WFMW: How we [quite easily] survived potty training!

I'm going to do something I don't normally do, and link up with another blog for this post. That's just how pleased I am with our week of potty training. So, I'm linking up this post with Works for Me Wednesday over at We Are That Family.

Lucy has been potty trained for awhile now. Almost three whole months. And it has been delightful. I'm only just now blogging about it because, well, that's just been the nature of my life lately. Blog procrastination. But let's not dwell on that - back to the potty training.

I read this blog and was inspired. She recommends "pre-training" beginning at 18 months, which I had not done, but I figured all of the "halfway" (and unsuccessful, I might add) potty training I had done for the past six weeks on and off had to count for something, so I just dove right in.

Here's what we did:

1.) I collected my supplies
Underwear, Gerber waterproof training pants, extra bed sheets, stickers, a poster, a potette portable potty (the one kid item I cannot live without!), m&m's, a donut with pink icing

[training pants]

[rewards]

[Incentive poster]

2.) We had a potty party!
We started on a monday morning with a "potty party" where we packed up all of Lucy's gdiapers and told them "bye-bye." Then we dined on a special breakfast of donuts with pink icing and sprinkles. Lucy has not worn a diaper since the one she woke up wearing that day, which means the last day she wore a diaper was March 26th. Starting that Monday, she began wearing the Gerber waterproof pants for naptime and sleeptime. No pull-ups.

[Diapers ready to be packed away]

[Saying "bye-bye" to the diapers]

[Throwing them into the storage bin]

[Blowing them kisses]

[Enjoying her pink donut]

3.) We stayed home all week

This one was hard for me. I like being out. I need to be out. But I knew that being out and about while trying to potty train would not be helpful for Lucy. So we stayed home all day, with the exception of one midwife appointment I had forgotten was scheduled. And she did have two accidents while we were out.  I chose to invest in spending time with my daughter, which means I limited email, internet and phone calls that week so that I was as present with her as I could be. And I think we both had a great week with each other!

4.) Lucy sat on the potty at regular intervals and received positive reinforcements for doing so
Every 30 minutes Lucy sat on the potty for 2 minutes. And since she was not initially a fan of sitting on the potty, she was rewarded for doing so by getting a sticker to put on a poster we kept in the bathroom. It was incentive for her, and it also helped me keep track of how many times she was sitting on the potty each day. I also read her the same book every time she sat on the potty, so she began to anticipate that as well.

5.) I rewarded successes with candy
I know some people aren't comfortable with giving candy or food incentives. I personally don't have a problem with it for limited periods of time for something like potty training. So, Lucy got one m&m when she peed and two m&m's when she pooped or woke up from nap or sleep time dry.

6.) We made a BIG deal out of successes
We danced and clapped and called Daddy. We ate an m&m's. It was exciting.

7.) We were patient and diligent
My goal was to do this routine for seven days. I almost gave up on day three. But I had set out to do it for seven days, so that kept me going when I wanted to give up and run to the basement for the diapers.

8.) Our results
Here's what happened for us (and it's important to remember that the "successes" were mostly accidental, as they happened when I made Lucy sit on the potty longer than two minutes because I knew she needed to go potty and I didn't want to clean up another accident!) :

Day one: Four accidents, Two successes
Day two: Five accidents, Two successes
Day three: Three accidents, Two successes
Day four: ZERO accidents, SIX successes

After day four I stopped keeping track, because on day four, Lucy started going to the potty without reminders! In fact, at one point I realized she wasn't in the room with me and went to look for her. I found her on her little potty and she has just peed in it! All.by.herself. After that point, I can count on one hand the number of accidents she has had between that day (March 30, 2011) and today!

Lucy was 25 months old when I potty trained her. It was easy. With the next child, I will start even earlier. I highly recommend you check out this blog post for further instruction and explanation, and then give it a try!

It worked for me! and Lucy!