Josh and I decided at the beginning of the year that it would be Josh's job during his summer off to potty train Abigail. I had some reservations since it was more up to her than us but I really wanted to try to not have two kids in diapers at the same time.
What I didn't realize is that there are about 30 different potty training methods out there and each one contradicts the other. One will say to use pull ups to transition and one will say quit diapers all together. One will say use a sticker chart and one will say use a different type of reward system. A good friend of mine emailed me her potty training book that touted that it would train in 3 days. I really had my doubts but her 2 year old son was potty trained with this book so it was worth a try. I honestly didn't think it would happen in 3 days but it was just somewhere to start.
Unfortunately, Josh is very mathematical and methodical in his thinking. He believes that if a process is laid out logically, then the end result should happen. While this can happen in his little math world, it does not necessarily happen with humans. Let alone a 2 year old. He just figured if he had something with proven results, he would get the same proven results. Thankfully he doesn't use this thinking all the time or I am sure we would have a lot more stuff in our house from infomercials.
We picked D-Day (done with diaper day. Or should that be D-D-Day? Now I just sound like I have a stutter.) to be the day after swim lessons would end, July 8. Since the book told us that we (Josh) need to basically needed to be home for 3 days straight, we didn't want swimming to interfere. Josh even went out to buy some girly panties and was going to take this head on. I have to say that I give him a lot of credit for this task since I would be able to escape to work. There are not many dads out there that I know who would take on the task of potty training by himself.
Day 1 : Josh and Abigail go through the house "throwing out" all the diapers to start the transition. And no, we didn't really throw them out but to her they were gone. I get a call at work around 10 AM to say that Abby is already on her 9th pair of panties. 9???? She has only been up 3 hours. Good luck! But there is some progress in the afternoon and I get home to a lot of wet towels on the floor.
Day 2: The morning was awesome but the afternoon slowly goes downhill. Abby wets her bed during nap time and a few temper tantrums ensue...but not by Abby. I get home to take the reins for a little and we watch Elmo with a few towels on my lap.
Day 3: The morning starts of very bad and three days at home picking up messes is getting to Josh a little. But who wouldn't start to go insane? The afternoon slowly gets better but there are still a handful of messes. Josh is about to throw the towel in (since there are so many towels downstairs for messes it wasn't hard to find one to throw) but he is already in deep so there is no point in going backwards.
Day 4: Obviously, we are not miraculously potty trained which is not making Josh happy but I keep trying to find the silver lining, which actually isn't hard. It has been four days without diapers and we are only going through 4-5 pairs of underwear a day instead of 10-15. Baby steps.
Day 5: The first real test. My parents in town and we are meeting Adam and Morgan for lunch. Josh needs the space because he has unfortunately been cooped up in the house since Day 1 of potty training. He is getting a well deserved golf outing. I take a bag with me and about 15 changes of clothes. Not only did Abby make it to the restaurant but went TWICE on the potty there. I didn't even need any changes of clothes the whole outing. I think we are finally getting the hang of this!
Stay tuned...
2 comments:
Bwahahaha!
Sorry, I have to laugh at this!
I read the e-book you sent me and adopted a few of the strategies, but let Sprite's daycare also work on her since she is in the potty training room and all. I was going through the same thing with her from Day 1 through Day 4 and then left her and John to deal with it while I went to Chicago. He texted me on Day 6 to tell me she got it. We now have an Ikea potty in the van for when we go anywhere and she's very good with Number 1. Nails it almost every time. It's Number 2 we have to watch for. I've had to say goodbye to a few pairs of underwear..
And we still do pull ups at bedtime. I know what the book says but I would rather let her lean on those in la-la land than lose sleep!
Abby will get it. She's a smart cookie. She's showing Josh JUST how smart she is. :-)
The best part is that she's fabulous out of the house. Really, isn't that the best? Really freaking annoying, but it is nice to not be changing clothes a dozen times in the grocery store.
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