Potty learning - Day 11-17.

To be honest, I didn't think this whole potty stuff would take as long as it has. In the past week there has been significant progress. Kira has told me when she needed to go pee nearly every time, we have had many dry naps and one dry night. She has started to recognize when she needs to poop but still is distracted enough to have accidents. When this happens she will immediately find me and let me know then finish in the toilet. One thing that happened this week is while taking a bath she jumped up and told me that she had to go. The thought of peeing in the bath horrified her and she gave up the extra splash time after being cleaned up. This is the time of day that she LOVES the most. So I know that she gets it, it is just a bit longer of a process then some of her sisters/brother. I am hoping that the next post that I put up next week (as I think weekly from here on out is best) will be stating that we are done and doing the only-one-in-diapers happy dance of joy!

Potty learning - Day 10.

Today we went back to the basics. I forgot to get the water proof undies washed last night and we had one pair, one. I was hoping that today would be a good day and we would get through the day w/o needing more than that one pair. It wasn't meant to be. After dropping the older kids off at school we made it exactly 3 minutes. I had just took her to the potty, went to get our breakfast and she ran over to tell me "my farted mommy, my just farted." I knew I was in trouble after the stink cloud that was following her finally reached where I stood. So after we got cleaned up I let her run around with a dress and no undies. She did not have another accident and by the end of the night was in regular panties and telling us when she needed to go. She had to be persuaded to get into the diaper tonight but I know having her in undies would be asking for trouble at this point. I was hoping that the Super Undies would save my floor and give her the idea that she was wearing undies and not a pull-up or diaper. That is not the case, as soon as they were taken away she improved 100%. I should have just bought a Little Green Machine instead of those stupid undies!

Potty learning - Day 9.

 

How can this cute little girl be so ornery? I swear this potty training is going to make me stroke out. She again told me twice today, "Oopsie, my pooped mom!" I wasn't sure if I wanted to bust up laughing or break down and cry. I have two things that I can't stand, poop and vomit. Baby poop does not seem to bother me a bit, I guess it's the mother's milk that makes it not smell so bad? Whatever it is, I don't enjoy cleaning it up but it doesn't make me want to gag. Now on top of all the gaginess (is that a word?) I have to swish the pants in the toilet with poo and poo tainted water splashing all around. Sorry I just reread that and so gross, but it's true. This is what I have been dealing with for the past 9 days. Well ok, two of those days were poop swishing free, but still. Yesterday I talked about one step forward and two steps back. Today felt like only the two steps back part. I am really praying that tomorrow is better. I have started the sticker program, each time she pees or poos on the toilet she will get a sticker. I am hoping this works because candy did not (I know, I know that was an awful plan!).

Potty learning - Day 8.

One step forward and two steps back. Just when I thought that we were nearing the end of this chapter, reality hit and I realized I was back to page one. Kira was not to blame for this poor day, it was completely me. I was up every hour on the hour with Jonas and was up for at least 15 min each time. Poor guy had an ear infection that we did not know about and was just in a lot of pain. Due to my lack of sleep I wasn't up every 15 to 20 minutes with her reminding her to use the restroom and it was a horrid day. I will be working extra hard with her tomorrow to remind her of using the potty. This is all new to me, other than Loryn all the rest of the kiddos were done w/learning how to use the potty in a week. On to week two and hopefully a better one!

Potty learning - Day 7.

Both Kira and Jonas had well baby visits scheduled this morning. They have been sick for a few days with a fever and cough/congestion. They probably should have been seen over the weekend but since we already had this appointment set up I just waited it out. Any how, since we were going to be at the doctor and I didn't know how long the appointment would be and Kira knack for pooing in her pants when I'm not looking made me skip this morning. Sure enough we were not in the doctor's waiting room more than 5 minutes and she had dropped a bomb in her pants! We got called back to the room and I changed her at about 9:30am, when we finally got home it was time for lunch and then naptime. The frenzied mom that I've been with these sick kiddos made me actually forget to change her pants. I woke her up from her nap at 3pm and her diaper was dry! She held it for nearly 6 hours and during her nap. We did not have any accidents at all tonight, and to think I was going to give up LOL!

Potty learning - Day 5 & 6.

Day 5: Let's just say that I am really tired of poo. It never bothered me much when it was in a diaper but when it is in something that needs to be cleaned it is not pretty. Not only that but it seems we have had a relapse from taking time off on Friday. She not only had a messy accident but had two other pee accidents. She gets it I know she does so I am not sure what the deal is.

Day 6:  I often wonder why it is that little kids who are potty training or in diapers disappear then suddenly reappear with poo in their pants. It's almost like they sneak off and we wont notice the smell LOL. I just don't get it. I swear that I am going to have to tether her to me tomorrow and see if we can forgo any poo mishaps :). We had far too many today, she has been sick the past few days so I will chalk it up to that. I do have to say that I was so very close to quitting today. I hope that tomorrow is a better day.

Potty learning - Day 4.

It has been a beyond crazy day for us. The two younger kids and I were out of the house from the time that we dropped the older kids off at school until I picked them up. The littles had pictures then I had various running around to do for Kaly's birthday party tonight. We skipped learning anything this morning. When we got home she had barely used her diaper and went right on the potty. She did not have any accidents the rest of the afternoon/evening and even told me when she had to go. Another great day for Kira!

Potty learning - Day 3.

So by now I am pretty confident that the Super Undies are not going to allow a mess all over my house so in the morning I spread out the potty trips to every 30-45 min. Kira did so great, didn't have one pee accident. She is still struggling with the other. I have learned that if I were to cloth diaper it would definitely have to be a hybrid diaper or in the very least we would have to use those handy liners. Swishing poo off of these is not fun. I do recall tossing away plenty of Gerber training pants when the other kids were learning to use the potty and for one fleeting moment I thought about doing the same. Then the training pants in my hand morphed into the $20 bill that I paid for them and I sighed and went back to swishing LOL!

After the great success with the longer time between potty trips in the morning, I decided to let Kira lead the way in the afternoon. She told me 3 times that she needed to use the restroom (yes she does say restroom lol). I am going to have to say that she has learned how to tell when she needs to pee!

Potty learning - Day 2.

Kira is doing amazing. Today we have not had any pee accidents (even at nap time). She is reminded to use the restroom every 15-20 min up from every 10-15 min yesterday. We are still working on poo. It seems that somewhere in that 15 min window she went and had an accident in her undies. We talked about it and she is getting it. It can't be easy to go from doing something the same way from birth to switching in up in a day or two. I keep repeating that as I am cleaning up the mess lol! The way she is going, I don't think that we will have this problem much longer. The biggest problem that I am having with it is when I am tending to Jonas I can't always quick run her to the potty-not that it would have mattered today, but surely I could have recognized the signs if my attention wasn't diverted.

Potty learning- Day 1.

 

Well, after a frustrating ordering process with Super Undies we finally received part of our order. I say part due to an error with their stock they ran out of the gender neutral light blue Super Undies (see I'm thinking ahead ;)) and sent us these lovely, very girlie pants instead until the blue ones are back in stock. With all the issues I had they with them I have to say that they have excellent customer service.

As for Kira she did so much better than I expected. We had one pee issue in the morning, just a smidge as we were running to the potty, than another after nap-time. She woke up and quietly played in her crib (yes, she is still in a crib-she doesn't mind it so I'm going to leave her be), normally she will yell "Somebody get me outta here!" as soon as she wakes up. Of course the day that I want her to let me know she's awake is the day that she doesn't. After I got her cleaned up-which btw her Super Undies did not drip a drop on her bed, two soakers in the pocket work great-she went poo on the potty. Since she normally only goes once a day I thought we were good. HUGE mistake. I think after seeing how it was different changing these pants vs. diapers she understood that we don't go poo in the undies. For the rest of the night we had no issues at all. I would have to call today a success, yes we had bumps in the road but she is learning that we don't do that. She definitely gets it and I am sure that it wont be long and she will be done.

Potty learning.

I am about to take on the task of potty learning with Kira. Shouldn't be too hard, I have successfully trained 5 other kiddos. The fastest learner was Kaly who took two days to get it and got it both day and night. She decided she was done with diapers and that was that. The longest was Loryn, she-as she does now-fought me tooth and nail. I think it was two months before she learned during the day and another six months before we figured out a solution for night time. I had to take her to the bathroom between 10:30pm and midnight every night for her to stay dry through the night. She was and still is a very heavy sleeper, she still wakes on her own to use the restroom at this time every night, well it is more like sleep walking lol. After we figured this out with Loryn, we used that with the rest of the kids (except Kal who never needed it).

The main challenge that I will face this time, is carpet. All of our previous homes had a combination of wood and tile throughout with only carpet in the bedrooms. During the initial learning stage we just shut all the bedroom doors and kept the kids out in the easy clean up areas. I will not have that this time. We only have the kitchen and baths with tile flooring this time. I have been searching the net for good training pants that are more like cloth diapers than pull-ups and I found them.

 

SuperUndies! They can be found at http://www.superundies.com and they are just like a regular underwear only they have a pocket for cloth inserts and a waterproof outer layer to catch accidents. The thing that really sold me on them however, was the easy open tabs, located on the back side to allow for easy clean up on those messier occasions. I am anxiously awaiting my order, but once I get it and try them out I will update-hopefully on my or rather Kira's success!