so I think it's a bit trickier at this stage. She's crawling quickly and pulling up on everything, and doesn't seem to think as much about her elimination. In the last few days she's begun to do something with her hand that looks to me like the "potty" sign I've been making for her, but when I respond to it she doesn't need to go. She could be learning it, though. That would be very exciting. I just take her to the potty every once in a while and she often goes. As the days are getting colder, I am a little worried about continuing her potty usage, because it takes so long to get winter clothes off. I've had a couple of instances lately where it's taken me too long to get her on the potty, and she's peed all over me as I'm taking off her diaper. Not cool. Maybe it's time to switch HER to training pants.

Travel Successes and Vacation Regressions

Both girls do very well with potting while traveling, but I was particularly amazed with Ellie this time. When we arrived at our destination, she was wearing the same dry diaper that she had put on that morning - two airplanes and 7 hours earlier! We just took advatage of the opportunities that we had to bring her to a potty, and she did the rest.

Happily my husband took charge of Katie during the longer of the flights. She asked for 6 trips to the airplane bathroom and was successful once. She did make it dry to the other side, though, and that's what counts! Since we've been here the schedule is pretty messed up and she's not been doing so well. We're back to full-time pull-ups, and we'll have to decide when we get home if we'll go back to panties right away.

Potty Trained - Day 3

Another accident-free day today for Katie! That's 2 of three. She did have a pee accident yesterday, so that was a bummer. Regardless, she is doing so much better than I expected!

We've stuck with our schedule. The accident happened yesterday because I didn't work hard enough to keep her on the potty after her nap. I should have read her another book or something, but I let her get up and sure enough, a few minutes later she had an accident.

Today, though, she told me twice when she had to go. We went out for lunch, and she asked for three trips to the bathroom. One was successful. I think she likes public restrooms, much to my chagrin. I'm a bit of a germaphobe. Maybe she likes to see how uptight I get. Whatever the reason, I'll deal with extra bathroom trips if the end result is dry underwear. Hooray!

A big motivator that I've used the past few days is ice cream. Whenever we talk about it her eyes get so big and round. The first few days I offered it for waking up dry from her nap. Today, I had a discussion with her when she woke up and said she'd need to stay clean and dry all day to get the ice cream. I kept reminding her about it, and she was always so excited. After dinner she got a little bowl of ice cream with sprinkles. She loved it!

Potty Trained - Day 1

Today was the day Katie graduated from pull-ups to "big-kid" underwear all day. It's been 111 days since we began the potty-training process.

Yesterday she was sitting on the couch and said randomly, "My teacher called my underwear a diaper." We have been calling her pull-up underwear, to try to cheat the process, I guess. The thought of underwear without the mess. Well, one of the nursery workers at church must have called it a diaper. So from that point on, except at night, she's been wearing big-kid underwear.

It's a good thing (I have to keep reminding myself of that,) since it's directed by her and a necessary step in the process. It does keep me on my toes all day!

My key to sanity is having her wear jeans and socks. I am so thankful that my aunt just sent a batch of my cousin's clothes - with two new sets of jeans for Katie! Yay! She loves new clothes, and so will gladly wear them even though it's still pretty warm outside.

Yesterday she had one accident, but today was accident-free. Hooray! It's all very exciting, but I wonder when I will consider the process actually completed. I'm not really ready to rest until then.

The Potty Dance and Travel Tales

Katie began to do the Potty Dance today. Hooray! Now we have a visible way of identifying when she has to go. Up until now there's been no warning. She still says "no" when we ask her if she needs to go, but at least now we know when to press it.

She has not been doing great since we got back from vacation, nor did she do well while we were on vacation. The only part of the trip where she did well was when we were actually traveling in the airport and on the airplane, joy of joys.

I finally figured out a better way to do the airplane bathroom. I brought our little travel potty and took it in the bathroom with us when she had to go. I set it on the fold-down changing table and put her on it. It worked really well, except that I left the travel potty on the airplane.

Writing this blog is very helpful for processing the whole ordeal. I feel like we've been stuck in this state forever, where she gets it but isn't consistent. As I look back at my posts, I realize that we are making progress, she is learning, and it gives me hope and reminds me that I just need to be patient.

Product Review - Potty Power (DVD)

Potty Power - For Boys & Girls
Rating: 5 stars

Potty Power kept Katie's interest for the entire 30 minutes. It seems like it would be a perfect way to kick off potty training. The host, Jessica, explains every step in the potty process in detail. There are many examples of happy boys and girls completing each step as it is described, and a song to shake things up a bit. At the end, there is a story of a princess deciding to use the potty.

The princess story and the fact that the host is female may make it more appealing to girls than to boys. Also, it could be redundant if a child has already started down the path to independent toileting.

And the Tides Turn Once Again

We had an amazing day today. I instituted the schedule, as I mentioned yesterday. I warned her in the morning, so she didn't fight it at all. The day was a COMPLETE SUCCESS. Not only did Katie get all of her waking eliminations in the potty, she also forewarned me about an off-schedule second poop AND woke up dry from her nap. I'm back up on the mountaintop. What a ride!

I ordered some cloth diapers for Ellie off of Ebay from this seller. It's my first foray into cloth diapering, and I'm really glad I got them. My biggest objection to cloth diapering was cleaning the poops off diapers. Since we get 95% of poops in the potty, and most of the misses are when we're in extenuating circumstances, I decided that I could give them a try. We've been going back and forth between cloth and disposables. I've only used disposables for sleeping so far, but we'll see how it goes. Another bonus for the cloth is that they're much easier to get off when I bring her to the potty (if I don't have the cover on.) I like leaving the cover off and laying her on a waterproof pad. Seeing her in cloth makes me surprisingly happy. Cloth diapers look so much more comfortable than disposable diapers. We'll see how it goes. This is only the second day.

Another Bad Day

What a day. I think we only got one pee in the potty today. Back to pull-ups until after the next trip, I think.

How can things go so well for a while and then just disintegrate?

I had given up on the schedule, since it seemed that she was telling me when she had to go. I'll re-institute that tomorrow, and see if it makes a difference. Potty after breakfast, lunch, and dinner (and any sleep period, if she wakes up dry.) And try to spend enough time there to get the poop. Looks like I'll be moving the books back into the bathroom.

Out of the house

We went out of the house with Katie in "big-kid" underpants today. It was a success!

Then we came home and I put her down for her nap. Before she fell asleep, she pooped and peed in her pull-up. That brought me back down to earth.

Home again

The trip back went well yesterday, three visits to the bathroom on the airplane. Right as we were starting to descend, Katie said she had to go. We wouldn't have had time to go (and the seat belt sign was on), so I told her she would have to wait until we landed. I was fully expecting her to go in her pull-up, but she actually waited until we landed! By the time the plane stopped moving, she had probably held it for almost 15 minutes!

Today she got to wear her "big-kid" underwear all morning without a hitch.

Somewhere between getting in the car to go to the airport and arriving at our gate, Ellie had wet her diaper. So I gave her a new one before getting on the plane, and she was dry the whole first flight. As soon as we deplaned, I brought her to the bathroom and she went. I guess I didn't keep her over the toilet long enough though, nor did I refasten her diaper correctly. Oops. So a few minutes later, when we were waiting at our next gate, she fussed in her stroller. I didn't think she would have to go, since she had just gone. Anyway, I picked her up and put her on my lap and soon felt wetness on my leg. What timing.

A day of Firsts

Vacation, incredibly, has continued to be a time of significant advancement toward to goad of independent pottying. Yesterday we had my grandmother's birthday party, where we went to a museum and then out to lunch. Katie used the potty at both places; she told someone before she had to go, waited until we got to the bathroom, and went. During lunch, she had her first poop success! Now she is capable of telling us before she poops, hooray! For me, I consider this "potty trained." I'll switch her to underwear when we get home, and now we'll just be working on consistency. So I can say that it took 85 days to potty train her. What a ride! That seems to be on track. Alot of the literature says that it will take 3 - 12 months.

Ellie, too, had a new first today. Well, two new firsts. We were driving in the car and she was crying. My husband pulled over into a parking lot, and I let her pee by the bushes. Then she was better. The other new first was pooping in a public bathroom. I've now figured out how to just move part of her diaper so that I don't have to take it all the way off to let her go. That will make life much easier when we're out and about. Sitting in the potty chair is still far preferable to her (can't blame her) but she is willing to go when we're out as well.

New territory

Allowing Katie to call the shots for potty-time is a new experience. I'm slowly building up trust. She's been doing very well for pee, but not so well for poop. I've really given all control over to her. Over the last few days, she's gotten all of the awake pees but only 1 of four poops. The only reason she got that one was because I saw "the look" and was able to startle her sufficiently so that she waited.

I'm so excited to get her out of pull-ups and into real underwear, but it's not going to happen until she can be consistent about poops, too. Poops especially.

Ellie, too, has been doing very well over the past few days. The only "misses" we've had with her are when she's sleeping or when other people are holding her. She seems to have gotten better both at holding it and at telling me she has to go.

Travel successes

We had a really long trip yesterday. Both girls were fantastic. We left home at 4am. Katie got a clean pull-up right before we left, but we just stuck Ellie right in the carseat. Katie had to pee three times on the journey, twice on the airplane and once in the airport. In the airplane, she told me before she had to go, and we made it to the airplane bathroom. I just have to say that airplane bathrooms are probably the worst public bathroom to start in. For parents, anyway. It's actually probably better for the kids because the seat is so small. I wasn't sure how to do it when we got in to the bathroom. I tried to hold her above the toilet so she wouldn't have to touch anything, but she wasn't comfortable enough to go. She started getting a little hysterical, so I finally whipped out some tissues and covered the whole thing, then tried to hold her up as best I could while she peed. What an adventure. The second time was a little bit easier since we were experienced. Two successes on the airplane, hurray!

She also had to go while we were waiting on our layover. Unfortunately because of what was going on I couldn't take her right away so she wet the pull-up. But she did tell us before she went, we just took too long to get her to the bathroom. This is a major success! I can't believe it happened on today, of all days. All the literature says to expect things to be worse during stressful time, like traveling.

By accident, I only brought two diapers for Ellie. I changed one before we got on the first plane and the other at the layover. We got a new bag of diapers right away when we arrived. I tried to have her pee in the bathroom at the airport. She went a little bit, but she didn't have to go very much at that time. When we arrived, she was having pretty bad gas. I set her on a child's potty that my grandmother had, but she didn't poop until that evening when I got her on a Baby Bjorn potty. I don't know if she held it all day, or if she was just having gas without needing to go earlier.

Overall, both girls were amazing on what could have been a very stressful trip.

Back on Track

Ellie is back to pooping in the potty. Hooray for that! I've noticed that I catch fewer of her pees and poops when I'm not holding her. When I'm holding her, I get almost all of them. It makes sense. I naturally pay more attention to her when she's in my arms, and I'm sure she realizes that too. It would be interesting to see if she actually signals differently when I'm holding her than when she's, say, in her bouncer. As she grow, though, she'll spend less and less time in my arms. So we'll have to work on this.

Katie's doing just fine. She's pooped in the potty the last couple of days, and stayed dry when she was awake. We're leaving tomorrow for vacation, and then have two more trips scheduled in the next month. I'm afraid we'll have to wait until September to take it to the next level.

Big-girl underpants??

We checked out a couple of children's potty books and a DVD from the library. Today Katie decided she wanted to wear big-girl underpants. I guess that's a good thing, but it frazzles me, especially since she didn't poop today. She did great though! I made her wear a pull-up during her nap, but she stayed dry (it probably helped that I bribed her with ice cream.)

I wonder if I should ever make a conscious transition from having her sit on the potty at regulated times. It seems to work so well that I wonder if it's being incorporated into her body's schedule. Our only bogey is the poop: one, two, morning, noon, or night? It's anyone's guess!

Ellie has me a little frustrated. Since we started sitting her on the potty, she's only had a couple of poopy diapers, and those were understandable (in strange settings.) She pooped in her diaper both yesterday and today. She also pooped on the floor both days, between when I picked her up off the potty and when I put the diaper back on. I wonder what the deal is. Could this be caused by teething? She does seen in general a bit irritable and it is the right age. Or maybe she's testing the waters. Whatever it is, I hope this is a short stage.

Sundays are good days

We seem to be starting a pattern of good Sundays for Ellie. I got brave enough today to let her spend a little time without a diaper. I put a cloth diaper "doubler" under her little bum on a blanket. Unfortunately she rolled over and peed because of the pressure on her tummy. I was able to move the doubler and catch some of it, but not all of it. Stuck the blanket in the wash and a diaper on the baby. That was our five minute diaper-less fun today.

I think I feel more "in-tune" with her on Sundays, because my husband is around to help with Katie. After being able to pay more undivided attention to Ellie on Saturday, I can understand her better on Sunday. It seems to fade during the week.

Katie continues chugging along. We have a delicate balance. We can catch everything (while she is awake) if I put her on the potty after each meal. The only problem is that it takes so long and I feel badly that she has to sit there for so long. It's not that I force her to stay, but I try everything I can to convince her to. All I can say is that it's a good thing she likes books and puzzles. I just don't trust her to go when she needs to. And at this point, I don't think I should trust her. I wonder how long it will take.

Another small step

Hooray, another step forward today. Katie didn't do her usual morning poop today. When that happens, I never know when it will arrive. I was nursing Ellie when I saw Katie stop and get the funny expression on her face. I yelled, "Wait! Don't poop there!" and she ACTUALLY STOPPED! I scooped her up, (poor Ellie got a little squished), rushed to the toilet, pulled off her pull-up and plopped her down. The pull-up was clean, and she did her business in the potty. That's the first time we've successfully stopped a poop. Every other poop we've gotten in the potty was brought on by being there. I'm so happy!

I also got her to do an extra pee in the afternoon. I've been reading about infant potty training (review coming soon), and how moms often get a feeling that their little one needs to pee. So I've been trying to cue in to both my girls. I got a feeling Katie had to go. I asked her and she, of course, said no. She's never said yes, unless it will postpone bedtime. Anyway, I bribed her with candy and she agreed to go. And peed right away. I don't know if she would have held it until the next scheduled potty trip or not, but I feel good about the success.

Ellie had a funny moment today. I have generally been keeping her in disposable diapers between potty trips, but I recently got a few cloth that I'm trying out. I put her in the cloth diaper this afternoon. Maybe I just missed her signal, or maybe she just felt that something was different, but she wet in the cloth diaper. The look on her face was priceless! She was so surprised! I got a good laugh. She does a good job now, but I wonder if she'd do even better if I had her in cloth all the time.

Potty Training

Why does it seem that my entire mood is dependent on my two-year-old's potty habits? This morning she pooped in the potty, which hasn't happened in a few days. I was so happy for the whole morning. Then at her nap, she pooped again in her pull-up. It ruined my mood for the whole rest of the day. It really shouldn't be so.

I wish that we could move beyond this stage, but looking back over my blog, I realize that this stage really isn't so bad. We catch most of the stuff in the potty, and that's a really good place to be. We'll be traveling three more times over the next month and a half, and I can't have her in regular underwear for the trips anyway. On one of the trips we'll be staying with a "friend" just her age who is finished with her potty training. Maybe that will encourage her to take it to the next level.

Potty Training - Another breakthrough

So I've stopped counting the days. I think it will be better on my mental state.

I think we've had another breakthrough. Katie woke up dry from her nap today, for the first time in weeks. I brought her to the potty right away. We sat there for a while, and I was getting antsy because we were running late. She kept saying she was done, but I knew she had to pee. A light bulb went on in my head, and I told her to push to get the tinkle out. She looked at me a little strangely, but then she did. Out it came! Then tonight before bed, she said she wanted to go to the potty and try to push. She went right away. Hooray!

I don't believe that the successes up until now have been completely timing, but I think (heh, I really hope) that something has changed. It seems that she finally now understands that she can make the tinkle happen.