Sunday, April 22, 2007

Help! My babe is potty training, I think.

Am I missing something?! Are these signs or something?
Tonight as I was getting supper on the table Kaitlyn was playing quietly around the corner (that should have been my first signal) and so I let her be, it had only been about two minutes.
I peeked around the corner then to see what was going on and noticed her diaper on the floor and went to pick it up, slipping on something soft and gooey. Poop! All over my heel and in two little lumps on the floor. Kaitlyn sat in the hall with a pair of swimming pull-ups around her ankles, she had decided to change her own diaper. What am I supposed to be doing? Is this how she says "potty train me."? She certainly does let us know when she needs a change and even brings a diaper to be changed into.
This morning we had another incident, she kept saying "pee" and was hanging out in the bathroom so I took her clothes off and sat her on her potty and I sat on the big one. She then passed me a book grabbed one for herself, crossed her feet and looked at her book. "Yaa" I thought "she's gonna go." Then she stood up pulled apart her potty, wiped her bum and went over to the towel bar and stood there... peeing all over the floor, the plunger, a mirror and some plugs.
Why didn't she just go when she was on the potty, she knew exactly what she was doing! She seems to hate her potty and would rather pull it apart and use the bowl to put toys in or as a hat. I have read that potty training works best if you wait till the child is over the age of two, and I was planing to wait.
She has had moments where she wants to pee on the potty, but they have been few and far between, so I didn't push her.
Now I think she may be sending signals and I don't want to ignore them, but I am just not certain of exactly what I should be doing. Any advice out there?

-It is now 4 hours since I wrote the above. Since then Kaitlyn once again took off her pants and both diapers we put on her, (one was for insurance, we thought she might just take one off and not notice the other) no fooling that smarty pants! She put underwear on this time, for a few minutes then went bare bum. After about twenty minutes she pointed to herself and said "pee-peeee" so I whisked her off to her potty witch she promptly stood beside and peed. I praised her and gave high fives, at least we made it to the bathroom.
Now how do we get her to go in the potty? I've heard of the 'aiming at cheerios' method for boys, what about girls?

4 comments:

prettyinpink said...

Ok, I actually do a lot of potty training in my program, so I have had to read up on it quite a bit. I have successfully potty trained a number of young kiddos so...here's my advice Anna, and you can certainly come over and we can chat more about it if none of this makes sense.
Firstly, there is no halfway or in between with potty training. If you and Dave want to do this and you think she is ready (which it appears that she is) then you just have to do it...panties and the whole bit. When she gets up one morning, you say "Okay Kaitlyn you are a big girl now and big girls go pee and poop on the potty..diapers go off, panties go on. You are going to have a few weeks of WWAAYyyy more laundry, but it will be worth it. Then start the training. Put her on every 30 minutes or so, ask her if she has to go every 15 and then if she does go on the potty, praise her like crazy and I would actually use a reward for this. Something small like a smartie, sticker or a box of raisens (as all of these are easily portable when you have to go out). I would also suggest getting a few 'potty toys.' Toys that will just be used for potty time while sitting on the toilet (like a new Dora storybook or sticker book) and then when Kaitlyn comes off the toilet the book or toy gets put away until next time. Involving her in the process of choosing her toilet toys will be more meaningful, so you could take her to Toys R Us or something.
My last piece of advice would be that you can't do this unless YOU are ready. By today's standard, most kids are potty trained by 3 in my experience, so Kaitlyn is quite young. However she does seem ready if there is all this interest in diaper off and the potty right now. See how the next few days go and if you and Dave are willing, committ completely to the process and she will do great. Also, always keep her diaper on at night and at nap times, she's just physically to little to hold it while she is sleeping. Hope this helps!

familymclean said...

Thank you!!!! I guess I'll have to be ready as much as I wasn't planning this.
Last night to get her to bed we had to put underwear over her diaper for her to keep it on. Today she's doing the same thing with the diaper and pants off, so here goes.
I am so glad we have hardwood, I should just roll up the area carpets and let her go. This is going to be quite an adventure!

MJ said...

It took forever for my oldest daughter, K, to potty train & she was day-time trained just before her 3rd birthday. (K wanted to be a baby like her little sister, N). In summer, I put the potty outside with us when we had paddling pool time. Also, my favorite reward was chocolate covered raisins (as there's an inkling of nutrition there!) With N, I am hoping that peer pressure by K will help (as K will get a choc raisin too). K wouldn't cooperate with the 30 minute on the potty regime. What was the impetus for K was that she desperately wanted to go to preschool & we told her that she needed to be trained for preschool.

prettyinpink said...

Anna, your K seems like she is a very independent kiddo and really ready to do this...keep pluggin away at it! If you need a breather, stop by!