Thursday, Jan 1, 2015
Happy New Year! The past few days have been an adventure: one we weren’t sure if we should continue or abandon. But, after three days of potty training our eldest, we decided to jump ship and re-embark again in a month. It became clear to us that two-and-a-half-year-old Maddie is physically capable of potty training, but emotionally, she needs a little more time.
Day one was cRaZy!!! We had talked about potty training after Christmas was past because we wouldn’t be travelling so much anymore and could devote our time to being in the home where accidents would inevitably happen. So, Monday morning, we woke up and decided, “today is the day!” We told Maddie that she had to go pee pee and poopy on the potty, removed her pants so she was bottomless and hung out downstairs. She, surprisingly was not alarmed by her lack of clothing from the waist down and proceeded to eat breakfast and go about playing per usual. We sat her down on the potty quite frequently to the point that we got sick of hearing ourselves suggest the seat but nothing would happen. We also brought Maddie into the bathroom with us and let her see us go potty (I have been doing this for months, actually) and suggested that she go pee pee at the same time. Yet, not a drop came from little Mads. How was it possible that she was holding it this long?!?!
Until accident #1 happened: Maddie was squatting down in front of Sarah when she dribbled out a little pee straight onto the tile floor. So, clean-up was no big deal, but the problem was that Maddie didn’t feel the wetness on herself like we were hoping. And when we rushed her to the potty just feet away, she closed the dam and the flood waters halted. (Yes, I am proud of my metaphor).
Oh well.
Accident #2 came not too long after that when we sat Maddie down for lunch. Maddie quietly and calmly peed in her booster seat, which we didn’t notice until after she was done eating. So, how long was she sitting in her little pee-pool??
So, clean up of this one was a little more involved since the straps of her seat were soaked. Good times.
But, it wasn’t very long after this incident when I was out of the room and heard hurrahs! Apparently, Maddie had started to go poopy while wearing her big-girl underpants, which we had, at this point, decided to switch over to, so Phil rushed her to her potty and sat her down. Plop! She went poopy on her potty! We did the “potty dance” which consists of us pumping our hand into the air while chanting, “Potty! Potty! Potty!” and celebrated the accomplishment all while Maddie looked at her poopy with horror.
It all went down hill from here. I think that seeing the poopy in the potty was a little traumatizing for Maddie because after this, she began protesting and not wanting to sit on the potty. After she woke from her nap that afternoon, I took her in my arms and sat with her on the couch. We realized that we neglected to give Maddie much physical affection that morning because she was bottomless for a good portion of the time and, even when wearing her undies, we were afraid of her peeing all over the place. So, I was holding her in my lap when, all of the sudden….there was pee all over me. It soaked through my jeans, went between my legs and all over the couch. I tried to put maddie on the potty despite her refusal, which only got pee all over the potty rather than inside. Needless to say, this was not a successful experience and I needed a shower.
The rest of the day was a failure. No pee in the potty, but it seemed like pee was everywhere else! That night, we put Maddie to bed in her diaper and called it a day.
Onward! Tuesday morning rolled around and we decided to give it another shot. Well, Maddie held her pee the entire morning to the point where her bladder was really full and must have felt very uncomfortable. This was our first indication that she might not be emotionally ready for the change. It was around 1:30 or so and I went into the bathroom and sat on the big potty while she was on the little one. She heard me go pee pee and decided to give it a shot. When she let a little out, so was terrified and immediately stood up. She kept crying, “poopy” (she meant pee pee) and trying to stop it from coming out. Her bladder was so full, though, that she had to release it but she didn’t want to. So, I kept trying to sit Maddie back down, but she kept trying to stand back up. She got some pee in the potty, which we celebrated, but a lot of it went on the floor. At one point, she lost her balance and accidentally put her hand inside the bowl with the pee in it. When she was done and we had washed our hands, I left the bathroom feeling, again, like I was covered in urine.
My, oh, my.
After Maddie’s nap, Phil had the great idea of going to the store and buying some plastic diaper covers so we could put them over Maddie’s undies. That way, she would still feel the wetness in her undies if she had an accident, but it wouldn’t leak out. Ingenious idea! And we will be using this method again when the time comes.
Without going into too much more detail about accidents and the cleanliness of our floors, which we can now call “sterilized” (hehe), Maddie continued over the course of the next day and a half to hold her pee for so long that we worried it would hurt her somehow. I was concerned she would give herself a bladder infection or an UTI. And whenever she got to the point that she couldn’t hold it anymore, she would cry, as though horrified, about the idea of sitting on the potty and going pee pee. But, she didn’t want to go in her pants and would seem very upset if her undies got wet. She also held her poop for 2 full days! The poor girl.
Maddie did end up having 2 good successful pees in the potty, but she just seemed so distraught about the entire process. So, by Wednesday evening, Phil and I both agreed that we should call it. We put a diaper on little Mads and went into the basement to watch a movie. While down there, Maddie finally started to go poopy, but it was the saddest pooping experience ever. Maddie kept holding her little butt like she was trying to keep it in and looked at us with shame that she was going poopy in her pants. We offered for her to go on the potty, but didn’t want to pressure her, and she would cry, “No! No!” She clearly was scared but also ashamed. It made me feel like a terrible parent.
So, while we were not successful with the potty training this time around, I do feel like we have made progress and have learned a lot. We found that Maddie is motivated by candy. So, we will probably use the candy-reward method next time around. We also, have the plastic pants to keep the accidents contained, which will be helpful for the future. And we are pleased to know that Maddie can and will hold her pee pee and understands the concept of going on the potty. We just need to be more sensitive to her feelings the next time around and understand that she is just a little girl and these new experiences can sometimes be scary. So, we’ll try again at the end of the month. And this time, I won’t let Maddie sit on my lap without the plastic pants.
No comments:
Post a Comment