Potty Training - round 2

About a month or so we started potty training again. I'm proud (and a little nervous..don't want to jinx anything) to say that Rylee is pretty much potty trained! HOORAY! I know we'll still have accidents and that's totally fine. But I'm really proud of my little lady and this big step she's just taken. However, during this whole process I've come to learn several things.

1. Ready or Not - Here We Come!! Although I totally agree that the child needs to be ready - I also think that a little tap in the right direction doesn't hurt. I think Rylee didn't know she was ready because I didn't THINK she was. Does that make sense? IF she had an accident - that didn't mean necessarily that she's not ready - it just meant that she didn't get it quite yet. It's my job to guide her in the right direction. I'm constantly learning that I need to have a little more faith that she can do things. I still see her as a baby sometimes and in turn, want to baby her. She needed that extra encouragement from me. She needed the bar raised a little bit and know that her mom had every bit of faith in her that she could do it.

2. Accidents happen - clean up and move on. I actually think that having the accidents were a great learning tool for her. She was able to put two and two together. She ran around (bottom)half-naked for a good majority of the time while at home. This meant that we had a lot of pee on our carpets. But she learned and that's worth the money we spent to regularly clean and disinfect!! :)

3. Pull -ups are not good potty training tools, they're good parent-convenience tools. At least for Rylee, pull-ups and diapers were the same thing. She could wet them and nothing would happen. However, they're extremely convenient in the sense that when we were/are out , I don't have to worry if she has an accident. I hate to say this but I totally take advantage of that! It's a real struggle for me to just accept the fact that when we're out, she's going to have accidents. I need to just plan, prepare and remember that all parents go through this. It's even more difficult when she's going to be away from me - at a grandparents house, at church, or at preschool. I guess I don't want to "burden" anyone else with having to clean up after her if she has an accident or something. So I throw her in a pull up and all is well. Except, it's not. Because then it interrupts the whole potty training "experience". She goes in her pull up because she knows she can. And that's not good. She needs to just think "I have to go to the bathroom" instead "what am wearing today? Should I go to the bathroom or just keep on playing?" Know what I mean? But still....it's so much easier. :/ I'm having a hard time with it, but I'm trying to let go, little by little. Today we went to Sam's Club for some groceries and a cheap dinner. She wore normal panties and she told me twice she had to go potty. First time she tried but got nothing. But the second time was the winner! And even better- no accidents at all. WHEW.

4. If first you don't succeed, try, try again. Many people told me "once you go to panties, don't go back to diapers at all" I think that's great advice...if it works for your child. I think a better statement would be to know your child and if you try and it's just not working, then put the panties away and wait for a little bit. I got a lot of "oh...she's still in diapers???" or "Well, my kids were all trained by insert-early-age-here " My motto (and response) was "She's not going to ask me to change her diaper before she goes to prom" or "Diapers are so not cool in Jr. High!" :) The moral of the story - she'll get it when she gets it, so leave me and my parenting alone. Please and Thank You! :)

5. Bribery Works. Period. Many moms I talked to who had done the whole potty training thing all said the same thing "Just Bribe Her." It's like the Nike slogan but instead of a check mark there's a big piece of candy. :) We did use "rewards" (which are bribes...come on). And they worked, I'm not ashamed. I would ask her "Do you have to go potty?" And she would answer "No". Then I would say "You get a piece of candy if you go potty in the big girl potty!" Her response quickly changed: "OKAY!!!" And bam.....success!! We first gave her candy. Then when she got too good at going potty and started eating candy basically for meals...we switched to the "Potty Chart" and stickers. She didn't really care WHAT the reward was, but as long as she got the reward, she was happy. Soon, she didn't care too much about the reward, she just wanted to play with the stickers. :) Stickers are now all over our house....and our little girl is potty trained. :)

So wish us luck that things continue down this path. Every day is a little bit better....then we have some rough days. But all in all, she's doing great. We're SO proud of her!