Potty training was such a stressful, miserable experience for me with my first child, I used to joke with everyone that I was going to make my next kid BEG me to potty-train. I surely wasn't even going to try until Juliet had at least turned three! But I think I forgot the most important lessons I had learned: every kid is different and when they're ready, they're ready. Which brings me to today's post...
I guess it all started a few weeks ago when Juliet was with Justin at Grandma's house. She asked to go potty, sat down and peed. He of course showered her with candy and praise. We left for Disneyland the next day, and that was that. Every time I had to go to the restroom, Juliet wanted to go too. She would just sit there for a few seconds--nothing came out-- then she wanted to wipe and flush. It was actually a bit of an inconvenience, but I let her do her thing.
We came home from Disneyland, and I had one day to recover from all the fun and get us all ready for my 3-day work week. I was already feeling overwhelmed, the LAST thing I wanted to do was potty train. Juliet had something different in mind. She woke up and told me she wanted to go pee pee on the potty. I put her little potty in the living room, took her pants off, and continued doing everything I needed to do. In a couple of minutes, she came and got me. She told me she went pee, and she wanted candy. I went and looked and sure enough, there was pee! We cheered, clapped and ate candy. She wanted to keep her pants off, so I let her. One more pee before nap time and no accidents. I was still in disbelief! We put a diaper on for nap time. As SOON as she woke up, she wanted panties. I told her she had to pee in the potty first, so she did. CRAZY! We went to pick Aubrey up from school with panties on. I told Aubrey about all of the potty adventures, and she showered Juliet with praise. Juliet was loving all the candy and praise! The first day ended with 4 pees, 2 poops, and 2 accidents (while climbing onto the potty). All the while, I did nothing! I didn't sit with her in the bathroom...in fact, she got sick of going on her little potty, so she moved the stool over to the big potty and put on the potty seat all by herself (hence the accident in the process of getting on). This was my kind of potty-training!
I still wasn't sure I wanted to go for it full-throttle. I knew we NEEDED to take the paci away because she was biting it off at the base, and it was a choking hazard. That was our plan for the coming weekend, so I didn't want to overwhelm Juliet. Also, I worked the next three days, and Juliet wasn't a fan of going potty at Carrie's house, so neither of us stressed it. She would still use the potty in the mornings and after we got home. Sometimes she would ask for panties, sometimes she would ask for a pull-up and sometimes she would ask for a diaper. I let her wear whatever she wanted. I definitely did not want to make this experience as stressful as last time!
We plan on REALLY potty training over spring break, but in the meantime, we are encouraging Juliet to use the potty whenever she can. Most of the time, she is the one who does the reminding! We've been at the Dr.'s office twice since Thursday. Both times we were there, she pooped in the potty! But I'm not going to sugar coat it all...with Aubrey, she had crazy bladder control (probably because she stressed out so much that she would hold it for DAYS at a time). Juliet has no bladder control and will sometimes ask to go twice when we are out at a restaurant, etc. It's such an inconvenience! She also can care less about accidents! She just says, "Mom, I peed my pants. I need new ones!" Overall though, this potty training themselves business is the way to go! I'll let you know if the success continues over spring break. I learned last time, that YOU can't decide the time to potty train, it's really up to them!
