Potty Training - Success or Disaster? Or maybe both!

Hello dear readers! Here is a post that I wrote a while back and apparently forgot to post. Blame it on the preggo brain. Anyway, I'm back to a more clear brain (as much as that is possible for me) and will hopefully get back on track to posting more often. Happy reading!


I have a taken a laid back approach to many things in raising Honeybee. Yes, I can already hear the laughing from people who know me! There are also many things I am quite neurotic about but that is another post for another day. One of the laid back topics is potty training. Honeybee has proven to be a very independent and stubborn girl. She like to accomplish things on her terms. Crawling, walking, talking, eating new foods are all things that have been futile to try to influence her to do.

Potty training has now been added to this list. I had originally tried infant potty training (also known as Elimination Communication). While I was not so good at "reading" Honeybee's cues, I think it did help her to not be afraid of the potty.

Fast forward to this past summer, Everything I had read said that if you start potty training before 29 months, you will likely be potty training that much longer. So when Honeybee was almost 29 months we started really talking about using a potty. We got books and "big girl underwear" and stickers and charts.

And then we sat,

and sat,

and sat.

And nothing.

I tried letting her run around without a diaper on as it was an unusually warm fall this year, but this led to a lot of "Mommy! I Pee!" and mommy mopping the floor again. (Fortunately we have hard floors so cleaning up was easy.)

Then someone decided that she wanted her diapers back. There was no point in fighting her as past experience had proven. I would not win. So I kept asking her if she wanted to use the potty and backing off if she said no. Some days she wanted to wear her underwear but most days she wanted "just diaper".


So to get to the point of this story: we are now at 33 months and Baby 2 is on the way in less than a month so I'd love to NOT have 2 in diapers for too long. Honeybee, fortunately, has now started to like the idea of being a "big girl" and decided that she wants to use the potty. For the last week I've been really trying to "encourage" using the potty. Honeybee has been quite receptive and only refusing about 1 out of 10 times I suggest going. I've made a big deal over the process - get potty seat for the toilet, get step stool, pants, sit, wipe, flush, wash hands - you get the idea. And she has really been all about that list. If I do anything out of order she has corrected me.

Anyway, yesterday we had gone out to by pull ups. I had only one from a sample and she was so excited about these "special pants". I also thought it would be the best thing for when we needed to go out. Of course she pees in the pull up almost as soon as we put it on. So we take it off and put a diaper on so that we can go out. Let me tell you, that did not go over well! She wanted her "Special pants!"

So we finally get out, run our errands and get home. So as I am putting the groceries away and then dealing with some emails, she informs me that she has pooped. "Really, already or do you NEED to use the potty?" (Sometimes she has told me she pooped or peed when in fact she wanted to use the potty.). "Go use potty!" she says, but the smell tells me otherwise.

"Did you poop already?"
"Yes"
"OK. Hold on Sweetie, Mommy needs to finish sending this email."

Famous last words.

So, minutes later, she has disappeared. I find her in the bathroom, sitting on the potty seat with her diaper and pants pulled to her ankles. She has followed all the directions I've been drilling all week! "I AM SO PROUD OF YOU!!" I exclaim!

And then it hits me!

That was a full diaper.

I lift her up and find there is poop all over the potty seat, the toilet, and all the way down her legs as well as still in her diaper and on her pants, leggies and socks!

AWESOME!!!

Just what a 8 month pregnant - weak stomached mommy wants to deal with!

So after cleaning her and the seat off - amazingly without puking - I realize that my knee in my just laundered favorite maternity jeans is kneeling in more poop!

UGH!!!!

But I suppose, on the up side, Honeybee is capable of getting herself set up on the potty herself. Now we just need to work on the order of events!