Revisiting Potty Training

It's been way too long since my last post.  I completely missed my blogging first anniversary!  To be completely honest I have been a little overwhelmed in the adjustment back to work.  It's one thing to get used to work, but it's another to get used to an hour long commute and work.  I'm just not an early morning person and these 5am mornings are really starting to get to me.  I've been fighting something off for the last couple of days.  Made soup tonight with homemade chicken broth, pouring down the fluids and taking vitamin C.  Hopefully I can shake this soon!


We have slowly been settling into a schedule and getting into the routine of life, leading us to realize that the time has come to reintroduce potty training.  Thankfully I have a few days off and so we are going hardcore potty training.  I had the timer set for every 30 minutes and we went to the potty each time the timer went off.  We did really well and had no accidents until we had to leave the house.  I really need to go to the grocery store, but knew that was out of the question.  I absolutely had to send a fax, so I put Munchkie on the potty and then we dashed out the door to the Staples down the street and just as I was dialing the fax number, she says "Oh no Mommy!  I pee in my pants!"  So I finished what I was doing and we had to go out to the car to change her clothes.  This was then followed up by two more accidents and then she did really well all afternoon until dinner.  The night was finished up with an accident during dinner.  Completely our fault, she was playing with her food instead of eating it and I knew that if we took her out of the high chair, it was going to be all over with dinner.

Tomorrow is another day and we will tackle this, spreading the time on the timer out by five or 10 minutes each time.  Hopefully by Thursday we will have potty training mastered enough to wear underwear to daycare.  With six or more changes of pants and underwear, of course.

Regression

I picked Munchkie up from daycare today and ended up staying for a little bit talking with her teacher.  They document everything the children do from each minute they sleep, to each bite they take as well as every time they go to the bathroom.  My poor Munchkie had wet herself at least 6 times, sometimes just minutes after sitting on the toilet.  Yesterday morning by the time I woke up there was a pile of dirty wet clothes from her multiple accidents. This started happening last week after she would go an entire week without an accident.

It's amazing how much your own feelings can influence a child who doesn't even comprehend the feelings her parents are feeling.  Right now I can not even comprehend all that is going on in our life.  There have been way too many stressors and way too many tragedies in our lives lately.  I feel like every time I log onto Facebook I see something else that adds to my prayer list and brings tears to my eyes.  I don't understand why these things are happening to those I love, but I will continue to pray for the families of those going through difficult times.

I am also praying for peace and comfort to my own family.  We are taking a several day hiatus from potty training, knowing that we will be traveling and celebrating the life of a close family member.  We are hoping that upon our return we will be able to restore a happy, positive, peaceful environment to our home and begin the potty training process over again. 

I am going to continue telling myself that regressions happen and it is not my fault that Munchkie is being influenced by the feelings of her parents.  As a parent you want to protect your child from the negative things in life, but no matter how hard you try, they are touched by it.  It kills me to know that my tears and my sadness are directly relating to her accidents, but I also want Munchkie to understand that emotions are not something to be hidden and covered up.  I want to teach her that in difficult times we "pay to Sheshus (pray to Jesus)," in good times we "pay to Sheshus" and with his help, we can overcome all of the hurt and stress in our lives.

Goooodbyyyyyye Diapers....... I hope!

Last week when Munchkie's Daddy and Munchkie came to pick me up from work Munchkie's Daddy was telling me about how Munchkie had pooped in her diaper that morning.  So I said to her "Munchkie why did you poop in your pants?"  to which she responded while shrugging her shoulders "diapy on."  At that moment I knew that there was no need for diapers anymore.  Munchkie was perfectly capable of using the potty, but knew that she could be lazy and go in her diaper, so she did.  At home we had been trying to use undies, but at daycare we were sending her in diapers because I was afraid she would have too many accidents.   They finally told me that I needed to stop confusing her, that they are called accidents for a reason.  So, we sent her in underwear on Thursday.  I have at least 5 pairs of underwear, 6-7 outfits and 7+ pairs of socks in her bin at daycare, just in case, as required.  But I was still quite nervous.  And GUESS WHAT!  She came home in the exact same pair of underwear and pants that we sent her in!  I was so excited and so proud of her.

Today, I had several errands to run, but knew that I couldn't confuse her with diapers again.  I decided to be prepared and go with the understanding that my plans might change very quickly.  We first had to go to Target after dropping Munchkie's Daddy off at work.  Two stops to the potty there, with no results, but we left dry, so that was ok.  At Target I purchased a "piddle pad" for her car seat.  I've learned several times what a pain taking apart that carseat is! A waterproof pad couldn't hurt right?

During our parent-teacher conferences (yes, for our 2 year old), Munchkie's teacher said that it's a good idea to keep a potty in your car for times that there isn't a bathroom available or the public bathroom option is scaaaaary.  We obviously followed the experienced teacher's suggestion and put a small potty in the back of our car.

Today I got it all ready for our day of activities.  I have a small bucket of extra undies and a bucket of extra pants.  A waterproof mat and the toilet all set up.  I also have a package of wipes specifically for the car.  The best part is, we didn't even have to use it!  Yay!  We went through our entire day without any accidents!

Munchkie even said one time when we were just approaching the frozen food aisle "potty time Mama."  So I of course raced to the customer service to leave my cart, raced to the bathroom and came out of the experience with dry pants.

Now, I am completely expecting accidents to happen.  But I think that we have an underwear wearing toddler on our hands now.  I am so proud of her and so glad to be close to ditching the diapers.  I know we haven't been as dedicated to the potty training as we should have been probably, but it seems that now Munchkie is really ready.  She can tell when she has to go, and almost every time we put her on the potty she does go.  Sometimes we hear "too working!"  which translates, "it's not working," and so we give her something to drink and try again in a little while.

We also started using the sticker chart because I have found stickers all over our house in all kinds of inappropriate places.  On walls, washed onto shirts, on pieces of furniture and in coffee cups.  I hope that soon we will have this whole chart filled.

Anyone have any additional tips for potty training?  Since we are just winging this and trying to figure it out for ourselves, any advice is MUCH appreciated!

Bop the Bunny meets The Big Girl

So I was beyond excited when Munchkie successfully used the Elmo potty.  I spoke with her teachers at daycare and they said that potty training at daycare starts with her being able to pull her own pants and diaper off. She is perfectly capable of taking her pjs off, and yesterday her poopy diaper (that was a fun mess).  I decided before I showed her how to take her clothes and diaper off, I needed to make sure that she is really going to potty train.

My goal was have Munchkie potty trained and pacifier free by her second birthday.  I realized that if she became potty trained, she might regress if the pacifier was taken away.  So even though I need to jump on the chance to stop having to change diapers, I want to make sure that it's for real.

So we went on quite an expedition today to get to a Build-A-Bear Workshop (obviously I pay such good attention at the mall closest to us that I didn't realize there wasn't one and had to ask where there was a Build-A-Bear).  Several years ago I had read in a magazine a suggestion of using Build-A-Bear to wean off of pacifiers and I always wanted to use it when I had a child of my own.  However, I realized that it was basically going cold turkey, so we are also going to incorporate the technique that my own parents used on me.  Each night they would cut little pieces off of my pacifier, and I am going to do the same with Munchkie.  Tonight Munchkie cried for a few minutes, but fell asleep after just a few minutes of crying (could have been that she didn't take any nap today) and hopefully will stay asleep.

Since I'm working the next four days in a row, and I don't really remember the last time I worked days, I hope that Munchkie sleeps through the night pacifier free.  Next week we will go hardcore into potty training.  Because in a month from tomorrow, she will be two.  How did this happen??? 

Stuffing her bops into the bunny.

Using the peddle to add the stuffing.

Deciding that it's perfectly stuffed.

Hugs for Bop the Bunny while enjoying Big Girl Smoothies.

Bop the Bunny takes her place in Munchkie's crib with a bop in each extremity.

So proud I could cry (and did)

This morning I was checking my email after getting home from work and Munchkie was standing next to me, all of the sudden she looked up at me and said "Elmo potty?"  I said "do you need to go sit on the Elmo potty?" She said "yeah, ok!"

So we went to the bathroom and sat on the potty.  Then she PEED IN THE POTTY!  She said "Yay!  Pee pee in potty!  Sticker!  Yay!"  Then I said "are you all finished or do you want to keep trying?"  She said "keep trying!"  and so she sat there and POOPED IN THE POTTY!

The cheers in our bathroom were probably pretty similar to sports bars across Wisconsin last night.  As soon as she was finished she reminded me that she got two stickers, a "peepee sicker, poopoo sicker, 1, 2"

I was so proud of my little Munchkinroo!  It may have been the exhaustion from last night being my third night in a row at work, but I was so overwhelmed by how grown up my little baby is.  She's not a little baby anymore.  Not at all.  She can tell us when she has to go potty.  I'm just so stinkin proud.  What a huge accomplishment.  Now if only we could get rid of that bop (pacifier)........