Our Potty Training Experience

Potty training is for me one of the hardest things in raising your toddler :-) If you are patient, here you need to have tons and tons of patience. When our daughter turned two I was looking for signs that she is ready for potty training. Among the signs are those I read in books and from other Mommies like telling you that she needs to go, if she acts like she's holding back, and also if she will squat on the sides. I've seen those signs already so I bought her a potty. The one I bought has a lid that is very hard to open. Even myself will use two hands to open it. She did not like using it. I decided to replace it with one that will make a sound when she uses and is easy to open to encourage her to sit on the potty.

I tried to encourage her to use the potty but because we always go out I wasn't able to focus on training her. We also went to the Philippines for a short vacation so the training went into a halt. When we got back here we got busy preparing for hubby's deployment. When hubby left I met some friends and we got together a lot that the training is just impossible to pushed through. In November I started potty training again. I noticed that even though she is going she is holding it because she kind of scared to pee on the potty. I did not forced her to and just waited if she is more ready.

By the end of the December when we're mostly at home, I tried my best to focus and set aside days to train her. I know she is very ready because she will tell me she wanted to potty but my problem was how to encourage her to let go in the potty instead of her diaper. One day I did not put diaper on her. I told her if she wants to do nos. 1 and 2 she needs to let me know. But instead she will tell me she needs diaper because she needed it. So at her cue I brought her to the bathroom. She insisted to have a diaper but I did not let her. She was sitting on her potty and she also asked me to sit on the toilet so I did. Then suddenly I heard the potty music went off signaling that she peed. The first time she peed on it she had the shock look on her face and when I look at it, it was half full :-) I clapped my hands, hugged her and told her great job. She was very happy as well and said "I did it Mommy".

She only did once on the potty and on her undies twice that day. During the night I put diaper on her. The next days showed an improvement. She went back to the potty many times but only peed twice in there the whole day. It will really test your patience. As days progresses, the potty training also went well. She peed on the potty more often but won't do no. 2 in there. That was my second problem. How to let her do no. 2 on the potty.

Early this year I was coaxing her to poop in her potty when I sensed that she need to. The first time that she successfully went no. 2 in her potty was when I left her alone in the bathroom. I told her that I know she wanted to go and she can only get up when she is done. I was watching her from the sides, observing her without her knowing. I went back to the computer and then I heard she was calling me. She got up and told me she have some "nom, nom, nom" in the potty. I was laughing by her description and true enough she succeeded.

Right now I would say she is doing great. When we are at home she is no longer wearing a diaper. I started not putting a diaper on her already and so far we had two accidents happened. The first one was during the second night she was diaper-less but I was glad I was able to caught it before she totally made us wet. I let her up and she finished in her potty. The second accident happened last night. I supposed to let her up around 1am. But I was late and before I knew it she was done already. I put a thick towel on her side of the bed so changing the bedding was not necessary.

During day time that we're out, I still let her wear diaper but surprisingly she will ask me to go to the bathroom instead of using her diaper. I even told her to use her diaper since we are in the store but she will wait until we get home to pee. Her diaper is always dry and she'll take it off when we get home. I am very proud of how fast she learned. I think because I waited for her to be totally ready. Although it is tiring to always accompany her to the bathroom every time she will say she need to potty but you need to be more patient and showed them your support. I am all praises at her every time. She love hearing it over and over and it encourages her to go to the potty when she needs it.

My goal of having her potty trained before her 3rd birthday is showing some success. I am very happy that she is also showing independence now of going to the potty by herself. She still need time to be totally potty trained, no accidents, but right now I am satisfied of how much she accomplished. It maybe hard but it's worth your sacrifice in training her when you see the fruit of it. It's very fulfilling and you can't help it but be amazed.