Potty Training

 In all of this pregnancy business, I forgot to discuss potty training with Addie.  About 9 months ago we purchased a potty chair and sat it in the bathroom just to let Addie get used to having one.  Let her be curious about it on her own schedule versus forcing her to use it.  For months the potty chair sat in the corner of the bathroom with no usage and no interest. Then one day she asked to sit on the potty.  After 5 minutes of sitting with zero results, and Addie really frustrated, she left the bathroom and then immediately went in her diaper.

She just wasn't ready but was starting to recognize that when you need to go, you should go in the bathroom.  It now became a focus of ours to explain to her, 'if you need to go potty, tell mama or daddy'.  She spent the next few months occasionally doing this though never in time to make it.  Then, while we were on vacation in June she was having a rough night and was a bit backed up.  I massaged her tummy for a while and she continued to whine but about 30 minutes later said, "mama, I need to go potty".  So we ran to the potty and sure enough, she went.  She had now recognized the point at which to tell us.

When we returned home from vacation we focused more on potty training but never pressured her into learning.  We knew she would eventually pick it up and just needed time.  She wasn't yet 2 1/2 and our goal was PT by 3.  We literally decided on Sunday morning to let her run naked all day long.  We reminded her throughout the day that she needed to let us know whenever she had to go potty.  By the end of the day, she just about had it done.  We got really lucky that for the most part, she picked it up really  quickly.  That's not to say she didn't have accidents over the next few weeks, because she did.  She didn't make it through the night without going until about a month later.  To this day, she still has some accidents but she's fully potty trained.  We had her potty trained and out of diapers before Graham arrived which was a huge motivation for us.

Remember when you're attempting to potty train that you give them the chance to figure things out themselves.  Never scold for an accident because they're still figuring it all out.  

-stephanie