Potty Training

We potty trained Catherine back in May.  I need to write this post for so many reasons, but mainly to remember that potty training is very hard the first few days, but it gets easier.  Persevere!

Katie and I started potty training on a Saturday.  David and Daniel had gone on a camping trip, and we were home alone that morning.  We had been reading several potty training books and even watched a few potty videos the week before.  Then on Saturday morning, I decorated the bathroom with balloons and a sticker poster.  She got her "big-girl" panties that she had been pining over, and I hid all the diapers.  We started going to sit on the potty every 20 minutes or so, trying to have a few successes.  I don't remember now how many accidents there were that day, but they outweighed the successes.  It's always so frustrating to have the kid sit on the potty and do nothing for ten minutes and then pee the second he/she gets off it.  Argh!  Anyway, we did nothing but potty all weekend long.  David and I even alternated mass times so that she could stay home and potty instead of going to mass.  It was a breath of fresh air to be away from the bathroom on Sunday morning for me!  She continued to have accidents Sunday.  At one point over the weekend, she started crying and crying for a diaper.  She didn't want to use the potty like a big-girl, and she didn't want big-girl panties.  It was very hard to see her so upset.  :(   

Then Monday, I had to go to work.  I told the sitter to have Katie sit on the potty every 30 minutes or so and prayed for the best.  When I got home that afternoon, the sitter said that Katie had refused to sit on the potty.  What?!  And that she had had to abandon the 30 minute schedule because Katie wouldn't do it.  What?!  But that there had been no accidents all day because when she had needed to go to the potty, she just told the sitter.  WHAT?!  Katie figured it out in three days!  In retrospect, I think that Daniel was about the same way (with his pee.........#2 was a whole different story with him). 

This is not to say that we didn't still have accidents.  Scratch that - we still sometimes have accidents.  But overall, she got it figured out in three days.  It took her a few more days to figure out the poop thing, but not bad.  Then it took a few more weeks to transition out of stickers and candies as rewards. 

I still say potty training is one of the hardest things you'll have to do with your young child, but hopefully I'll remember with baby #3 that it's not hard forever.  Just a little while.  Better yet, hopefully that's the case with baby #3 and I don't set myself up for disappointment!