Potty Training

Here's the set up...big girl undies, donuts, fruit bars, graham crackers, goldfish, chocolate covered raisins, jelly beans, stickers and of course Saran Wrap. :)

I had to put this picture on here. It captures the morning...shirt tucked up out of the way, drinking Sprite, diaper cast aside and Saran Wrap on her cast.

Big Brother very excited about Potty Training Day

Most of you know that we are potty training Jordan this week. It seems a bit premature (she's 2 yrs 3 months) but as usual we are tied to a surgery schedule and therapy schedule that dictates our lives. Shan suggested this weekend that we train her this week. I totally resisted at first but then thought about the fact that we had a week off from appts (except the surgeon's appt) and that with her next surgery coming up we wouldn't have another chance until summer. A few people laughed, said we were crazy and should reconsider but we didn't see that we really had many other options. We went for it. I took just Jordan to Wal-Mart to get her big girl undies and all the sugary and salty snacks and drinks she loves to use as motivation and ammunition. We pumped it up and tried to get everyone excited. Noah was very excited and really looking forward to potty training Jordan. He even reminded me that I needed the timer and told me where it was when I couldn't find it. He saw all the candy and soda and kept saying that he wanted to be potty trained again. :) We assured him that he could certainly partake in the festivities.

We use the method from the book Toilet Training in Less Than a Day. I've never read the book but I have a wonderful friend (Alyssa Buck) who typed up the basics for me with Noah and then walked me through it hourly as I trained him. With Noah (see past blog post about a year ago) it was insane! He peed all over the place and couldn't hold an ounce of pee in. The place was a mess, we were all slipping and sliding and we ran out of underwear. By naptime I was DONE and near tears. He woke up from his nap dry and then didn't have an accident again until bedtime when family came by and we were distracted. He was completely potty trained with no accidents in a week then with "number 2" he was totally set within two weeks. Jordan has been a very different case.

She was afraid to pee on the potty so she'd cry and cry every time we put her on. She'd also hold it for hours and hours. She was downing Sprite but not peeing. We'd finally force her to sit on the potty and she'd scream like crazy then drip a couple drops. It was like that all morning. That afternoon she woke up with a full Pull-Up then began the pattern of leaking a bit and freaking out so we'd get her to the potty to finish. By day two it was better but still leaking some, then saying "Uh oh" and we'd help her to the potty. By day four she didn't have an accident all day but we were making her get to the potty even though she said she didn't have to go. Today I was determined to let her have accidents so that she can learn to get herself to the potty but it was disastrous. Now we're back to just taking her every so often and then she goes. We went on our first outing tonight to the mall and she didn't have an accident but we took her to the potty three times whle there. All in all she's doing well and I'm really glad we did it. I just hope she gets over this fear she has of going in the potty.