Potty Training.

This is a really long post because I wrote about our progress each day throughout the week. To summarize in short before I get into detail, McKenzie is 2 years old (and 3 months) and still sleeps in her crib with a sleep sack. We were basically waiting to potty train until she was able to tell us when she was going pee or poop, but it turns out she didn’t know in that compact little diaper of hers. So if you’re waiting for the same signs, your kid might be ready too. We read a book but ended up using it as a guide and doing our own thing that we felt was right. The first 2 days felt like an eternity, I learned I was being annoying to my toddler and that she’s quite independent. By day 3, I felt really proud. Day 4 I knew she had it but wanted to keep challenging her and myself to really see if she had it. I also thought when people say they train their kid in 3 days they meant like fully potty train including night time. If you did do that, props to you. We are going to wait a month or so before we night train.  I dedicated 4 days at home by not making any sort of plans so we could focus on getting this done. On day 4 I felt comfortable leaving the house. Lastly, every kid is unique which is where I think reading some sort of book or 2 will educate you more on the situation.

At some point in July, for some reason we bought a Moana necklace and a few other toys that we planned to bribe McKenzie with for Potty training. We didn’t plan to potty train until she was “ready” basically waiting for her to tell us “I went pee pee” or “I did a stink”. We received many mixed responses from friends and family about potty training wether they told us do not do it until she is ready or she’s ready just do it. Our real plan was when she was 2.5 we would do it, so some point in December.
In early September, one of Brian’s friends said he was reading “Oh crap! Potty training” and for some reason Brian just ordered it.  I decided to start reading it, and the one part that stuck with me was something like “most parents will say we’re waiting until she is ready, but do you wait until she is ready to go to bed”? I thought to myself “welp, that’s us I guess so maybe she is ready to train”. We picked a long weekend that McKenzie was off from School so that we would have 4 days at home. We decided to sort of follow the book, but not really.  For starters, the book is against rewards, but we had this Moana necklace sitting on the bathroom sink for 2 months so McKenzie was very aware that when she went in the potty she would get it. We decided to give it to her once she was aware of what was going on, sort of like a kick off to potty training present (that’s a thing, no?). We said “today we’re going to keep going pee pee in the potty, you’re a big girl now”. 

We had McKenzie bottomless for Day 1, she peed on the floor a few times and then it went from “I did pee pee” to “I’m peeing” where she was able to stop peeing and get to the toilet to finish. We decided to just use a toddler seat attachment instead to the little potty. We also bought 4 seats, 1 for each car and then 1 for each bathroom. A few times throughout the day we would prompt her “it looks like you have to pee, do you want to try”. We read books, we took her Sesame Street characters in there, mommy went first, daddy went after, we basically did everything. We made sure she did peeps before her nap, and then we put a diaper on her (as the book said) and said “this diaper is just for your nap, you’re doing such a good job going pee pee in the potty we will try again when you wake up”. The diaper was soaked when she woke up. We weren’t really worried but I was just thinking like how is this possible, it’s going to be like starting all over again. It basically was. She peed on the floor again but said “I go pee pee” so Brian ran to the potty with her and she was able to hold it a bit and finish in the potty. Then after dinner she told me she had to do pee pee, nothing had gone on the floor yet so we ran to the bathroom. She started to pee and then all of a sudden started to poop! I said “Wow McKenzie and you’re doing a stink in the potty, that must feel good for your belly”! Brian came running over and we both looked at eachother like Holy shit she is pooping in the potty. 
I knew before bed she would play the pee pee card. And that was just what she did to avoid bed time.  I had asked my best friend if she used diapers over night or if she went right to panties. I didn’t love after the nap how full her diaper was so I was leaning toward panties so she would be uncomfortable and maybe stop peeing overnight.  In the book, it said to use diapers and once you were ready to night train to wake her up to pee. Wake her up to pee? What are you nuts? There is no way she would go back to sleep if Mom came in to help her pee. My friend told me she went right to panties and just said a prayer, and it worked for her. So that is what I did.
Obviously every kid is different, right? McKenzie woke up soaking wet after night one in panties. That was what I expected. So I was hopeful that she remembered how uncomfortable being wet was otherwise I may be waking my child up at night 3.  

Day 2

Brian was on the road for this day. McKenzie woke up and we went right to the potty, nothing came out but she was excited to sit there and remembered the day before atleast.  She did pretty good today. She went pee in the potty and then the 2nd and third time she started to go and said I’m doing pee pee, was able to stop and get to the potty. For some reason before her nap, we went on the potty because I knew she had to go but then she didn’t. She basically got off and went to pee in my room on a table cloth that I just washed and said I did pee pee! I think this was a sign for me to leave her the F alone, and also an indicator she needed to go the F to bed. 
I did underwear for the nap and she soaked through it. I almost did no underwear or diaper for bed but she didn’t go pee and it was 8:30 and I was just at my wits end here today. I said I’m going to put this diaper on you for bed, try to keep it dry and in the morning mommy will come get you to go pee pee and that was that. What a challenge this is. She is doing so great but also way to smart for this and I think she is messing with me for some stuff during the day, I think I’m raising myself. 

Day 3

This was by far the best day. Today we did pants with no underwear so that she was able to push and pull her pants down and up. We started to practice this when I started reading the book. She did pee in the potty every time and even stayed dry for her nap! My only concern on day 3 was there was no poop since day 1, but I think that is normal for them to slow down the amount of times they would poop which for McKenzie was every day. Around 7:30 I told McKenzie we were going to clean up our toys, get dressed, try to use the potty and brush teeth. Like always, she told me “no mama, no night night” but once we started cleaning she walked through the motions. Since she went pee on the potty I was confident and didn’t put a diaper on her for bed. Then I spoke to a few more Mom friends (can we just give it up for Mom friends???) and I asked them for night tips since McKenzie was not aligned with my best friends kid who made it through the night on night 2. Since the book and some other blogs I read mentioned it’s normal for kids to pee at night until they are 3/4 and it’s good to establish day time training first (literally everything I read said something different, because every kid is obviously different). So the 2 Mom’s that I asked said they both said they use diapers at night for awhile until their kiddo was able to hold it longer. Now I just felt guilty that I was making McKenzie sleep in a wet bed, I just knew it wasn’t going to be dry. So I went in there and she was fast asleep and I felt that she was wet, luckily only on her sleep sack. I changed her and she was sort of awake but not really. I put her back down and she fell right back asleep. This made me realize, maybe I will be able to night train where I wake her to pee, and that I needed to just keep doing diapers at night for now.

My husband came upstairs once I shut the door and he asked what happened. I told him how much I was over thinking all of this and just need to let it go, he totally agreed but was still being my best cheerleader that I was doing a great job. He was so helpful throughout this week and we were always on the same page so I think all of this has been leading to her success.

Day 4-7
I’m not entirely sure how someone trains in 3 days, because in my mind I’m like OK it seems like she got it but don’t we have to like test the waters and make sure it sticks? I guess once you make it through the next couple of days with a good success rate, you can then claim you potty trained in 3 days? We did small errands on Wednesday and she didn’t have any accidents. She also didn’t have to go anywhere that we went. At school on Thursday, she went potty before Brian took her and then didn’t want to go at school. I think this was because we didn’t leave her seat attachment and she was just intimidated of going with the teacher, but she went as soon as we got home. Friday we had a playdate at the park and McKenzie went to the bathoom there! We are still at a mix of us prompting her when too much time passes as well as her telling us she has to go but overall it seems as though McKenzie is now potty trained!

I will do another update once I figure out how I’m going to night train, but would love to hear from you guys on how you potty trained and any tips you might have for other parents on my post!