Potty Training!

The new year is bringing MANY changes to our family and it starts with saying buh-bye to diapers...that is, of course, before we say hello to diapers again this May!

During our daycare interview with Cathy, back before Emilia was even born, the discussion of potty training came up. We listened as Cathy shared with us her approach and experience with this complete unknown to us and kidded that "Emilia would be signed up for potty training in January 2010" and IN THE BLINK OF AN EYE it was January 2010...

We took Cathy's advice and waited until after the craziness of the holiday's was behind us and developed a plan for taking on the challenge of potty training. I read up on the 3 Day Potty Training approach, talked to mom friends and tucked away all of the tips and tricks they had from their experience. I talked with Emilia enthusiastically about how she was going to be wearing undies soon! I was confident that Emilia was going to do great. She has used the potty here and there without resistance since before she was two...but nothing consistent and nothing we really pushed. We wanted to be sure she was ready and that for every body's sake, it wasn't a long process.

So, we got prepared. I created "Emilia's Potty Chart" complete with her favorite Super Why! cartoon characters, made sure we had several sheets of stickers to use on the chart, put her "potty book" under the sink in the bathroom to read on the potty if she wanted, bought a new cup with a straw to make it fun for her to drink lots of fluids over the weekend, had her help me throw her undies in the wash for the first time and got her bed ready with a waterproof pad in case of any accidents.

Saturday morning came and we were OFF! She woke up and we took off her diaper and put on her undies. She chimed in, "Olivia will wear diapers!" We explained that if she felt like she needed to use the potty to tell us because she was wearing undies now! We started her out with some juice to get things going and shortly after the juice was gone...her undies, pants and socks were soaked. She looked down at her wet little self and begged that we "GET IT OFF!" We took her into the bathroom, took off each little soaked piece and let her sit on the potty. She helped us rinse her wet clothes before picking out a new pair of undies and putting on dry pants and socks.

There were a couple more accidents that morning, but not "emptied bladder" accidents. She was not happy when we would have to take her undies off, but we remained positive with her and just encouraged her to tell us before she had to go. She would only get a sticker and an orange TicTac if she made it to the potty without wet undies...

Each trip to the bathroom was better than the last. Stickers started to fill up her chart and whenever she got to a STAR on the chart, she got an extra special prize. "What is it?" she would whisper to Jeff about the prize before saying, "Don't tell me..." Her first prize was a velcro catch game :) She did great during nap and woke up dry and used the potty right away, earning her another sticker.

The rest of Saturday involved more successful trips to the bathroom and her deciding that she did NOT want to sleep in a pull up, but wanted to stay in her undies. We were hesitant but wanted to show her that we believed in her, so we made sure to get that little bladder empty before bed and told her to "call for Mommy and Daddy if you wake up and need to go potty." At 7:15am, she called for us...we went down to help her out of bed and to the potty and were OVERJOYED to find that she was DRY! She had made it though the WHOLE NIGHT DRY! A little bit into Sunday morning and she had earned a second prize; a new outfit for her baby which she described as, "Beautiful."

More success on Sunday and we were feeling SO proud of our big girl! Another dry night on Sunday followed by a trip to the potty right away in the morning meant her third prize which we gave to her before daycare on Monday; a Disney Fairies tin purse. She took this little number to daycare and proudly walked in showing it to her friends and announcing that she was wearing UNDIES! We prayed that her enthusiasm would remain high at daycare and that she would be able to pull herself away from activities in order to remember to use the potty.

I called daycare at noon to check on her morning and was HAPPY with the news that she had ZERO accidents!! I picked her up that night and MORE GREAT NEWS!!! Such a BIG GIRL! Day 2 at daycare...NO ACCIDENTS! One more day of staying dry all day and she gets to earn the privilege of going into the LOFT at daycare! This is a HUGE deal. ONLY potty trained kids that stay DRY are allowed to go in the loft. Well - she made it through Day 3 with flying colors as well! Today is the BIG day that she gets to enter the loft! I called Jeff this morning to see how drop off went and he reported that she walked into daycare and announced, "I get to go in the LOFT" and got a high five from Cathy! I'll have to get a picture of her up there all proud!

We know that there are great possibilities that we may still hit a couple bumps in the road to complete success 100% of the time, but we are just thrilled with our Little Miss and what a BIG GIRL she is proving to be.

Potty training...check.