Sunny 9 for 2007 November 16 (entry 0)

(3) Fri Nov 16 2007 23:10 I can do it myself, I'm a big kid now: I wish I could have put the last couple days and the next ones coming in fast forward. I have begun potty training again with Lily. Going through this has made me second guess whether or not I want more children. I would rather gnaw my arm off than potty train. I will say that Lily is doing loads better than the original attempt. I see a pinhole of light at the end of the tunnel.

So basically my sister in law Hailey swears by the DVD Potty Power, so I checked it out from the library. Lily watched it over and over and then again and again and a little more. So with the combination of Lily's enthusiasm and Gunnar now having croup and us being homebound because of that I decided that I should multi-task and try and get through this potty training thing while Lily was still showing interest and me having to be home anyway.

The first day Lily woke up and I put the DVD on for her and afterwards we did the "say goodbye to diapers, bye-bye" schtick in the show. (Aaron and I have all the songs memorized by now.) She was really into saying goodbye to diapers that she did not want to wear one that night for bed. I also tried to talk her into wearing a diaper for her nap but my sister Aly called during our standoff and she urged me to take a chance on her not peeing while she was asleep so Lily could get used to being in panties and having her newfound independence. She also told me I am potty training and thinking of ways that were counterproductive for Lily in hopes of not having to clean up more human waste that I had to were, ugh, just that- counterproductive. I followed her sage advice and to my absolute shock, Lily did not wet the bed during her nap. Wahoo!

But I digress, back to saying goodbye to diapers. I put her in big girl princess panties and a shirt only. I wanted to know right away when she had an accident. I then proceeded to ask her every 5 minutes to sit on the potty chair. (We brought the chair onto the entry way tile--hey, she said she wanted it in the family room and not the bathroom.) She would pretend to go potty and then 2 seconds later say all done- whatever. It was so tedious and frustrating and boring all at the same time. FINALLY! Lily said she had to go potty and she sat on the chair and then said I am done a couple seconds later. I went in and looked and saw she had gone like a tablespoon. I was so ecstatic. I was so proud of her and gave her a treat and let her put a sticker on her chart. While I went into the bathroom to clean up her bowl I came back and Lily exclaimed she went potty again. I looked into the chair and sure enough. She went a ton! I was so happy even though she peed into the chair part and not the bowl. Who cares if I had to wash out the chair. My daughter went pee pee in the potty chair all by herself! It was awesome and it only took 2 hours, ha.

We had a minor setback when I had to take Gunnar to the Dr. because I was really getting nervous about his breathing. His chest was compressing so much and he was really wheezing. I wasn't surprised when the Dr said he had croup because Lily just had it last week and it was a matter of time. I was just glad he didn't have pneumonia or something. While we were at the Dr's I encouraged Lily to tell me when she had to go potty, and of course right when I said that she said she had to go. Just great. I took her into the restroom and tried helping her while holding Gunnar. Of course she had to do it herself and while trying to get on the toilet she fell in and got her jacket wet. (I wanted to cease and desist training right then and there. Why must I endure such torture was all I could think.) of course she was just pretending (or was she?) that she had to go potty because right after she sat down she said "all done". Literally 5 minutes after that she peed her pants. Nice. At least the training pants I put on her before we left contained the problem mostly.

Then we had the victory of staying dry during nap that I already mentioned. She went again on the pot before Aaron got home and after he came home we went to Chuck E Cheese to celebrate as a reward for Lily.

Today, the second day of potty training, we got off to a rocky start. She wet herself at preschool (not surprising), but stayed dry again for her nap. Then she got caught up in playing and I got too lax in asking her to sit on her chair that she wet herself again after her nap. Again I was in a crushing depression that this was never going to end, but then things looked up after she went in the potty all by herself. She still hasn't gone #2 in there but she knows that she gets to help put the gingerbread house together that I bought and we get to go to Chuck E Cheese again after she goes #2 in the pot. I think she is scared to since yesterday she held it until we put her pull ups on for bed and tonight she didn't go at all.

Hopefully she will be a pro by the time Thanksgiving Break is over because I don't know how many more days I have to stay home and ask every 5 minutes for her to try again. She does love prancing around in her panties though and I wonder if I can ever get her to wear pants again!

Another note of my bad week, yesterday I was trying to light the grill and finally it lit with a poof and when I sat down at the table Aaron exclaimed that I singed my bangs, eyebrows, and eyelashes. Wonderful! I love having curly strays and no eyelashes. And to top it off I did it again today except I singed my hand hair only. My hand is still tender. Gotta love the curve balls of life.

Comments:

Posted by Rachel at Sat Nov 17 2007 03:23

Wow, it is so much easier with kittens! hmm... Maybe I will stick with those

my mom did that once with the bbq.

Posted by Jenni at Sat Nov 17 2007 14:32

Ok, you're having way better luck than me at this potty training thing...Caden loves the Potty Power DVD--knows all the songs by heart (Josh and I do too--we can all sing it at Chrsitmas this year instead of CHristmas carols) but still no stopping to use the potty. Ugh. ANd watch it with the eyelashes--my stomach litteraly cringed at the thought of singing off eyelashes...hope you're ok!!!

Posted by John at Sat Nov 17 2007 15:15

I'll make sure to have Susie potty train Maggie during busy season....