Herring Family Happenings: Adventures in potty training

On her own personal potty

There have been some big changes around here! Piper decided she wanted to be a big girl and use the potty, so I went ahead and took the potty-training plunge. She had been talking about everyone's bodily functions to the point that it was embarrassing at times, and probably her favorite Christmas gift was the tiny potty that came with her doll house. We had played around on the real potty for a month or so with successes here and there but nothing consistent. I wasn't ready to put in the effort it would entail on my part seeing as I have my hands full with Graham. But after seeing Lyndie using the potty at Nana's house over Christmas, something clicked with Piper and she was ready to go. I still resisted a bit because I was just not ready to invite that chaos into the house. However, I could not deny Piper any longer, so we officially started the process last Friday. I bought her some PullUps and put them on over big girl panties (so when there were accidents, at least they'd be contained but she'd still feel discomfort). That first day we went through an entire pack of Minnie Mouse underwear (7 pair) and the PullUps that accompanied them. I was sitting her on the potty every 30 minutes or so, and sometimes she would go and sometimes she wouldn't. That day was by far the most difficult. Sometimes she would go in her panties immediately after sitting on the potty for 10 minutes. I was ready to throw in the towel at the end of the day.

But things improved on Saturday, when she only went through 3 pairs of panties because of accidents. Sunday morning was a wash because of church, but she was dry all evening (after nap). Monday she wore panties all day (no PullUps) and had only one accident. I was completely uncertain how she would do at preschool on Tuesday, so I sent her in PullUps with diapers in her bag if she got so distracted that she forgot to hold it and/or ask to use the potty (there's one in her classroom). She stayed dry all morning but wouldn't use the potty, so she went in her diaper during nap. When she came home, she was dry the rest of the afternoon and evening. Yesterday (Wednesday), I decided to let her take the lead and tell me when she needed to use the potty. She was awesome--no accidents!

Today when I was getting her ready for school, she had a fit when I tried to put PullUps on her (she calls them pink diapers) and wanted to wear her Minnie panties. I still wasn't sure how she'd do at school, and I didn't want her teachers to have to clean up any unnecessary messes, so we compromised by wearing Minnie over her Pull Up :-). She was dry all day, and as you can see by her daily report below, she asked to go to the potty MANY times during the day. I will take that over not asking any day!

I am acutely aware that we have miles to go before we sleep, so to speak. We have not tackled #2 because Piper always goes while she is asleep or just as she is waking from nighttime sleep and nap time. She does, however, dislike the feeling of "shoo-ey" in her diaper and wants me to change it immediately after getting her out of bed. Hopefully she will gain some control over this soon so we can put it in the potty, too!

As for now, I am thrilled with how she is doing. It has been stressful, no doubt, and we haven't really been out anywhere since beginning this process (but let's be real, I'm not going much of anywhere with these two yet anyway), but we are well on our way to having a girl who doesn't wear diapers anymore.

I'm so proud of my big girl!