A day in the life of the potty training mom- San Diego Photographer

150 150 Hillary Lachman

So I rarely post non-photography related posts, however, I feel that you should know a little more about me… more then the little photo of me at the top and the “about me”… so you will be seeing some more posts about my life.. hope you don’t mind ๐Ÿ™‚ Who doesn’t like a random tangent every now and then?

In case you are new to my blog (um– where have you been all this time?!) you might not know much about me. ย I can fill you in later, but I have to mention I have a little 21 month old daughter named Lilly. Lillybug, Lill, monkey, LILLYANNAFAY (when she’s in trouble I call her by her full name) are the names we call her often…

Well, my little monkey has always been a little advanced in certain areas– she started talking (we started baby sign and she grasped that pretty quickly and then started talking soon after starting it) pretty early, walking was a little slower then some of her friends… but the most recent is her admiration of the potty.

Now if you are a parent, you totally get the expense in diapers. I am pretty green and am still upset I never did cloth but I figured she would potty train quickly and wouldn’t need diapers for TOO long. I hate throwing something so bad for the earth in the trash every day when I could use something and wash it! Oh well. Next baby. Anyway…

We bought Lilly a potty a while back and have kept one in each bathroom. She goes in before bath, when she gets up from naps, and whenever I would “remember” to put her on (I can get lazy you know…). Since moving her potty to the living room, she has been running to it saying “peepee” and sitting there (with her clothes on) so we decided to attempt potty training. ย Am I ready for this? How do I travel? What if we are in a long car ride and she has to pee and I can’t stop?! What if we go to dinner and she has to pee or has an accident? I know.. you just deal with it and carry a potty. It’s just a major change I haven’t grasped yet.

DAY 1: Tuesday August 24, 2010

Since I had been reading and hearing from friends about training, I heard you should let them be naked the first few days and let them feel the pee on their legs. Oh great. Pee on her legs means pee ALL OVER MY FLOOR! And I have carpet! So, she woke up in the morning and I told her we’re going to go peepee in the potty today and be naked. We went downstairs and she had her morning cup of almond milk and dose of Elmo and Mickey (hey… my tv issues are another post in the future) and soon said “peepee” and ran to the potty. Really?! This will be easy…so I thought lol. She then continued this cycle until she was sitting in her princess chair and started to pee. Oh great. Now what?! She said “uh oh!” and I said “oh no! Go finish peepee on the potty!” and she ran over and sat there and finished! Ok maybe I did something right?

Then she kept peeing in the potty the rest of the day. Meal times I put big girl undies on her and a cover and she stayed dry. Nap time she got a diaper. She still hadn’t pooped though and I was quite nervous for that. I couldn’t leave her from my sight all day. I had tons of emails from clients, orders to process (sorry guys ๐Ÿ™ ) and albums to design… but my baby had to have my full and complete attention. I couldn’t even go into my dining room and sew in fear she would pee somewhere and I wouldn’t see it. Is that normal?

I finally felt enough trust to let my husband stay with her for 20 minutes while I ran an errand. After spending more time (then the actual time I was going to be gone) telling him the plan and what to watch for, I left. I came home 20 minutes later and saw him scrubbing the floor and a bag full of poop ๐Ÿ™ What happened?!!? I’m still not sure but it was a big mess… and Daddy’s first “potty training alone time” didn’t go so well ๐Ÿ™ She then had bath, a diaper and bed. Phew.

We survived day 1 with much success in my opinion. Only 2 1/2 accidents which weren’t THAT bad. ย Onto day 2…

Day 2: Wednesday August 25, 2010

After my realization someone would have to stay with Lilly ALL DAY, and I had clients and appointments, I realized this is pretty stinkin hard! In the morning I let her be naked and she ran around and ran right to the potty to pee whenever she had to go. ย She started to pee a little on the sofa and realized she had an accident and jumped off and ran to the potty to finish. I think she is seeing the light at the end of the tunnel.

She did really well over at my moms– in transportation in a diaper (I am too scared to put her in panties in the car yet… suggestions about that??) she was dry which was awesome! My mom felt she was ready to try her big girl undies and soon realized as lilly was sitting on the potty saying “peepee” she hasn’t learned to pull those down yet! ๐Ÿ™

So my big excitement of the day… if you are a mom or dad who has dealt with potty training you will FULLY appreciate this. What’s so exciting? She realized when she had to poop BEFORE she pooped. She was full on playing and ran over to the potty and said “poopoo” and pooped RIGHT in the potty!!! I got tears in my eyes (not from the smell, but just the excitement!) that she got it. She is this smart little person who gets the fact that poop and pee go in that pink potty there.

Day 3: Wednesday August 26th, 2010

Hasn’t happened yet. Wish. ME. LUCK!

Oh and a few people have asked me about Pullups. I refuse to use them. I feel that they are just a money thing that the diaper companies have a huge profit on with extending the use of their product. They don’t help children realize (IN MY OPINION) that they are wet until a little later since it absorbs and I have seen friends kids have such long training periods with them. ย Maybe someone can give me a link for a natural/reusable easy to pull up and down type of underwear?

So that’s my experience so far. If you would leave a comment with a suggestion or something I would find useful with training or advice.. that would be SO helpful!

If you made it this far down the post– I am impressed. ย ๐Ÿ™‚

2 comments
  • Phyllis

    Special car seat cover in black fabric that is waterproof. Call or email Cheryl. She bought them at Babies R Us and you put in right on the seat, so if the baby pees, the carseat will not get wet at all. She bought me one for each of my grandchildren’s car seats. I do not recall what they are called and not expensive. Really a great invention.

  • Nakia

    I agree with you about pull-ups. They really aren’t that effective because toddlers still look at them as diapers.

    With my son, I was too nervous to try letting him run around naked (worried about pee & poop on my carpet, lol). I started out by putting him on the potty often (I think it was every 20 min or so) on the weekend. When he would go, we’d make a big deal out of it – cheering and so on. Once he recognized that feeling of needing to go, it made it alot easier to teach him to tell me when he needed the potty. Then I started bribing – lol. We had a “Potty Box”. I’d add change to it each time he went and then at the end of the week, we’d go to Target and pick up a cheap toy, usually a Hot Wheels car because they were only a dollar. At the time, I felt guilty about using bribes but he was completely potty trained in about two weeks.

    Good luck!

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