Potty Progress

Yep. This post is all about Kylie's potty progress. Feel free to check out these pictures of Kylie playing with magnets and move on unless this topic interests you.





Kylie is doing great with her potty training in the house. She's going to the potty 6-7 times a day. She wears a diaper when we leave the house.

One thing I've learned this week is that people LOVE to give you advice on potty training. I'm writing this to capture our progress not to advise.

When I first read the "Bare Bottom 3 Day Potty Training Process", I thought it sounded insane. I mean, who wants to deal with all the mess of THAT?! I read other approaches. I listened to other people's stories and methods. And then I thought a lot about each of them and how they would work for our Kylie.

But I knew in my gut that Kylie would need an intense approach to get kick-started into potty training so we went with the bare bottom method.

Preparation.
We had been doing prep work by reading potty board books to Kylie and she's been coming with me to the potty ever since she could crawl. But I have to say that Elmo's Potty Time video had the most impact on Kylie. After seeing this video several time, she wanted to go to the potty like Elmo and wear underpants like Prairie Dawn.

First three days
As you might have read in my earlier blog post, on our first day of training, Kylie did well. Four successful trips to the potty. Our second day was a disaster. ELEVEN accidents in the house. It was so hard to stay upbeat and positive in front of Kylie. That night I did a lot of moaning and groaning to Karen. But the lessons of that day went in deep with Kylie. The third day she woke up and announced she wanted to go to the potty. And she continued to tell me she was ready to go potty throughout the day. By the third day, I could ask her, "Where does pee (or poop) go?" and Kylie would proudly say, "In the potty!" She started shouting "TA-DA" after she went. I'm convinced that the intensity of that second day has made our success on the following days.

Rewards
I use a chart on the wall and put a sticker on it every time Kylie puts something in the potty. She also gets stickers on her hands and her shirt but it is the chart sticker that has impressed her the most. She's great at the steps of wiping, flushing and washing her hands. And she likes the high-five we do right after she goes.

She does NOT like to be asked. The most I can ask without making her irritated is about once an hour. It works better for me to say that I'm going and Kylie comes with me. Telling her that she needs to put some pee in the potty before we go outside to play works too.

Outside
On the 3rd, 4th, and 5th days, we tried going to our nearby park to play. Kylie would use the potty before we left. I carried the potty with us in the car and asked her if she needed to go before we got out of the car. She would say "No" but then she would have an accident after playing outside for five minutes. I would clean her up at the car and put underpants and then pants back on her but within ten more minutes she would have another accident. I would change her again and we would drive home.

This was frustrating for the both of us because we love playing outside. I think that she's too stimulated by the trees, sticks, swings, slides and everything that she wants to play with to think about walking to the car to potty. So I decided to back off a bit and let her wear a diaper when we go out to play. The good news (albeit a bit funny and slightly embarrassing) is that she still shouts, "Pee!" when she's going even though she's going in her diaper. I like that she has that body awareness now.

Naps
If I plan to wake Kylie from her nap or I know that I can go get her the moment she wakes up then I put her down in just underpants. If I don't think I can get to her right away then I put her in a diaper for her nap or I wash her sheets. The good news is that even if her diaper is wet from her nap, she'll still pee a bit in the potty for me when I go get her from her nap.

Good surprises
We went to our Kindertune class on Friday (with a diaper). Kylie told me that she wanted to go potty at the end of class. Her diaper was a bit damp but she used the big-girl potty like a champ. I was so impressed that she knew to leave class to use the potty. She got tons of praises for that one.

Some of you may think I'm crazy to have started potty training this way. But I have to say that I'm proud of my actions from this week and so very proud of Kylie's progress. She's one awesome kiddo.