Potty Trained! (well, more or less)

Two Thursdays ago, I believe it was September 10th, when she was three years, one month, and three days old, Jordyn decided to start peeing on the potty!!

Backing up a bit, we'd arrived home from vacation (which I'll eventually write about in a separate post) on Tuesday, and Jordyn had woken up that morning with a cough. It started out very croupy-sounding, but turned into a regular cough once she was awake for a while. She was fine otherwise all day while we were traveling, but woke up with a fever at 3:30 Wednesday morning. She had to stay home from school (and miss what was supposed to be her first day in the preschool classroom!), but I was able to get my parents to watch her, and I went to work (just getting there a little late). The fever came back throughout the day, and she woke up with another one when the meds wore off at about 3:30 Thursday morning. I was off that day, and while she was supposed to go to school and I was SO looking forward to having the day to unpack, do laundry, and relax, she had to stay home again. Ah, well, I figured we'd cuddle on the couch and have a nice, low-key day together at home. I was certainly NOT planning to attempt potty training!

Soon after waking up - she didn't have a fever because I'd given her tylenol at 3:30am - I asked Jordyn if she needed to pee. She said no. I told her to let me know when she did. My only plan was to try to get her to sit on the potty and pee with her diaper on, as she'd done several times before. Baby steps, right?! A little later she told me she had to pee. We went in the bathroom and I asked if she wanted to sit on the little potty or the big potty - again, just planning to have her sit and pee with her diaper on, to get used to peeing sitting on the potty. She chose the little potty, which was surprising since she usually prefers the regular toilet with the kid seat on top, but whatever. I started to try to help her pull her pants down, but she said something about a surprise for me and needing or wanting privacy. By all means! I walked out the bathroom into my room across the hall, and next thing I knew, she/d taken off her diaper, sat down on the potty, and peed! I couldn't believe it!! It apparently really DOES just happen all by itself!!! 

I threw her a party - laid on the praise thick - and then asked if she wanted to put a diaper back on, or underwear. She chose underwear, so that's what we did. I told her that next time she needed to pee, to let me know and she could do it on the potty again, because she had underwear on now. She did, and she hasn't looked back. She peed in the little potty once more, then switched to the regular toilet, although yesterday and today she's chosen to use the little potty a few times. She had one minor accident that first day with just a little bit of pee in training pant underwear, and another small accident a day or two later, but that was because I was on the toilet and she needed to go, and we were downstairs where we don't have a little potty. Otherwise, she totally has it. Since she knew 100% what to do, and was already completely capable of holding it for long periods of time, it was like the flip of a switch!

She's still wearing a diaper at night, but wakes up dry the majority of the time. She's not wearing a diaper at nap time, and hasn't had an accident yet, although she seems to be phasing out naps and doesn't take one every day anymore. Her first day back at school, and her first day in the preschool room, she didn't pee. At all. In TEN HOURS. Not even at nap time, and she did nap. I have absolutely no idea how she did this!! When I got there to pick her up, and the teacher told me she hadn't peed all day, I took her right to the bathroom and she peed. It wasn't that she hadn't had to go; she said she'd been waiting for me! OMG! The next day, I told her I'd give her a prize if she peed at school when I wasn't there. I'd been giving her small prizes each time she peed on the potty, but had told her the night before that the prizes were now only for pooping on the potty, since she was so good at peeing on the potty and didn't need prizes for that anymore. But I changed the rules and promised her a prize for peeing at school, and it worked - she peed on the potty five times at school the next day! 

Speaking of poop... She did poop on the potty once, the day after she starting peeing on the potty, two weeks ago. But not since. It was kind of messy, with poop getting on her dress, the toilet seat, and her leg, but I told her it was ok, and that she was still learning, and I cleaned it up and we changed her clothes - no big deal. But I think maybe that's why she hasn't done it again. She slept over at my parents' house that night, and woke up on Saturday with a poop (or woke up and then pooped, but either way it was in her diaper). Now, she asks for a diaper when she has to poop. I resisted at first, but then realized she hadn't pooped in 2-3 days, and decided it was worth it. She told me she wasn't "ready" to poop on the potty, but she'll sit on the potty to poop as long as she's wearing a diaper. Then I take off the diaper and clean her up, and she pulls her underwear back up. Ridiculous, but I'm not complaining, because I bet once she's ready, she'll just do it - just like with pee. In fact, not only am I not complaining, I'm rejoicing! Hallelujah, she-who-refuses-to-be-potty-trained is potty trained!!! For pee; poop to come. 

 

When she finally did get to start preschool (I blurred out the name of her school).