She did it (again)!

Baby Girl didn't poop at all yesterday and I was really beginning to be afraid that she was going to be a poop hoarder and have it hurt, then fear the pain, then hoard more, etc.  We told our sitter and talked about the conditions under which she pooped last time (pants off and in the little potty).  The sitter was excited that leaving her pants off had worked for us (it was under her suggestion that we'd done it).

I got a text just before noon from the sitter: "Success!  We have poopie in the potty!  Yay!"  I did a little happy dance while I tried to figure out who I could share my excitement with.  After exchanging a few texts, I learned that the sitter had left her pants-(and diaper-)-less and had also brought out the little potty.  After she revealed this, I asked her, somewhat jokingly, how long we need to keep her pantless.  She assured me that she'd get it and I couldn't be more excited.  I texted The Hubby and even called my mom, who I knew would be as excited as I am.

And now, because I'm still excited, I'm sharing with you.  You're welcome.  :)

I did it!

Baby Girl's phrase for the weekend was "I did it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"  She'd climb up on the couch and yell "I did it!".  Kick her legs and "swim" across the baby pool?  "I did it!"  Her excitement was contagious.  Many times she was excited about things she's been doing for awhile now, but we all got excited all over again.

But once this weekend she did something she'd never done before.

I walked in the door from going to the grocery and heard "Mommy Mommy Mommy!  Poopy potty!!!"  I came running in as she points at the potty "Look!"  I gave her a big hug and told her what a big girl she is.  She started prancing around saying "I did it!  I did it!"

I looked at The Hubby for explanation and this is what he told me:

"She had just gotten up from her nap and we were sitting and eating plums when she started tooting.  She sat down to go pee and tooted some more and I asked her if she needed to go poop.  She tried and tooted some more and then hopped up and said she was all done.  She was doing a little dance that made me think maybe she needed to go, but she wouldn't sit back down.  I left her without panties or anything, like we'd been doing before nap, and went into the kitchen to get another plum.  While I was in there, I smelled it and immediately thought she had pooped on the floor.  I walked in and there she was, sitting on the potty!  She hopped up to "See it?" and since her bum was still dirty, I told her to sit back down.  I got her cleaned up and that's when you walked in."

I am so incredibly proud of and excited for her.  We've actually had more pee accidents recently because we've decreased the frequency of prompting her to go potty, so I was starting to doubt (again) whether she was ready.  But I think we're in this for the long haul now!

Oh, and I did take a picture, but am NOT posting it here.  I always thought those moms who took pictures of their kid's poop were weird....and now I'm one of them!  I am not, however, going to go to the level of posting on Facebook or on my blog, though.  I emailed it to my mom because she's taken an interest in Baby Girl's potty-training.  Her response was "Damn!!" and then followed with another email that said, "Way to go!  Aren't you glad you didn't have to clean that up?"  While it would've sucked to have cleaned it from her diaper, it would've been even worse to clean it from her panties!

Who knows what this will bring--I don't know if she needs to be pantless and have a potty she can get to on her own (she used her little potty instead of the potty ring) or if this has opened a window that will allow her to realize she can do it and she'll do it on the potty from now on.  We will see!

Potty Training

I started this post about a week ago and had honestly meant to blog more while in the midst of the heavy-duty potty training, but just haven't had the time (and haven't prioritized it, either--some nights it was just easier to stare blankly at the TV than to blog).  So here's my potty training update--July 2nd to present.
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Baby Girl has been using the potty in the mornings and evenings for us every day, but had been resisting using the potty at the sitter's house.  After a discussion with the sitter, she agreed to start trying harder to get her to go and was successful the last few days of last week.  She suggested that we try putting her in panties this weekend (the July 4th weekend) and having her try every 15 minutes or so.  Because she's shown so much interest, we agreed.  This is my chronicle of how the weekend went.

Saturday

Woke up, ready to tackle the day.  We didn't have anything planned and could focus all of our energy on potty training.  We got Baby Girl into some panties, had a talk about how special they are and how she shouldn't go potty in them, and started the day.  She sat on the potty every 15-20 minutes and typically peed at least a little.  She did great all morning long!  She had one pee accident late in the morning, then we put her in a diaper for naptime.  We changed her back into her panties for the afternoon and had two more accidents then (once while talking on the phone to Papaw).  She still sat on the potty every 15-20 minutes and usually produced pee.  We used a sticker chart to record her progress and she ended up with about 15 stickers over the course of the day.  What a great first day of potty training!

Sunday

Woke up about 5 minutes before Grandma was supposed to arrive.  Papaw dropped Grandma off before heading off to a golf outing.  Day #2 has begun.  Baby Girl did fairly well in the morning again.  She didn't even fight us when we'd ask her to go potty.  I was beginning to think that this might actually be working...as long as we could always be there to remind her to use the potty every 15 minutes or so.  The Hubby and I went to go run in the afternoon and during that time, she had another accident.  And once we were back, we had her try to pee, which she did, but then she had two more accidents in the next 20 minutes.  And down goes my morale, thinking maybe she just wasn't ready for potty-training.

Monday

She did well.  We spent most of the day at our house and she was willing to go potty when we asked.  She only had a couple of accidents and I felt a lot better about our decision.

Tuesday-Friday

Tuesday we returned to the sitter's and I talked to her about our experiences over the weekend.  We'd brought Baby Girl in a pull-up just in case she needed to go while in the car, so the sitter left her in that.  We took a stash of pull-ups and panties and let the sitter decide what she wanted to do.  The week was, in a word, amazing.  Baby Girl didn't have any accidents and only woke up from nap wet one time.  She was still pooping in her pull-up in the morning (the reason we keep delivering her in pull-ups), but peeing in the potty regularly. The sitter bribes her with candy (Smarties) and Baby Girl is smart enough to differentiate between the sitter's house and ours, where we reward with stickers (and sometimes money).

Saturday

Spend all day at a friend's house while The Hubby was helping build a shed.  Baby Girl did really well going potty and only had one accident during dinner.  I don't know if she woke up dry because I wasn't there when she got up.

Sunday

Went to my hometown to get photos taken for Baby Girl's 2nd birthday (eep!).  Stopped to let her try to use the potty on the way down once--we had the portable potty with us.  She didn't pee, but it ended up being a good solution for the future.  She went potty in the car when we were done with the pictures (was wearing panties the whole time) and did pretty well.  Again, I wasn't there when she got up from nap so I don't know if she got up dry or not (and no one else seems to think this is significant...).  She pooped in her panties later in the day but otherwise was accident-free.

Monday & Tuesday (July 11th and 12th)

Did great at the sitter's again.  She poops in her pull-up in the morning, then gets panties on after that, gets a diaper or pull-up for naptime, then panties again after that until bedtime.  She's going potty whenever someone asks and is also prompting the sitter to take her potty.  She doesn't ask us often, but we're also a little nervous to let her go too long.  The sitter lets her go and has concluded that she can hold it for awhile now.  I'm actually feeling pretty confident that she's really potty training and will be at least daytime pee-trained by the time she turns two.  Wow.  Amazing.

Wednesday (today)

Not a horrible day, but not the best, either.  Pooped in her pull-up in the morning.  Pooped in her panties in the afternoon.  Peed in panties at lunch.  :(  Enter frustration and uncertainty.

I honestly think I'm feeling so uncertain because she's so darn young.  Who expects their child to be ready to potty-train before they even turn 2?  So when she shows any signs that she's not getting it, I question if she's truly ready.  We've gotten this far, though, and will keep pushing through the slight regression.  We'll get there.  Next thing to truly tackle, though, is getting her to poop in the potty.  If we catch her getting ready to poop, she stops pushing and then can't (won't) push on the potty again.  We worry about getting her constipated.  The sitter (who has been right about what we should do so far) suggested we let her run around all day without panties or anything.  Apparently kids won't poop on the floor.  So it'll either get her to hold it or get her to poop on the potty.  It might be worth a shot.

Potty Training Update

Potty training is still going on.  We're at the point where Baby Girl is peeing on the potty at least once a day.  This past weekend it was 4 times on Saturday and 3 on Sunday.  She hasn't really been asking to go, but will typically try when we ask her.  If she says no, we drop it.

When she does go, though, we have a reward system (that we aren't great about adhering to, but it still works).  We give a sticker for trying and money for putting pee in the potty.  She typically gets five pennies for peeing, which she then gets to count out and put into her piggy bank.  If we're around my parents, they'll give her some bigger money (my dad recently gave her a $5 bill!) for going potty, too. 

Our sitter says that next week when she's down to four kids on her busiest days (Tuesday through Thursday--Monday she'll have three and Friday just two) she's going to focus more on working on potty training with Baby Girl.  She says she thinks she can have it done in three days.  More power to her :)  If it doesn't happen, though, I won't be horribly upset--it is still really early.

Back in the saddle....or something like that

Watch this video and sing along with my words below:



Back on the potty again
Trying real hard to go
Where I sit and I can read
Waiting for the need to pee
I'm back on the potty again

Sitting here once more
Maybe for a minute, maybe four
Where I spend a lot of time
Gonna make this potty mine
I'm back on the potty again

Whoopi-ty-aye-oh
Rockin' to and fro
Back on the potty again
Whoopi-ty-aye-yay
I go--say "Yay!"
Back on the potty again

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It's true--we're back to hanging out on the potty.  We're not pushing at all, but she's just started being interested again.  The best part is that her first two tries with this renewed interest, she peed in the potty!  She hasn't again, but she's actually giving it a good try, which is all we can ask for right now. 

We're giving her stickers for trying (when we remember....) and giving her change for her piggy bank when she actually goes.  We aren't holding out much hope that this will be it, but the fact that she's interested is really encouraging!

Oh, and this is now Baby Girl's favorite video (the whole thing is much longer, but this is our favorite part of it):

Fastest blog post ever

Just a few minutes ago, Baby Girl was standing next to me, looked up, and said, "Potty" and proceeded to try to rip off her clothes (which was really difficult since she was wearing her zip-up pajamas).  I got the pjs off of her and took her to the potty, not expecting much since she has asked to go potty many times and we've gotten nothing.  We went into the bathroom, took off her diaper, she climbed onto the potty and immediately peed! 

I'm still being cautiously excited because she's SO young, but I'm hoping this is an indication of how potty-training will go with her, at least partially.

A Weekend of Growing Up

This was a wonderful weekend for our family.  We had a fabulous time spent together, playing, cleaning, eating--we did everything as a family.

Two things happened this weekend that really show how much Baby Girl is growing up. 

You know she calls me "Mom-mom"?  It's always actually bothered me a bit.  She can say "daddy", but "mommy" just never came out....it was always "mom-mom".  It's adorable, yes, but why am I not mommy?  I've always called myself mommy and The Hubby has always called me mommy (well, you know, since Baby Girl was born...that would just be creepy otherwise) and she's always called me "mom-mom" in response. 

But this weekend she started calling me mommy.  And you know what?  I sort of miss "mom-mom".  I didn't think I would, but now "mommy" sounds odd coming out of her mouth.

For the other part of the story, I need to go back to last weekend.  Baby Girl has been really interested in going into the bathroom whenever we do.  She'll sit on her stool and read while we go potty and she always wants to watch us, so we let her whenever we don't have guests.  She loves to watch Daddy make "bubbles" (lol--he would probably kill me if he knew I wrote that here) and always needs to wash her hands when we do.

Since she's been interested, we thought we'd get her a potty, just to get a little more comfortable with having one around.  We definitely aren't pushing her to potty-train anytime soon--she's not even 19 months old yet!  We picked up the potty on Sunday, February 13th and she's practiced sitting on it off and on all week.  On Saturday (2/19) Baby Girl told me she had to go potty (not unusual), so I took her into the bathroom, took off her diaper, and sat in there with her.  She asked for her book and sat there reading.  She stood up and wanted to play and I explained that if she didn't have a diaper on, she either needed to sit on the potty or needed to put the diaper on.  She then started to grunt a little and I sat her back on the potty.  She tried to get up once more (I don't think she's ever actually pooped when she isn't laying down or standing up--she's not a squatter), but I gave her my finger to squeeze and she sat there and pooped on the potty! 

I have no idea what this will mean--I don't expect her to fully potty-train or anything, but it looks like we're officially on our way...how frightening!  After telling my mom this story, she told me that I was fully trained by the time I turned 2 and that I was really easy to train--I was ready and once I was trained during the day, I was done at night, too.  So hopefully Baby Girl will be the same.  If not, that's totally okay--I don't have any expectations.

What a big, big girl....I cannot believe she's over a year and a half old and working her way toward 2.