The evolution of potty training

The time had come to tackle potty training. We had decided to use the 3-day potty training method that everyone had raved about, but *gasp* modified it a bit to fit our needs. I really wanted to be done and not have a long drawn out process, so we committed to spending our weekend plus on potty training.

To start we had our daughter gather all of her diapers and we gave them to the baby's room and said bye bye to them. The 3-day method says you should throw them all away, but the miser in me couldn't do it and I knew I wouldn't use them as a crutch. No looking back, right?

After saying goodbye to the diapers, I replenished her diaper basket with 35 pairs of new underwear and I put her in her first pair of big girl undies. Since the first day was really half a day she only had 5 accidents, which didn't seem like a lot to me. 

The second day she went through 10 pairs of underwear, but was doing better towards the end of the day. The third was even better and she went through about 6 or 7 pairs. I kept her home from daycare on day four because she wasn't fully trained and I didn't want to lose momentum (nor did I want to throw away all of the time we invested in potty training so far).  

Day four went even better and she only had 1 accident in the morning, went on the potty a couple of times and had just 1 accident after her nap. So we kept her home another day to keep at it. I like to call this the day my child realized she's got the power in this situation. While she didn't have many accidents at all, she held her bladder and refused to go on the potty, although she would sit on it. We even attempted a trip to Target, had lunch and she remained dry the whole time. That evening we went to the mall play place and she had a small accident, didn't like it at all and happily ran to the bathroom with her daddy to sit on the potty and change clothes. 

We kept her home another day. It was more of the same and we weren't making any progress so we sent her to daycare the following day armed with multiple changes of underwear and clothes and a portable potty. She had 4 or 5 accidents by 11:00 am. She hadn't done that since the first day we started. 

Power. She has it. 

So she was put back in Pull Ups (yes, I'm aware they're glorified over-priced diapers, but she associated Pull Ups with underwear and they're the cool touch ones so she feels when she goes). We still encourage her to go on the potty and she tells us when she's going and occasionally sits on the potty, but it's much more relaxed. 

I finally realized she'll do it when SHE'S ready. Or rather, when she wants to. 

Alright, so after allllllllllllll of that, here's a few things I learned along the way that may be helpful when you tackle the potty training beast. 

• Have a bucket filled with a mixture of water and Oxiclean - you need a place to put all of the soiled underwear
• Have ready-made meals (or prepare meals ahead of time) - you won't be able to make real meals if you're the main one doing the potty training (especially if you chose the 3 day method)
• Take a bath or shower during naps or at night
• Borrow/rent/buy a steam cleaner for your floors - there will be accidents and if you have carpet you'll want to clean it
• In the beginning, our daughter would pee multiple times throughout the day, even though we were only changing her diaper roughly 4-5 times a day
• If you're used to having a moment alone in the bathroom, you definitely won't have that during the 3 (or more) days that you're potty training your child (although I haven't had a moment alone in the bathroom since our daughter figured out how to open doors)

Finally, get help. If your significant other or mother or friend or family member can help, let them. Good luck!