Let's just start from the beginning...
Months and months before we started potty training Sienna, we bought the baby bjorn potty and kept it in the bathroom so Sienna could get used to it. She would occasionally sit on it but never go potty on it. We took her a couple weeks before boot camp to pick out some fancy undies (she chose Tinkerbell) to get her excited about wearing undies. Then Sienna and I hit up the dollar store for some extra cool prizes for when she went poo poo in the potty. We were ready for action! At the beginning of this month every time she had a bath she had to try and go potty before she got in and she never went but did have the occasional toots. :) Then seriously the week that we were going to start potty training her, it was bath night and LT and I were both distracted and all of a sudden I hear LT calling for me in the bathroom and wouldn't you know the girl went pee pee in the potty! I knew that was a sign! On Thursday night we really started talking to Sienna and explaining to her about how we are going to throw all the diapers away and that she was going to be going in the potty from now on. She is a big girl, and she needs to wear big girl undies. :)
Day 1: I took off Friday (Valentine's Day. Potty training is so romantic) and LT and I read this short online book on potty training (thanks Heather!!) the week of boot camp so that we were on the same page. When Sienna woke we took off her diaper and put her directly in undies. We went downstairs and showed her the potty the fancy sticker chart and explained the deal. Within the first hour, we had gone thru 3 pairs of underwear but we were at least able to make it to the potty each time so that she could finish peeing in the potty. We rewarded her, even though she peed in her undies, since she finished in the potty and that was a success. After going thru 3 pairs of undies in the first hour we decided to go pantless the rest of the day and that seemed to work for her. But seriously I felt like we were in the bathroom the entire day! I highly recommend doing this with your significant other because you have to literally stay right by their side from when they wake up to when they fall asleep. It is EXHAUSTING. After the 3 accidents in the first hour she didn't have one the rest of the day and she even did a couple of poopies!! Let me just say poopies are hard for them at first because they watch the poop actually come out and it weirds them out. LOL, TMI? Just telling it like it is. Side note: When she napped and went to sleep for the night, we put her in what we call "Her night nights". They aren't diapers anymore (they are) but to her they are "night nights".
Here is our routine if she went pee:
- Tell her "let mommy know if you have to go potty, ok?" Probably every 15 minutes the first day :)
- She tells us she has to pee, looks like she has to pee, or hides we take her into the bathroom
- Once she pees on the toilet we wipe, flush, wash our hands and give her a round of applause
- She picks out a sticker and puts it on her chart
- She gets one piece of candy (we had 2 bowls for her to choose from: Skittles (beastmode) and M&Ms)
- Same as 1-4 (extra applause)
- She gets to pick one of those fancy dollar store toys!
 |
| This is how we ended day 1 with a Valentine's day treat! |
Day 2: We were feeling pretty confident by the end of day 1! She was telling us or giving us signs that she needed to go. So day 2 didn't seem like it would be as hard as day 1 and it WASNT. Relief. We started the day off the same with taking off her "night night" and putting her in her undies. We went down and had breakfast. We didn't ever let her eat in her high chair until day 3 because we wanted to have full vision of her body to see if she was doing a pee pee dance, so we ate every meal at the coffee table. After she was done eating I was apparently being so funny that she peed her pants! I know I am hilarious! But we caught her mid stream and she actually held it until we rushed her to the potty where she finished. We kept undies on her all day but no pants until the evening when we felt a little more comfortable that she wouldn't pee in them. Again, throughout the day we constantly told her "remember to let mommy/daddy know if you need to go potty" and did the same routines as above and she did awesome! That was her only accident of the day until I thought I was super confident that she wouldn't go while she was napping. So I let her sleep in her undies and she peed the bed. :( Other than that she went in on her own to the potty, told us she need to go, or if I had a feeling that she needed to go I would get her baby dolly and say "baby has to go potty, can you show her how?" So Sienna would go and sit on the potty and show baby how to go. This little trick worked wonders!
Day 3: Same as all the other days but less nagging and more of her letting us know when she had to go. She only had one accident early in the morning and that was it! I put her in her "night night" at naptime and she didn't even pee in it and she slept for 3 hours (unheard of). Bladder control is finally kicking in!
 |
| End of day 3. Fully clothed and doing somersaults! |
 |
| You can tell that day 1 was the most active. :) |
Overall, I think she is almost ready to head out into the real world. Although we might just start by walking around the block and see how that goes before we head to Nordstroms for a shopping trip. :) We lucked out that it was really wet and rainy this weekend so she never really asked to go outside. I would highly recommend getting activities for them to do inside before the boot camp to keep them occupied. We rented a ton of potty movies, Elmo movies, and books from the library so they were all new to her. We got some new arts and crafts as well so she stayed entertained.
So there ya have it. The full shebang! I hope she continues to get used to going in the potty and crossing our fingers for no more accidents!! Good Job Sienna!!!!!
P.S. Couple things I forgot to mention:
- we pumped the kid full of fluids and let her have popsicles in February.
- gave her a good amount of fiber for meals. :)
- I probably bought 30 pairs of undies!
