Adventures in Potty Training

One of my goals for this summer was to potty train Bridget, and I wanted to start as soon as possible so that she'd hopefully be a pro by the time I go back to work at the end of August. The day after the UPS lady delivered her stuff we were good to go (or so I thought). We already purchased her princess underwear a few weeks before and had been talking about this event for weeks to get her excited about it.
I just wished someone would have warned me about how frustrating and disgusting potty training really is. I was very optimistic before starting the whole process because she's a very smart girl, and I thought she'd like the idea and catch right on. Boy was I wrong. The book I read, Potty Train in Three Days, made it sound so easy.

Here's how the first day went: I felt like I was living in the bathroom with her. And when we weren't living in the bathroom, she was peeing on just about every surface of our house. Just as I would get one mess cleaned up she would have another accident. And most of these accidents occurred either just before of just after she'd been sitting on her potty for several minutes. The laundry was quickly mounting and my patience was waning. By 2pm, she'd had about 7 accidents and a couple of successes, and I was almost in tears. I was trapped in my house constantly cleaning up pee, hadn't really had any time to take care of many of my own personal needs like a shower or lunch, and was wondering why on earth it didn't occur to me to stock up on upholstery cleaner before starting all of this. By the end of day one, she'd had 7 or 8 accidents and a total of 4 successes. I was really questioning whether or not to continue the next day or just let her wear a diaper forever. She cried every time I told her to sit on the potty and didn't seem to have the interest anymore. Many people suggested a sticker chart which I had already planned and made. Sadly, it didn't really interest her the first day, but it certainly helped over the next several days. The rewards were things she loves like chocolate pudding, M&Ms, playing with bubbles, and watching Curious George.
Day 2 proved to be much better. She wasn't going as often and seemed to be starting to figure her body out. She had 4 accidents and 4 successes. She also pooped for the first time in the potty this day, and quickly learned that it's way better to do it that way than in a diaper. In fact, she started doing better with potty training in general when we put the toilet ring insert on her little potty on top of the big toilet this day. She's preferred that ever since then or even sitting on the big toilet without it.

I should also mention one thing I've done differently from the book is continue to put her in a diaper at night for several reasons: I still have a few diapers leftover, I don't want to be changing bedding in the middle of the night, and she needs to be more consistent about waking up with a dry diaper before I'll even attempt to let her go without.

Day 3, she was accident free!!

It's now been 2 weeks since we started the whole process and she's doing very, very well. Last week she had 3-4 days where she had one accident a day, but it's been about a week since she's had any at all. She stays dry through her naps no problem, and she's even been waking up dry in the morning more often. Even better, she's learning to hold it a little longer so she's not going every hour like she was the first week or so. She's used public restrooms a few times without problem too, so I don't have to be afraid to leave my house anymore!

I'm very proud of Bridget and how well she's doing, and I'm just glad I stuck with it even though that first day was so horrible.