Wednesday

(mis)adventures in potty training

when dylan started using the potty, it was an unexpected novelty. she seemed so little, especially her little 21 pound frame, so we ordered her one of those kiddie seats that perch atop the real toilet so wee ones don't fall in. it was all sort of cute.

she's just twenty months, so i wasn't envisioning her diaper-free future any time soon. this could take many months, and that was ok. we'd just go at her pace and see how it goes.

as it turns out, her pace is possibly more than this pregnant mama can handle.

dylan is actually doing a great job. she's staying drier, she tells us that she needs to use the potty, and she goes--even when we're away from home.

what's killing me are all the false alarms. dylan will cry potty wolf, so to speak, maybe six times a day (and often one time after the other). those are six extra times of me getting my giant pregnant self onto the bathroom floor with her, taking off her shoes, shorts, diaper cover, and diaper, sitting her up on the potty, only to have her immediately tell me "all done" or "I did it"--a bitter lie if i've ever heard one.

i put her all back together (again, kneeling on the floor), and when she pleads, "potty? pee pee?" five minutes later, i'm not exactly dying for a repeat performance. but if she's sincere, i don't want to not give her the opportunity. it just doesn't seem very wise in the grand scheme of potty training (or um, parenting) to say, "baby, mama's achey and exhausted, and since you're probably not telling the truth anyway, how 'bout you just go in your diaper and we'll change you later, k?"

i shouldn't say that, right?

9 comments:

Blogless A.R. said...

Oh, you make me smile! :-) Good luck!

~Autumn B

Penny said...

Why not ditch the shorts and diaper cover - it's summer over there. I did that with Lydia when she was on the verge of training herself. She has been dry during the day since about 26 months. One day she refused to wear a diaper and we went with undies - very few accidents after that.

You could put some undies on her, a diaper cover and let her go like that... don't worry about the shorts. See what happens. If you feel up with it - might be a bit too much at this stage. :)

aussiehen said...

I sympathise, Jacob was interested for a while but it petered off and as it's winter here so he's wearing multiple layers so did I.
I plan to try again when it's summer and he can run around without many clothes on.

Jenney said...

Oh I feel ya! Snug started potty training when I was prego with Baby J (he was only 18 mos.) and I thought I would kill him if he had one more false alarm. In the end I ended up on bed rest and we resumed potty training just as he was 24 mos. People are amazed that he is completly trained, even overnight, and he isn't quite 3. I think that cloth diapering really helps them train faster.
I do agree though you may want to just put her in underoos and use a mop (unless you have lots of carpet like us) or the diaper with a snappi and no cover to save yourself some strain. GOOD LUCK!

(If you hear of a place to send your children for 1 week with guaranteed sucess for potty training...let me know. I think there should be such a place.)

Beth said...

I'm with the others - undies sound like a great option if she can stay dry for so long at a time with relatively few accidents.

I would love to hear you actually say that to her though. That's awesome.

With two boys in non-cloth diapers, I'm betting we still have a good two years to go before we hit this stage. Glad someone is going before me to share advice later : )

D said...

You really are such a good momma. Your patience is priceless.

debojo said...

Hey girl! Being in a very similar situation (hugely pregnant, and hard to get up and down while potty training)...I'd have to say underwear wins! Plus, I always felt like it wasn't that huge of a deal since I was used to the pee/poop thing with cloth diapers anyways...How is the summer heat treating you? At least it's been more mild here, yes? - deborah

Heather said...

I agree with what many others have said...give underwear a shot! Hopefully it will do the trick and will stop you from many trips to the bathroom with "the girl who cried pee"!

Good luck!!!

Amy from Occupation: Mommy said...

I would definitely say to go with the undies. It sounds like she is doing so well! But I hear you about the up-and-down. Both my big girls were potty trained when I had a six-week-old. I spent a lot of time nursing the baby on the bathroom floor while the potty-trainee was having false alarms. Training Sydney this summer was a breeze in comparison :)

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