Monday, April 28, 2008

Cautiously Optimistic

A week ago we resumed potty training Catherine. I am cautiously optimistic that we're going to stick with it this time. Only because this time around she's actually using the potty and not just waiting until naptime to let it all out. She's wearing underpants all the time except for naps and nightime and the occasional outing, for which we don the annoyingly expensive pullups. I am more likely to risk taking her out in underpants than Matt is - especially if Catherine has recently peed and pooped.

At this point I am pretty much taking her to the potty everytime - just trying to help her develop the habit of going. As soon as she sits down she still says "it's not working" just because she doesn't pee right away. I have to talk to her and distract her and then she gets this look on her face and says "it's working". So cute! Only once or twice has she taken it upon herself to go to the bathroom by herself - it's very much us reminding her and taking her. I've realized that she will almost always say no if I ask her if she needs to go. I really don't remember when Ella got to the point where she would tell us she had to go before we reminded her? Anyone else out there got any input on that? Because that's the part I totally forget - in fact, it still feels like we're reminding Ella to go to the bathroom - but 90% of the time she goes without any prompting. When can you consider your child potty trained? We've only had a few accidents but, like I said, her accidents tend to happen when we forget to take her, or make her, sit on the potty.

In other happenings, my mom is here for a visit for a few days this week and our dog Goldie came along to visit as well. The girls were so excited to see Goldie for about five minutes. It's so weird to have Goldie back, even if only for a few days. I feel like I spent the past few weeks slowly getting used to not having a dog back in the house and now she's here. I hope that no one gets confused by the visit and the girls allow Nama to take Goldie home with her. As bad as I felt about letting her go, I've realized that it is for the best especially now that the weather is warming up and the girls are in and out of the house all day long - too many chances to get out for our escape artist!

Well I'm off to finish laundry and start on dinner. I'll probably take a detour via my bedroom and end up reading a book instead! At this point I'm cautiously optimistic that I'll end making dinner eventually.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

I don't know how old your daughter is - but it sounds like you are on the right track. :) Mine was potty trained at 18 mos - but that was about 26 years ago. :) Esp. having training pants on to feel the wetness is key. And it looks like you're doing that. God bless!

Nancy said...

I'm not sure if you're rewarding her or anything, but we did and we changed what the rewards were for, as things progressed. It went something like this-
You get a reward if:
1st--you sit on the potty
2nd--you actually produce something
3rd--you TELL US you need to go
4th-- you tell us you need to go snd actually produce something
As things continued, we'd phase out the reward for the previous successes and only give them out for the "more advanced" steps.

Erin said...

Megs,
i already documented my recent pt experience with n., but one of the things i've heard over and over again from older moms and what i did was to put her in underwear and just deal with the accidents. we didn't use pull ups at all. Some people seem to think this confuses them...
just my 2 cents...

Marshamlow said...

Oh man, I had such a hard time potty training my youngest daughter. It is so stressful. Glad it is working for you it really does seem to just happen when they are ready. Wish I had someone who could take my dog.

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