Bye Bye Diapers!!!

WARNING: Potty talk ahead!

Kimball has shown so much interest in the potty since January. However, I was not ready to face the challenge. I thought that it was easier to change Kimball’s diaper, rather than trying to find a somewhat clean public restroom (I may be a little germ phobic). I kept postponing it until all of our trips were done. I first told myself that I would do it after our trip to CA in May. Then, things got hectic with graduation, moving & birthdays, that I decided after we move to Corpus Christi. Once we moved into our home, I had plans to go back to San Antonio in August, so I said after we make that trip. Finally, I came to the realization that if I wait until I am ready, then Kimball will lose ALL interest. On September 9, I decided that I would give potty training a try. I decided that I would be on house arrest for as long as it took to potty train her and not have many accidents. Here is a day by day breakdown of how it went.

Friday, 9/9: Showed Kimball her new Minnie Mouse panties & told her that she is a big girl now and will be wearing panties instead of diapers. She was so excited to wear them. I put her on the toilet – nothing happened. I set my timer for every 15 minutes to put Kimball on the toilet, so she would get used to it. She had 2 accidents within one hour. The first one - just 30 seconds before the timer went off to put her on the toilet. The second – just after I took her off the toilet. After this hour, she screamed bloody murder every time I would put her on the toilet. I was ready to give up by 12:00 that day. It wasn’t worth the tantrum throwing and constant battle for me. I can handle the accidents – it was the screaming that was rough. Kevin came home for lunch and had to give me a pep talk. He told me to stick with it and I thought to myself, “easy for you to say!” I decided to back off of the every 15 minute technique & asked her every 30-45 minutes. This seemed to be a little better. She had a few more accidents throughout the day all mostly pee & one poop. Luckily we have tile floors throughout our main living space, so it made for easy cleanup. Kevin knew that I had a long day and bought me a Diet Coke on his way home from work. A while after Kevin got home, I needed to distance myself from potty training & decided to get some groceries & Elmo’s Potty Time DVD. Kimball loves Elmo, and so I thought that she would enjoy and learn something from the DVD. Before she went to bed, we all sat in the bathroom and watched the Elmo movie on Kevin’s computer while Kimball sat on the toilet. She finally went pee in the toilet – yahoo!! We were so excited that we were all hooting and hollering in the bathroom. Kimball gave us both very enthusiastic hugs. We gave her a bath and put her in a pull up and sent her off to bed. We felt like the day ended in success.

Saturday, 9/10: Did the same thing in the morning, let her pick out what panties she wanted to wear that day. She only had one poop accident in the morning. She had a half pee accident in the afternoon. She realized that she was going and quickly held it until we got her on the toilet. All other times were perfect-I would sit her on the toilet & she would go. After she went potty she would either exclaim, “I went pee pee in the toilet – yahoo!!!!” or “I went stinky diaper in the toilet – yahoo!!!!” Not bad for day 2.

Sunday, 9/11: I didn’t know what to do. I was afraid that if I put her in pull ups that she would regress. I couldn’t stay home with her because I was teaching Sunday School & Relief Society and Kevin was teaching the priests. I had no choice but to put her in a pull up. She did very well. She came home dry and went potty on the toilet when we arrived home. I was very proud of her this day.

Monday, 9/12: We stayed home & things went well. No accidents!

Tuesday, 9/13: We went to library story time for 1 hour & came home with no accidents.

Wednesday, 9/14: Went to playgroup at the mall and no accidents. Went to a stake service project at the church in the evening with no accidents. When we came home, Kimball really had to go potty. She made it to the bathroom, but didn’t make it to the toilet in time. 1 accident.

Friday, 9/15: No accidents!

Saturday, 9/16: No accidents!

Sunday, 9/17: Wore panties to church and told her nursery teacher that she had to go potty & went in the church’s toilet. I was impressed that she did, because I thought she might be scared going in a different environment. No accidents.

I feel like she has been officially potty trained. She only had a handful of accidents in the first couple days. I am glad that I didn’t give up because the thought of re-living the first day of potty training makes me sick. Kimball wears panties during her nap, but still wears a diaper at night and will wake up dry most of the time. I feel like we received a pay raise, since we aren’t buying diapers anymore.