Hellobee

I’ve been holding off sharing this, because I didn’t want to jinx it, but since it’s been three months now and I can’t remember the last time she had an accident, I think it’s safe to say that my daughter is potty trained. Woohoo!

I bought two cheap potty seats for the bathroom (one that sits on the floor and a “portable” one that sits on the toilet) when she was around a year and a half, once I noticed the interest was there. Since I’m home with her almost all day, every day, she’d go into the bathroom with me and sit on her potty while I sat on the real deal. I read (after the fact) that it’s good to narrate the motions of using the restroom, but I only simply said, “Mama’s going potty.”

We really wanted to have her potty trained before baby number two arrived, so I knew we needed to step things up a notch. The day before Thanksgiving, I realized, would be the perfect time to attempt potty training since we didn’t have any plans on leaving the house for a couple days and my husband would be home (I wanted him to experience this exciting moment along with me. Okay, I really wanted him to help with the mess that comes along with potty training!). I didn’t do much research, but from listening to conversations at mom groups, I knew letting her run around buck naked was the way to go.

So the afternoon before Thanksgiving, after she told me she went poo-poo in her diaper, I decided to put her in her birthday suit and see what would happen. Lo and behold, a little while later I heard the trickling of water on our hardwood floor. She had a frightened look on her face, stopped peeing, and we ran to the potty where she proceeded to finish what she started. We had a few more accidents as the day wore on, but she held it after the initial trickle and finished in the potty. I called that half day a big “win.”

The next day (Thanksgiving) was much like the afternoon before. We left her naked and she started telling us when she’d need to go to the bathroom before she’d have an accident. We tried to keep her hydrated, and made a really big deal when she’d actually go pee-pee in the potty (lots of high-fives and fist bumps). I didn’t want to reward with stickers and/or candy, in case we were stuck inside a Target bathroom at some point in the future without a reward for her, so we decided cheering would work just fine, and it did.

By the end of Thanksgiving day, she was telling us when she needed to go to the bathroom, and even went number two on her potty earlier in the day. (Full disclosure: we made up a couple songs to help with doing her number two business.)

I mentioned that we had two seats; she quickly dismissed the seat that stayed on the ground (we now keep that one in the car for emergencies while we’re on the road), and opted for the “big girl” one that stayed on the toilet. We’d help her pull down her pants and lift her up to the seat. At the beginning we’d wipe for her, but now she’s doing that on her own (when she goes pee). She’s also pulling her own pants up and down now, and we got her a little stool, so she can get up on her seat almost on her own. We are still in there every time she goes to the bathroom, though; she’s on the smaller side, so we want to be there to help out when she needs it.

The day after Thanksgiving (Black Friday), we ran into a slight snag, because I realized that I didn’t want to be cooped up at home—there were stores calling my name. Plus, since we didn’t plan on potty training, we really needed to buy some big girl panties and some pull-ups. We put her in a thick pair of fleece pants, placed a towel down in her car seat, and then headed off to the store. We also took a “potty bag” with us—inside the bag we had the portable seat, extra pants, a diaper (just in case) and wipes.

We took her to the potty the minute we walked in the doors, but she didn’t have to go, so we continued our shopping. We were almost checking out when I remembered we needed panties, so we went to the aisle and while we were there I heard what sounded like my water bottle leaking. Only it wasn’t my water bottle. Bunny said, “uh oh!” and then we rushed to the potty and got there just in the nick of time for her to finish up. That was the only accident that day.

Over the weekend we actually went out of town on a road trip (had I planned for potty training, I probably would’ve skipped the trip). We put her in panties and then actually put a diaper over her panties just in case, but luckily she told us any time she needed to go.

All in all, I’m shocked it happened as easily as it did. I know I owe 95% of the success to the fact that she was ready. She’s had accidents after that initial weekend, but they’ve been few and very far in between. She still wears pull-ups for nap time and bed time, and every morning she gets excited when we go to the drawer to get her a new pair of big girl panties. Little Bunny was probably ready to be trained around 18 months, but I wasn’t quite ready for it, so we held off.

I’m thrilled we accomplished this before the new baby gets here, and even though I know Bunny will probably regress once she arrives—so I’m told—I’m happy we have it down now.

Did you potty train your child at a young age? Did you plan for it or did it just sort of happen? Any tips to handle regression?