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Adventures in Potty Training

Mommy's Log
Stardate 24317.8

We have set course for Potty Trained Island. The journey will be long and treacherous but the final destination is worth the effort. Today marked day 1 of our journey. Though we are unsure of how long the journey will take, we must continue forward as going back is not an option any longer. Once the course it set, it shall not be diverted from. Today we saw roughly 10 accidents occur during our journey. Who knows what is truly the "expectation'? All we can hope is that tomorrow brings calmer waters and less overflow.

Okay, enough of that.  Seriously though, today we started on our potty training journey. My plan, since finding out we would be having Baby #2 (Will) in October was to try to plan to potty train Kenzie prior to his arrival. I did not want to have two babies in diapers full time. I don't know that I can deal with that (mentally or financially). A few months ago we got Kenzie a potty (really, Nana got it) and starting just letting her explore what it meant to go potty. Being that I am a stay at home mommy, she often comes in to the bathroom with me so she understood to a point what "going potty" meant. It took her a couple of months of sitting on the potty before bath, naps, and at random points during the day to actually use it. When she did though, she was super excited. We made such a big deal out of it. The random potty visits have occurred for a couple of months now and there have even been a few occasions when she would tell us that she wanted to go "tee tee on potty".

This past weekend we decided that it was time to just go full force. Especially since this could be a fairly long process depending on how she took to it. She seemed ready. So, late last week I bought her cheap underwear (that can be tossed should need be) and we went on Sunday to Ikea to pick up a potty to keep in my car for whenever we go out. This morning when she woke up, instead of just changing her diaper we went straight to the potty. She did not go. She got up at 7:15 and didn't use the potty for roughly 2 hours.

We decided to venture out shortly thereafter. We made our weekly run to Winn Dixie. Before we went inside I had her sit on her potty in the back of my car. She went! So, we went ahead and went in. Did all our shopping and made it back out. I had her sit on the potty again before we left but she didn't go. Then when we got home I had a Mommy Fail moment....

As soon as we got home she said "tee tee potty" and I started to take her to the potty. She was enamored with her potty in the car though so I thought she was just telling me that she wanted to use that potty. She gets like that sometimes. I decided to just run in and put up the groceries. She was playing the piano while I did it and all of a sudden she just stopped. Yep. You guessed it. Pee running down her leg. *Facepalm!* Totally my fault. That set the pace for the rest of our morning. We ended up having four more accidents in just over an hour.

We finally made it to nap time and I put her in a diaper for that. I know it takes longer to deal with potty issues while sleeping so for now we are keeping diapers (or pull ups) for naps and nighttime. After her nap, it was more of the same. We would go to the potty every 20 or so minutes and sit for a while. She would do nothing and within 2 minutes of leaving her potty, would just go on the floor. She has managed to tell me four or five times this afternoon when she needed to go BEFORE actually going. Most of the time she likes to say it as she is peeing... on the floor. We are going at fairly regular intervals because if I ask her if she needs to go, she usually says no... but she has gone a few times just after I asked. She is also the kind of kid that gets involved in things and forgets. No surprise. Playing is way more fun and who wants to stop doing that to go potty. It's taken all day but I am starting to finally see the moments when she gets really calm or pauses in what she is doing as precursors to her needing to go.

I'm hoping this will be a fairly painless process but I know it can take a while. She has taken pretty well to the process thus far so we will see. Overall, I am exhausted and I have been frustrated more than once today. I would blame that on pregnancy hormones but I think potty training must be like this for most parents. Let's hope tomorrow is an easier day. =) I can't believe our little girl is getting so big.

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