Real Triumph (fingers crossed)
Well, I have some big news to report. Beth is potty-trained! (cue trumpet fanfare here).
I say this with a bit of trepidation remaining in my heart. I have a friend who has had problems with her daughter seeming to succeed and then regressing. And it's been such a long, painful process with Beth that I have a hard time believing it's really true: I have a child out of diapers!
It's been several weeks, and the only accidents she's had have been when she was playing outside and didn't get reminded to come in and go potty. I'm not counting those as failure, since I know even some older kids who have been potty-trained for awhile still have accidents sometimes, especially when they are distracted.
I am incredibly, incredibly happy about this. I can't even tell you how great it is to only be changing one kid's diapers every day. I feel like rejoicing every time she poops in the potty. It makes her seem so grown-up, to see those little cotton Princess underwear on her behind instead of diapers. And she's quite independent, wanting to do it all by herself, from wiping to washing.
Here she is with the Pooh Bear her Nana took her to make at the Build-a-Bear Workshop as her reward:
The one bad thing is that I don't really feel like I learned very much, throughout the whole pain-in-the-neck process that this has been. Should we have waited longer to start? Was I not consistent enough? Was Beth just especially stubborn? Should I have been more forceful? I really don't know. We kept trying to be real positive about potty-training, wanting it to be a fun and happy thing for her, but eventually we just had to stop being nice and force it upon her.
Everyone kept saying, "Oh, she'll eventually get it." or "She won't go to kindergarten in diapers." But I think that if she had her choice, she would have. Even just two days ago, with several diaper-free weeks under her belt, she got up from her nap, and when I told her it was time to trade her Pull-Up for underwear (she's still wearing Pull-Ups for naptime and overnight), she said, "No. I don't want to wear my underwear. I want you to just change me."
Groan.
But the important thing is, she's been successful for several weeks now, and we're not going back to Diaperville. She's potty-trained, whether she likes it or not.
I say this with a bit of trepidation remaining in my heart. I have a friend who has had problems with her daughter seeming to succeed and then regressing. And it's been such a long, painful process with Beth that I have a hard time believing it's really true: I have a child out of diapers!
It's been several weeks, and the only accidents she's had have been when she was playing outside and didn't get reminded to come in and go potty. I'm not counting those as failure, since I know even some older kids who have been potty-trained for awhile still have accidents sometimes, especially when they are distracted.
I am incredibly, incredibly happy about this. I can't even tell you how great it is to only be changing one kid's diapers every day. I feel like rejoicing every time she poops in the potty. It makes her seem so grown-up, to see those little cotton Princess underwear on her behind instead of diapers. And she's quite independent, wanting to do it all by herself, from wiping to washing.
Here she is with the Pooh Bear her Nana took her to make at the Build-a-Bear Workshop as her reward:
The one bad thing is that I don't really feel like I learned very much, throughout the whole pain-in-the-neck process that this has been. Should we have waited longer to start? Was I not consistent enough? Was Beth just especially stubborn? Should I have been more forceful? I really don't know. We kept trying to be real positive about potty-training, wanting it to be a fun and happy thing for her, but eventually we just had to stop being nice and force it upon her.
Everyone kept saying, "Oh, she'll eventually get it." or "She won't go to kindergarten in diapers." But I think that if she had her choice, she would have. Even just two days ago, with several diaper-free weeks under her belt, she got up from her nap, and when I told her it was time to trade her Pull-Up for underwear (she's still wearing Pull-Ups for naptime and overnight), she said, "No. I don't want to wear my underwear. I want you to just change me."
Groan.
But the important thing is, she's been successful for several weeks now, and we're not going back to Diaperville. She's potty-trained, whether she likes it or not.
3 comments:
Congratulations! This is a huge deal!
And after potty training both of my boys, I still am at a loss to what the key to success in this area is. I really don't know how we went from diapers to potty trained besides lots of work and messes. I am holding out hope that little one #3 will be easier to potty train, but only time will tell. I am more and more convinced that it has much to do with the individual child and a little to do with parenting technique when it comes to this area.
I remember asking a mother of 3 for advice in this area and she just laughed and wished me luck. That was a clue as to how clueless most moms are on this topic. In fact in asking older moms about it, most could recall toilet training like some distant memory, but they didn't have words of help. That did give me hope though, that the current trial someday becomes an "oh yeah" type of memory. In other words I knew we would survive toilet training, but it may be just that, "surviving."
Way to go Beth and Jen!
Wow great job! This makes me feel better because I have come to the same conclusion! Once they come to some kind of success just make them continue. My son likes to imitate his kid sis sometimes and when I give in we take a huge step backwards in potty training! I think I'm going to use your advice since I wasn't very confident in my conclusions! LOL! Thanks Jen and congrats!
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