I potty trained Emily and Hannah both at about 2 1/2 and I had planned to do the same for Claire.....the plan was to potty train her in early summer, but when early summer came around I just wasn't ready. I even set a date (we do the 3-day potty training method and love it) but two days before we were set to start I sent Bert a text saying we I needed to postpone. Having 4 kids at their ages keeps me busy. I wouldn't trade it for anything, but sometimes I feel like I don't have time to go to the bathroom myself, much less teach someone else to.
After we took our last summer trip I decided it was time. I set a date and Bert was able to be there with us all of the first day (which is the hardest day) but then had several commitments later in the weekend. My mom came over to help while he was gone so one of us could stay focused on Claire for a full three days.
We hadn't talked to her much about it until the morning we were ready to start. Bert got a picture of me telling her what we were going to do that day just before we threw away her diapers and put panties on her for the first time. (Note her dress-up heels in the picture! Little cutie.)
A pic of us just before the adventure began.:)
At first she kept wanting to take her panties off. She didn't like them on, so I was just trying to distract her. She helped me wash the morning dishes, which is a favorite activity any day.
We played with Play-Doh for a long time that morning. The entire 3 days we gave her drink after drink. Whatever she would drink, as long as she was drinking lots. We wanted to give her as many opportunities as possible to learn to tell us when she needs to go. Every day she improved (on days 2 and 3 she would often start to go in her panties just a little and then catch herself), but it wasn't until the 4th day that she started having no wet accidents. Go Claire Bear!
We also read lots and lots of books. We were doing one-on-one activities where we could help her to keep drinking while also paying attention to her cues. Every time she used the potty she got one M&M. This girl has a sweet tooth and loved that part of the training. She called them "gums" for some reason. If we forgot to give her one she would start hollering in a panicked voice "I need my gums!!"
She's still having trouble going poopy in the potty. I'm not sure if she's scared or just being stubborn. We have a poopy chart (sticker for each time and a prize after so many stickers) and have promised exciting things if she'll go in the potty, but so far she hasn't cared. She goes at the same time each day, although since she's started potty training she sometimes skips a day or two, but she'll still go at the same time of day each time. I just have to keep a really close eye on her during that hour or so (it just happens to be during rest time each day) so that if I see her starting to go in her panties I run her to the potty. It's special. Hopefully she'll master that skill quickly.
We're putting pull ups ("night time panties") on her at night, but not any other time of the day. Emily wore pull ups at night for 5 months and Hannah wore them at night for 1 week. Every kid is different and that's fine with me. I'm happy as long as I don't have to wash her sheets every morning. \
Bert took a nap with her one afternoon during the 3 days because she was soooo tired, but wouldn't be still long enough to fall asleep. I think he enjoyed it more than she did.
She called her potty seat her "potty train" and she would get very offended, especially the first couple days, if one of her sisters moved her "potty train" off the seat so that they could use the bathroom. She'd say "who moved my potty train?!" with her brows furrowed and a frown on her face. Ha!
She doesn't have it down perfectly yet, but I'm going to call it a success because she is so close and we now only have one kid in diapers. Two down, one more almost down, and one to go! Whew.
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