3-day potty training

There is the golden window for potty training toddlers - between 18 and 22 months old (or so the saying goes). The reason this timeframe is so ideal is that the younguns are mobile and communicative enough to be able to take charge of the process, or at least fully participate, while yet young enough to be mostly happy to listen to you - not as strong-willed as a 2.5 or 3 year old.

Now, because we've been ECing Leona - with varying intensity and 'success' - since she was 2.5 months old, she's also already quite aware and communicative when she wishes to be.

And truth be told I've been wanting to potty train her for quite a while now (ok, I admit, I had hoped she'd be diaper free - and consistently miss free - before she turned 1, but that fell by the way-side), but since Judge is the one at home with her during the days I've not really brought it up as it would require some attention and effort/follow-up on his part.

However, last weekend I mentioned my desire to try potty training her - as well as the golden window bit, and Judge's response was: Why didn't you mention [the golden window] before? Let's do it!

So since I'm still on 40% sick-leave, where I stay home on Friday's, we decided to use this 3-day weekend to try the 3-day potty training method.

Actually, all we did was tell her she won't be wearing a diaper during the day any more (except for during her nap for now still), and took her diaper off when she woke up, and asked her to let us know when she had to pee or poop.

I also tried to feed her as much water as she happily would drink, and tried to be close to her most of the time and very aware of her...without hoovering and asking her every five min if she had to pee. But other than that we didn't do anything special (the 'real' 3-day potty training method has lots of tricks up its sleeves).

To be honest I was a bit apprehensive about trying this, because a couple days before The Weekend we had taken her diaper off a bit before her bath, and both times she had peed on the bed without any show of being aware of it. But by postponing it her awareness of herself would just diminish, not improve, so figured 'let's do it!' was the right idea.

So this is how the weekend went.

Friday: She had her second wake - and diaper removal - at 9. By 11 o'clock I had changed her pants four times. By bedtime that evening we'd had a kazillion pant-changes with a track-record of 100% non-communication about the pees (but 100% [1x] number two in the toilet).

At first I thought she really had totally lost touch with herself due to the diaper soaking it up so well, but then I realized it wasn't fully that, as she would run into the bedroom, happily yell bye-bye, close the door, and a few seconds later open it with her happy 'here I am!' face...and I notice she just peed. She did this three times. She would also sit down on the couch and be still for a moment, and yes, have peed (twice). And more.

I was ready to give up for this try, thinking maybe because my milk has lessened that she is feeling insecure or something, and thus it not be an ideal time to potty train.

But then I figured I would tough it out these three days.

So Saturday: diaper off at 9 again, peed on the potty. Peed again on the potty at around 12 (! now that was a long wait compared with yesterday...and no misses in between), and so on. Total of two misses (pees - once at the supermarket) and all the rest on the potty or in the toilet.

What did we do different on Saturday? I brought her potty out to the livingroom so that it was visible and accessible at all times. So sometimes she'd signal, and head right over to the potty, or bring the potty to one of us while signaling.

On to Sunday: diaper off just after 8, and quite the good start, with about four signalings and pees in the potty, then a partial-in-time poo, but then five non-communicated pee-in-pants in a row (two of which were on the bed...we have - once again - learned our lesson). This was just the morning, pre afternoon nap. She was a bit unstable during this time as well - emotionally, so may have had an effect. Then a few more 'close the bedroom door' misses, and a few in the potty, and that was a wrap.

Overall, though, I feel it went pretty well. We weren't expecting zero misses from the start, and I really think if we keep it up and are consistent (without making it a guilt or stress point) the misses will become less and less pretty quickly.

Most importantly, both Judge and I are on the same page regarding our game-plan for this (as tends to be the case when it comes to how we want to raise our kids - especially after we've discussed it), so we can provide her with a safe support.

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