So now it's Tana's turn. She is 31 months old and very ready to leave the diaper stage-- or so it seems. She has been interested in using the potty for five months, and I have been allowing her to sit on it with her diaper on whenever she desires.
I've never been one to favor any sort of potty chair because I want to train on the proper toilet and get it done with since we won't have a potty chair whenever we're not at home. We do have an awesome travel potty seat that we used very often with Loralynn (and still use on long road trips when a rest stop isn't available). The sides snap outward to sit on the big toilet, too, so they don't fall in or have to hold themselves up!
As far as the big toilet goes, we made Loralynn learn all of it at once: to get on the stool, pull her pants down, sit on the potty with a trainer seat on, grab two squares of toilet paper and then flush all down the toilet. European flushes are a bit harder to do because it's a big button on the back of the toilet wall above the lid. This requires the toddler to reach pretty far to smack the flush button.
Anyhow, today was day #1 for Tana. I am approaching her potty training the same as we did with Loralynn but hoping for quicker results since she's got an older sibling to model. We have totally eliminated diapers and she is running around the house in a long-sleeved shirt and panties. My intensity will last for three to four days and then life will have to resume to normal because things need to get done.
The method requires me to watch her or play with her constantly throughout each day so that I can see when there is a pause, a shift in comfort, or any other indication that shows the pee or poop is coming on. Every 10 minutes I ask if her panties are dry and say, "Tell me when you need to go potty, ok?" When she pees or poops I run to the potty, pull down panties, and sit. "Yuck, your panties aren't dry anymore." We put on fresh panties and clean up the mess on the floor.
I started this morning before taking Loralynn to school. I thought about waiting until after we took her to school, but I wanted Loralynn to be there when we started. We ate breakfast, Tana still wearing her last diaper. She finished eating too quickly, so I had to let her down. Loralynn kept eating forever so while I was helping her finish, Tana did her poop in the diaper. I missed that opportunity. Oh well. Guess I just have to wait a while for the next one which didn't happen today again. I took the poopy diaper off and decided to start with the panties right then and had to put on pants too because we were going out in the cold. Before we left for school 10 minutes later, she was wet all through and we had to change. Missed the first pee, too.
I had a piddle pad in the stroller for the walk to Loralynn's school. Tana didn't have an accident at all the 20 minutes we were gone.
I settled down with her in the living room after that and caught all of her accidents. We must have gone through 15 pairs of panties today. She only had three big accidents and all the rest were just dampening the panties as we rushed to the potty. Nothing went into the potty-- though twice we rushed so quickly that I think a drop or two got in and I gave her a sticker for her chart and a Cheeto just so she could anticipate what would come in the future if she was able to go in the potty.
I was able to get her to drink two Capri Suns today in addition to milk and water so the pee was really flowing and we had many opportunities. Her biggest accident she saved for dinnertime in her highchair. It was a mess. The gross thing is that Nutmeg, our little dog, likes to clean up the messes, too. It's tough to manage a wet kid that needs to be rushed to the potty and redressed as well as get to the mess on the floor quick enough.
She told me two times during the day, "I closed my poopy." I'm not sure what that means. But, I believe she caught onto the fact that she needed to inform me when it was time to go potty because after the first hour of our training she started standing up in a sort of race position and waiting for me to ask.
She's sleeping in a soaked bed right now. I don't want to wake her to change it, but I put a dry blanket on her. She slept in a wet bed during naptime, too. I'm not very hopeful that nighttime dryness will come about anytime soon. Loralynn is 4 1/2 and still wets three to four times a week. We're stocked with nap and bedtime cloth panties so that we don't have to pay a ton of money for pull-ups.
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