As some of you may know, baby numero two is on the way. So I am keen to get Fee, my two year old, potty trained before the wee one arrives (no pun intended). As I haven’t posted in a little while, I thought it would be nice to share this wonderfully exciting journey with you.
I know, you’re welcome.
In preparation for this adventure, I bought the following two books:
As the book titles suggest, I am not the most patient of people, and the allure of having no more nappies in seven days was one I could not resist.
Having read through both books, the first thing I noted is that you really need to set aside more than one week, as there is a whole ‘preparation period’ to go through to make sure your little one is ready to start potty training and that you have all the special equipment in place (potties, stickers, knickers, reward chart for little one, reward wine elderflower fizz for mummy…).
You also need a bit of time to get mentally prepared, as you will be picking up poos from random places in the house…
So, I’ll get to the point, how did we get on? Did we get potty trained in one week??
Well, we have just finished our first week of potty training and the results look promising (touch wood, fingers crossed and a sprinkling of Ben and Holly fairy dust it continues).
I’ll quickly summarise our adventure so far (sparing you the not-so-nice details):
Day 1 – A bit of a disaster – Mainly my fault as I wasn’t completely prepared for how prepared you need to be before starting potty training. (Little Tip: Keep one potty upstairs and one potty downstairs…as toddlers need to pee ‘right now!’). Overall, there were more wees on the floor than in the potty, but we got two successful potty hits, so that kept us going!
Day 2 – Another rollercoaster of a day, but I’d say we had a 50% success rate. I put Fee on the potty every thirty mins. I also kept a record of when she needed to use the potty to help establish some sort of pattern (so that I would eventually be able to leave the house without breaking into a nervous sweat).
Day 3 – Triumph of the day – Fee woke up with a dry nappy! (We were still using pull ups at night and for her nap). It was still a wobbly day though – I think Fee was now starting to recognise the feeling of needing to wee/poo, but she still didn’t feel obliged to share this valuable information with me (!) So I continued to put her on the potty regularly (every thirty mins) and gave her lots of praise when she used it.
Day 4 – I think we cracked it! Again, another dry nappy in the morning when Fee got up and she went straight to the potty to do her morning business. Today, I would ask Fee every thirty mins or so whether she needed to use the potty. If she said yes, we’d head over to the potty and do the necessaries. If she said no, I would keep my eagle-eye on her but let her carry on doing what she was doing. We had a couple of accidents, but there were definitely more whoops and cheers today and we even got the vuvuzela out! (The neighbours must think I am crazy).
Day 5 – Still looking good…another dry nappy when Fee woke up and she went straight over to her potty to do her morning wee. By now Fee would tell me when she needed to use the potty and would stroll over to the potty by herself (with me sprinting close behind with wet wipes). She was able to go around one hour or so between potty trips, which meant we could leave the house today (yay!)
Day 6 – Dry nappy again in the morning. Fee was now regularly informing me/shouting(!) when she needed to use the potty. We initially started with a Peppa Pig sticker reward chart to get her using the potty, but by now she seemed happy enough with a high five and a cheer for every successful potty trip.
Day 7 – I felt pretty comfortable leaving the house with Fee. We ordered a travel potty online. I’d recommend this one – Potette Plus 2-in-1 Travel Potty (White/Blue) and were using it regularly when we were out and about.
Fee was really proud of herself every time she used the potty and would tell anyone who listened how she peed/pooed in the potty, which I guess is a good thing!
So, there it is. Our whirlwind potty training adventure. To be honest, I am surprised at how well it went. Mr E thinks it is due to a combination of luck, dogged perseverance and an abundance Peppa Pig bribes and stickers. I think he may be right.
It also helped that it was the half-term holidays which meant that we could focus completely (and obsessively) on Fee and her daily ablutions.
To be honest, it was not as painful as I thought, though slightly messier than I imagined…
If you are thinking of potty training your little one in the near future, take a peek at my potty training checklist of things I would recommend getting together before you start.
