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!