The Ups and Downs of Potty Training!

There are a lot of ups and downs when it comes to potty training. It is the WORST when it isn't working, and then the BEST (like on the complete other end of the spectrum) when it works. It really helps them feel more grown up, you save money on diapers, and it is so much more fun than changing diapers! Plus little kid underwear is so cute...especially little girl panties:)

So Jane's potty training saga is finally winding down. Here's the quick sum up: I started really potty training in November, although I had tried a few times during the few months before that. I wrote a post about that (this one and this one), and it actually went really well.

That all went down hill in December with my surgery and Christmas traveling. So we decided it would be best to take a break and start fresh...kind of like pushing the reset button.

So, about a month or so ago Jane woke up and asked to wear panties again and said that she was ready to be all done with diapers. I decided that this time I would be more careful to not use Pull Ups too much, just at night when she was sleeping.

So, the first day was horrible, but by day two she was doing really well and seemed to be remembering what this potty training thing was all about. An accident here and there, but mostly good as long as I took her to the potty about every hour and she was wearing big girl underpants all day long. Her main problems at this point were going number 2 in her panties, not telling me when she needed to go, and going number 1 in her pull ups in the morning before I could get her to the potty.

Here are some of the new methods of reward that I used this time:


A sticker chart:


Pee-pee prizes and...


...poo-poo prizes...



So, all in all I thought we were doing pretty well until one day I was watching an episode of Supernanny online and I watched as these parents were letting their 3 and 5 year-olds still drinking from bottles and they were putting their 5 year-old potty trained children in diapers at night so that they didn't have to deal with it when their kids wet the bed. Of course the Supernanny put a stop to all of that immediately and the kids responded really well. I thought to myself, "am I doing anything to my kids that's preventing them from progressing in their development just because I don't want to deal with it?" I realized that the only reason that I was having Jane wear Pull Ups at night is because I didn't want to deal with her wetting the bed. I immediately put all of the Pull Ups away and she has been wearing underwear 24 hours a day from then on and she is doing great (as long as I don't let her drink much in the evening).

This brings me to the reason that I am writing this post today: Jane has gone number 2 in the toilet two days in a row and I think we are on a roll. Also, speaking of ups and downs she has also had two number 1 accidents in the last 24 hours when she hasn't had one in a about a week, so who knows. One thing I've learned is most of this stuff just takes time and patience. So good luck to all of you potty training parents out there.