Rachel probably would have been ready for potty training months before we actually trained her--if she hadn't had a lazy pregnant busy mom. I decided that we would need to get her potty trained during the time that Brian was off work over Christmas break if it was ever going to happen. I knew that for her, it probably wasn't an ideal time, with so much going on, but that was the only time that would work. I just can't get up when she gets up, but Brian can. So, on Monday, December 21, we put the diapers away and began our adventure.
Let's start out by saying that Rachel is totally different than her brother. Michael was motivated by sticker charts and prizes. He basically trained himself. I just asked him if he wanted to wear underwear, and he said yes and went for it. Going #2 earned him extra stickers, so he was constantly getting on the potty to try to force some of the brown stuff out. He was a champ and I had little to no work in training him.
Then there's Rachel. She didn't seem to be motivated by ANYTHING--except getting to wear her princess panties. She was constantly trying to wear them instead of the thicker training undies we stuck her in. We had to set timers and keep putting her on the potty. The first couple of days were ROUGH. She had several accidents, and Brian and I had to keep reminding each other that she was improving, because it certainly didn't feel that way. Our families over Christmas were also helpful in encouraging her to go potty (sometimes she didn't want to stop playing to go try). We had a wedding in Farmington on Day 2, and we were pretty nervous about that. It was our first time having to take her into a public restroom, but surprisingly, she handled the whole thing like a champ, as long as I remembered to cover up the sensor on those auto-flushing toilets.
But Number 2 wasn't happening. She refused. She was miserable. But she wouldn't go. Finally, after talking to the nurse practitioner at her pediatrician's office, we decided to give her a laxative. Unfortunately, she also caught some kind of bug and its accompanying diarrhea at the same time. I was so frustrated with all the poopy undies I was having to clean out! And there were still a few #1 accidents happening. And I had to remind myself that she was getting better, but Brian and I were at a loss as to how to get her to go #2 on the toilet.
We would have her sit for hours watching a movie on a tablet. That didn't really work. Finally, we tried a new method of bribing. We had purchased a Disney Princess Little People carriage at the beginning of December, intending to save it for her birthday. It was a good thing that we did. I retrieved it from its hiding place and brought it out where she could see it. I made a deal. If she went #2 once, she could have one of the Little People in the set. If she went again, she could have the whole thing. It worked. This picture doesn't look like much, but trust me, it's a big deal:
The biggest test of her newly potty trained self was heading to Florida for the Saville family vacation the second week of January. She hated the airport bathrooms--way too loud--and she refused to use the toilets on the airplane. We tried to get her to go, but she just screamed like we were in there beating her, so we had no choice but to give up and pray that she could hold it for the whole flight. Thankfully, she had no accidents on the plane. In fact, the only accidents she had happened right in front of the toilet. I'm considering that a win.
We're really proud of our big girl, and she's pretty proud of her princess panties. She gets excited every time she puts a new pair on. In the meantime, we're enjoying our four months of no diapers.
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