The Potty Chronicles

Warning to readers: this post is entirely about Eleanor learning to use the big potty. If you do not want to read about this, please read no further. I will not include any additional funny stories that you will be missing if you do not read this. I am posting this so that I can remember how it went and I don't have to keep up with the little pieces of paper I wrote these notes down on...

So, if you haven't heard yet, Eleanor is potty trained. She is 18 months old, and we were completely out of diapers by 17.5 months. This is pretty incredible to me, since Mia, and most other kids I know are twice this age before this is accomplished. I would say that there are ups and downs to having a potty trained toddler. Some ups are that I no longer have to wash diapers, spray out poop, carry a diaper bag, haul home stinky ones, in general no longer have to deal with the ickiness of diapers, and also a tiny toddler tush is sooooooo much cuter in tiny little underpants than in a huge bulky cloth diaper. The downsides are that I have to carry a little potty seat everywhere we go because she doesn't like to sit on the big toilet seats in public facilities (and who does, really?), we make a lot of 'dry runs' when she is bored or just doesn't want to go to bed, we have had to leave our basket and quickly proceed to the front of the store many times just to have a dry run, I once stood in line for 15 mintues to get a taco at Whole Foods only to have her say "potty" so we had to run to the bathroom, not go, then I had to start all over in line : (. And, once when she was super tired but I knew she needed to go potty before she went to bed I ended up kneeling in front of the toilet with my hands resting on the back of it, nursing her while she sat on the potty. At least we were at home for this one, but I had to laugh since surely that is something that could only to happen to a person who was potty training their toddler!

We decided to go into this after talking to another mama friend who had sucessfully potty trained both of her boys by 17 months. Her theory is that at this young age it is just a skill that they learn, like talking, eating with a spoon, etc, and so if you present it like that, like "this is how we use a potty, this is what we do now" that they will be excited to learn to do it, as opposed to when they are older and it becomes an emotional/control issue. I will say that we did all of this without the use of rewards, candy, stickers, anything! Just a "good girl for using the potty, that is just what we do!" when she would go! Anyhow, here are the chronicles of how it went!

Week 1, Day 1: 4 floor puddles, no potty
Day 2: 2 1/2 puddles (she stopped it in the middle), 2 going in the potty (she came and brought me to show me one puddle)
Day 3: Woke up dry, morning potty, drive to Waller dry, use potty when we got to Memaw's house. Rest of the day in a diaper
Day 4: Woke up dry, use morning potty. Tell me "poo poo" we went and sat on the potty and she let out a toot, and told me "poo poo" when her diaper was wet.
Day 5: Woke up dry, sat on the potty without going.

Then we took a break. We had a ton of stuff going on, re-siding the house, traveling, going back and forth to Waller, it was just too much to also have a baby running around potty-ing on everything, so we went back to diapers for a couple of months. This time here is how we are going:

Day 1: 3 puddles and 1 floor poop, used the potty before bed.
Day 2: 1 morning puddle, 4 potty pee pees (each time starting a few drops and then telling me "uh oh poo poo!" and stopping, then we run to the potty and finish going. 1 poo poo on the floor.
Day 3:
Day 4: Used the potty in the morning, drove to Waller dry, used potty at Memaw's house. Went to eat and stayed dry. That night she kept saying, "poo poo" and we made at least 20 trips to the bathroom with nothing happening. Finally she was about to poop on the floor and I caught her in time and ran her to the bathroom and she went in the potty.
Day 5: I think pooping in the potty scared her a bit, because after last night I can't get her to sit on the potty again. Lots of puddles on the floor.
Day 6: (aargh! I already lost the paper I took notes on for these days. I'll have to update this when I find it.
Day 7:
Day 8:Pretty much no sitting on the potty at all, she would say potty, then I'd take her and she would arch her back and not sit down. I almost gave up, but then realized that if I did give up I'd just have to start over in another week or month or year and it wasn't going to be somehow easier then than it was now, so I just kept reminding her that diapers were for night night time and we went on the potty during the daytime, and she kept making puddles on the floor.
Day 9: Same
Day 10: took some convincing to get her back on the potty, but being at home and having her little cushy potty seat back worked wonders, and she went potty twice this day, and sat on the potty a couple more times.
Day 11: Still waking up dry from overnights, goes potty when she wakes up. she stays either naked or in panties during the day, and we didn't have any accidents.
Day 12: She wakes up dry, I take off her diaper while we are laying in bed. She pops up after a minute and says, "Potty!" we run in and she goes poo poo and pee pee. About 30 minutes later she calls out "Potty!" again and high tails it into the bathroom and goes again! This day we spent at friends' and she wore panties all day,even in the car with no accidents. She went multiple times at their house, and stayed dry during her nap.
Day 13: Woke up dry, went in the potty when she woke up, and again before church. We put her in a diaper for church just in case, but she was dry when I picked her up and she went when I took her to the bathroom after church. She tried to go twice at lunch at Whole Foods but they ended up being dry runs (that cost me my place in line at the taco bar!) but no accidents. She woke up with a wet diaper from her nap today, but went in the potty when she woke up. We went to Leah and Taylor's for dinner and while Rex and I were gone she told Leah "Potty" and went when Leah took her. We came home and she poo pooed on the potty again.

So now we are about a month in, and here are some updates...
We road tripped to Louisiana for our family reunion at Toledo Bend, a 6 hour trip with no accidents! She has had one accident this month in the car, and only once woken up with a slightly wet diaper. It is hard to believe, but we are totally out of diapers!!! Amazing.