If you missed any of my previous (and if you care to read them), here they are:
Potty Training - Day 1
Potty Training - Day 2
Potty Training - Day 3
Back in July, I blocked off an entire week of my summer schedule and devoted it completely to potty training LL. After 3 days, it was pretty remarkable the progress that she had made. With the exception of one thing - pooping on the potty. She just would not do it! I wasn't too concerned about it because I knew that this was a concept that was often harder to grasp for young kids. For the time being, we just put a diaper on her once a day (during room time) for her to do her business. I didn't really like doing that, but I also didn't want her to get backed up to the point where it made her sick or in pain. And I also didn't want the pooping to set us back in peeing after all the hard work we did.
Really though, it was something that I constantly kept thinking about. How were we going to get this done? I did not want to keep doing the diaper thing for a long time. Eventually (after a lot more reading - especially on the BabyWise blog), I realized that LL was very consistent about when she pooped - she wanted to be alone and she almost always hid. She would even hide under her bed when she was alone in room time. I knew that when we decided to take the leap with poopy training, we were going to have to give her her privacy.
I also knew that LL would NOT poop on herself if she was naked from the waist down. She would go if she had panties on, but she would not go if she was naked. So I also knew that we were going to have to take her panties off during poopy training.
She was very used to pooping during room time. That's when she's almost always pooped even before potty training. It's also when we were putting a diaper on her just so that's what she could do.
Here was my original plan: leave her naked from the waist down, put her in room time, put a potty in there with her, and leave her alone. I knew that room time would give her the urge to go. I also knew that if she was naked, she wouldn't just go while she was playing. If we put a potty in there, that would be her only other option.
Grammy did this for the first time while I was at work, and guess what? It worked!! And I'm proud to report that it's been working that very same way for 2 1/2 weeks! She has had one accident in that time, but for 19 days, I don't think that's too bad!
Also in 2 1/2 weeks, we've been starting to transition her into pooping in the bathroom AND pooping on the big potty. Those two things are a work in progress, but they're coming. I don't love her pooping in a potty in her room, but I love it a whole lot more than pooping in a diaper! The bathroom and big potty thing will fix itself over time.
The biggest thing that I have learned throughout this entire process is this: you can read all of the books in the world, and talk to all of the people you know, but it comes down to this - watching and thinking about your individual child is the best thing that you can do. I did read PottyWise. And, for the most part, I did follow it. But nothing worked as good for me as listening to what LL was telling me, even though it wasn't verbally.
She still isn't nap or night trained, but that will come with time and development. And we still have the occasional accident. But for only starting this process 6ish weeks ago, I think she's doing sensational!
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