The dreaded world of Potty Training!

The words that sent shivers down my spine, Potty Training, I was not looking forward to this stage one bit. I heard horror stories from other parents, there were checklists, things to buy, to be honest I felt pretty overwhelmed. All of this and I hadn’t even started the process yet.

The time came when the little lady had started to show signs of being ready so after much research we purchased a few items including a seat and step for our toilet and some big girl pants. We were going to take a slow process of introducing the items but not use them, this went on for a month or two before we took the next step of sitting on her new big girl seat in the bathroom. She enjoyed this for a while but it soon became more of a play time and my plan was dwindling away. Stepping it up a gear mummy and daddy took her to the bathroom whenever they had to go but it again backfired on us as she was more interested in playing with the taps and making bubbles.

At this time I knew she wasn’t 100% ready but I knew the toilet route straight away would not would for us. It was time to invest in a potty, now I knew I didn’t want anything too fancy in case she didn’t like it and I knew what a fussy madam she can be.

We picked out a plain seated potty that converts into a toilet seat and step as she grows and gets used to life with no nappies. Here’s the little seat that would soon start a big change in her life

I am absolutely clueless about potty training, I didn’t know if we would need things called training pants or whether they would just confuse Isabelle. After much deliberation I decided to purchase cloth training pants from bright bots. They’re basically cute little knickers that have an allowance for an accident if it ever happens, being made of material she could still feel wetness if she had an accident unlike nappy/absorbent style training pants.

The potty had been lying around for a week or two before we took the plunge, on Monday morning I made the big switch. Of course it wasn’t without its mishaps but after following Isabelle for the past few weeks and picking up the signs, I knew she was ready.

What signs did I notice?

She disliked wearing nappies
She would tell me if she had soiled her nappy
She had a routine for bowel movements
She knew when she would need to wee

Having the potty lying around for weeks before certainly helped us, it wasn’t a shock when it came to start using it. It wasn’t a new item that she had to explore.

That Monday morning after her breakfast she was stripped down and sat on the potty, nothing happened straight away, I wasn’t expecting miracles but soon enough she wee’d. I made a big thing about it, not enough to scare her but enough to show her that she had done something new and that she was a clever girl for doing it. I repeated this every 20 minutes, sometimes she needed to go and sometimes she didn’t. It wasn’t plain sailing of course, she had a few accidents but fear not I was there to mop up and wipe the floors clean. I had planned for accidents and wasn’t worried about them inside the house. Isabelle of course started to notice what was happening so if she had an accident she would come to tell me straight away. For poo’s we had no accidents at all, I guess they were easier for her to recognise when she needed to go. The whole of day one consisted of lots of cheers and some accidents to mop up.

Day two I was expecting pretty much the same, but she surprised me and took herself to the potty during breakfast, she would stop playing throughout the day and take herself to the potty, she would come to tell me or shout me when she had finished. We have gone through the whole day without a single accident.

Day three, again no accidents but she is using the potty a few times an hour. Maybe it’s because it’s something new but boy she sure does go a lot. Every time she uses the potty, we empty it out together and then wash hands. We tell her that she is a big girl but that’s it as far as rewards go, maybe when we start the next stages of venturing out of the house we will use some kind of reward, perhaps a rewards chart with stickers?

Today is day four and she is being a trooper and still going strong, not one accident since day one, I’m rather proud of her but I have realised that persistence is the key. If I give up I’d have to start right back at day one again. So for now I am house bound, until the little lady can go longer in-between trips to the potty.