On Friday we started potty training again. This time it’s going much smoother. It feels completely different from when we tried last June and then failed by September. What a difference nine months makes at this stage in life.
To begin with, P can talk much, much more. It makes a huge difference. She can tell me what she’s feeling. She peed in her high chair and I asked her what happened. She said “Mamma I sit down and I’m comfy in my chair so I peed.”. That makes sense. I understood where she was coming from and we could talk about it.
Second, her bladder has matured. She doesn’t go as often as she use to so the misses aren’t as often. She can actually hold it to. We were across the street at the school and she said she had to pee. I asked her to hold it while we got home….and she did! Amazing.
Third, she is much more coordinated so she can pull her pants on and off. The wiping is still an issue but she can do the rest herself. She’s taking pride in doing it all on her own; a big aspect for her success.
Fourth, and this might be the most critical factor….my expectations are much more realistic. At 19 months I was sure P was going to take to potty training like a champ. She’s smart, I thought she was ready and she learns things quickly. She’s also smart enough to know how to control her environment by peeing when she shouldn’t and bottom line she wasn’t ready. I thought she could get it down in a week, at most. Now, I know not to push her. To give her control over the activity. And I also know this is one of the hardest things I’ve done as a mother and it takes patience like nobody’s business. I know not to get mad.
Today is Monday. We’ve been at it for four days now. She has the peeing down pretty good. The pooping though is still hit or miss. For some reason she has a harder time feeling that she’s going. Odd. I’m trying to figure it out.
This time around I started with more prep work. I started talking about what we were going to do days before hand. I bought her a funny book “How to Potty Train Your Monster”. She liked it and seemed eager to let go of her diapers. I’ve been telling her for months that she can wipe when she goes in the toilet herself and that she needs to learn this before she goes to school. Her pre-school will take her potty trained or not. I figure it would be better if she had passed this hurdle before school. Plus, the school charges a $50 monthly diapering fee. I’ll use those $50 for a night out with the hubby instead!
So far so good. I just hope we don’t relapse like last time where she did great for a month and then regressed after that. This week we’re missing yoga so we can stay home and focus on getting this accomplished. Oh, the sacrifices!
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