Potty Training Update

It's been 3 weeks since our big potty training weekend and I'm finally getting around to giving our potty training update. The fourth day after we potty trained was rough. It was our first day to be away from home for an extended period of time. We had 3 accidents before nap time and I was ready to give up. We had our first accident at church, which I didn't feel like it was too bad since we were there for 3 hours.

We stopped by our house before going out to eat for lunch in hopes that she would potty there since she wasn't using it while we were out. I made the mistake of offering her a piece of candy if she would go potty before we left. She would sit down on the potty but wouldn't use it. She kept crying and getting worked up because I wouldn't give her the candy until she actually went in the potty. She eventually had an accident while standing right next to her potty because she was so worked up. I felt awful; she felt awful. Thus I decided that I wouldn't use candy as an incentive again. It was just too stressful for her and me.

We headed out to the restaurant in hopes that she could make it through lunch without any incident. Toward the end of lunch, she said that she needed to go potty but as I picked her up I noticed that there was already a puddle in her chair. I was ready to throw in the towel right then. I felt like everything that we had done the three days prior was all in vain.

I spent the afternoon all upset until I finally decided to give up. I didn't decide to give up on potty training, but I decided to give up on stressing about it and pushing it on her. If we were home she would tell me when she needed to go potty, I just couldn't get her to go when I needed her to. As I had learned earlier, pressuring her did not work and only upset both of us. I decided that I would have her sit on the potty whenever I needed her to try to go, but not pressure her to use it. I knew that she would get it eventually. In the meantime, I just planned on carrying lots of towels and plenty of changes of clothes.

Over the next few days, the only time we left the house was to go to her grandparents' houses. She used the potty great there, except for pooping. She only had 3 accidents that week and hasn't had one since. At some point during that week she finally understood that she needed to try to go any time I put her on it and not just when she needed to.

At some point during the week she started running a fever. I didn't mention her potty at all because she was feeling so bad, but she did fantastic. We even made it to a trip to a doctor in her panties with no issues. The doctor diagnosed her with croup and gave her some medicine. Thankfully, she started feeling better by the next day.

Looking out at the trucks while waiting to be seen by the doctor. 

On Saturday, we ventured to a festival that was about an hour drive away. I felt like this was our first big test. I had plenty of changes of clothes and fully expected to go through them all. However, she did fantastic and I only had to change her because of the amount of ice cream that she spilled on her clothes. I finally felt confident that she had gotten it.

This girl loves ice cream!

Our true test was the drive to the beach. It took us about an hour longer than it should had because we pulled off on an exit every time she said that she had to go potty, but we made the entire trip with no accidents. It has been so cute seeing her in her bathing suits without that extra diaper padding while at the beach. We even took her portable potty to the beach with us and she used it right there on the beach (we surrounded it with beach chairs to give her some privacy of course).

Running on the beach

The biggest thing that I wasn't expecting with potty training was the disruption in her sleep cycle. She has started waking up an hour earlier and as soon as she wakes up, she wants to go potty and starts crying if I don't make it to her in time. She will also periodically wake up throughout the night and want to go. I know this is great for wanting to be completely potty trained, but I just really enjoy my sleep.

Overall our potty training went really well. I really thought it was a complete bust on that fourth day, but she has done great since then. I know that we won't ever be completely accident free but it's such a relief to know that it's not going to be an every day, every location occurrence. Thanks to all my friends and family who tolerated my endless questions and offered support throughout this process. Those first four days were tough but it has been totally worth it since then! 

Potty Training: Day 3

Before I got Caroline out of bed this morning, I put her potty in the bathroom. As soon as we came downstairs, I showed her where I put her potty. She was not a fan and immediately tried to push it out the door. I put it back and explained that we're going to use the potty in the bathroom from now on. She didn't want to use it right away so I didn't push her. A few minutes later she said she needed to go potty and immediately ran to the bathroom. She used her potty and we did an extra big celebration for using the potty in the bathroom.

She loves wearing her hat

Next we ate breakfast. Robbie fixed us all pancakes or as Caroline calls them "cake". Once during breakfast, she said that she needed to potty so we ran in there. She only sat there for a second then decided she was done. After breakfast, we went outside. I still wasn't able to get her to put her Minnie Mouse panties on, but at least she put on her shorts.

She loves her sandbox!

It was super hot outside so we didn't stay out there very long. We came back inside and started watching our Jake. Hopefully once this is all mastered we can cut back on our tv time again. We  kept our shorts on so that we could practice going potty with having to pull down shorts. The rest of the day at home was mostly uneventful. She woke up from her nap with a dry pull up so we went straight to potty. We also made it outside to play again. 

Playing in her house

Bubbles!

We decided that we would try to take our first venture out and about. We headed to Chadwick's Churn to get ice cream because we thought that it would be a fairly fun and short trip out. We tried to go potty before we left, but nothing came of it. Robbie was able to get her to put on her Minnie Panties along with her shorts so everything was looking good. We all enjoyed our ice cream and had a good time. We ended up seeing some friends of ours while we were out. Caroline started playing with a little girl that is in her class at school. She said that she needed to potty so we ran inside. She sat on the potty for a second then jumped off. Her panties were just a little wet so I went ahead and changed her clothes and headed back out. While playing I noticed that she was squatting and grunting so I hurriedly picked her up and took her to the potty. She had pooped so we dumped it in the toilet and talked about how we needed to poop in the potty. We changed pants and got ready to head back out. As I was washing her hands, she said potty and immediately started peeing everywhere. It was an absolute mess. I took off her bottoms as quickly as I could and sat her on the toilet seat while I cleaned up the mess as best as I could. Needless to say, we left right after that. 

Enjoying our ice cream with sprinkles!

It probably would have been better if we had stayed home because I knew that she had not pooped yet today and had drunk a lot of water at dinner without going potty. I just really wanted to venture out and see how we did. As far as being home goes, she's pretty well potty trained. She goes potty whenever she needs to. My problem is that she won't go when I ask her to try. She'll sit on the potty for a second then say all done. If I make her sit longer, she gets all stressed so I'm trying not to stress her out about it too much and just letting her go on her own at home. The problem with that is that she doesn't have enough time to get to a potty out in town like she does at home, nor does she give us enough time to get her there. She tells us as she's going. I'm sure we'll get the hang of it eventually though. I'm just learning to accept that it's going to take a lot of practice and patience.