Sunday, February 1, 2009

Potty, Potty and More Potty

They always say you can potty train girls easier than boys, right?

I guess I have found that to be true since Payton has picked up on it so easily ... the only problem is that we have not been persistent enough. I hang my head in shame.

We introduced her to the potty several months ago. She has used the potty. She has signed for the potty. But not consistently. I guess it would have helped if we had been persistent.

But she did just turn 3 years old.

After we found out that Payton had Down syndrome, I guess I just expected that she would be potty trained later than a typical child. And I do still think that is true. I dunno ... I also think sometimes I don't give her the credit she deserves because I constantly have the words "developmental delay" coming at me from outside sources.

But I know she can do it. Even though she can't verbally tell me, she can tell me by patting her diaper, which is her sign for "potty". I think it sort of hit me this past week when I saw her diaper ... hanging essentially to her knees. She is a big girl now and big girls produce a higher volume of urine. We gotta get this girl potty trained!

So this weekend I set off to do just that.

I dragged her little potty into the kitchen and put her in a pair of her brother's barely worn undies that no longer fit him. Note to self: go to Target and buy some princess undies. We set the timer and took Payton to the potty every 30 minutes. She did great ... peed and even pooped in her potty ... but she also peed through two pair of underwear. Sigh.

So off with the underwear and back to the pull ups. I guess I figured we should get through our two days of 30 minute potty breaks before we needed to pull out the undies. She has really done awesome and has been signing "potty" in between potty breaks when she has had to go. She pooped three or four times this weekend and each time has been on the potty. Too much information, I know ... but whatever, this is a story about potty training. There was also one point that she was upstairs with Kyle and she got up on the big potty all by herself to do her thing. The only problem was she couldn't get off the potty ... but whatever, I think the fact that she took herself to the potty is amazing!

I'm sort of nervous about how this week will go since she'll be in school four mornings. I know her special needs school will be on this, but her typical preschool ... umm, perhaps not so much. We shall see. Persistence is key, after all.

So tomorrow I'm off to Target to buy some princess undies ... how exciting is that?!

22 comments:

  1. Very exciting! When Kallie turned 3 and went to preschool I put her in panties and never again put her in a pull up or diaper. Was the best thing I could do. She showed me no signs of readiness, I just wanted her potty trained! LOL Good luck!

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  2. That's totally AWESOME!! She'll do just fine at preschool, when she gets home put those panties back on and in now time she'll be potty trained!
    I'm so darn happy for you, and Payton!

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  3. That is awesome, Bethany! We're in exactly the same situation with Samantha--we haven't been consistent at all with her, and need to just hunker down for a weekend of undies (which we do have) and 30-minute intervals. My mom keeps telling the story of my grandmother coming to visit us one weekend when I was 2 and telling my mom off for not having potty trained me yet. So she did it herself, and I was trained that weekend. We've invited my mom to do just that, but have not gotten a response. LOL

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  4. It sounds like she is doing great with the potty training!

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  5. Yep, we're in the same place too. If I put her on the toilet she goes, and she COULD tell me, but doesn't. I guess somehow I've been hoping to wait until she was telling me in order to train her because that 30 minute thing just won't work at our house... Nor would a potty seat in the kitchen :) But I think we'll have to break down and start soon!

    Great job Payton!!

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  6. Great job Payton, your amazing.

    We have tried starting with Aden but he doesn’t like the potty or the toilet, he seem afraid of them. Sign. We are leaving it again for a month and try again.
    I’ve left the potty in the lounge room for now, hoping he will become familiar with it.

    Keep up the great work Mummy and Payton.

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  7. SO proud of her!!! Good luck with that, you'll have to tell me your secrets!!! Jaemen is making me crazy with the potty thing, I've given up for a while...lol I'm to lazy!

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  8. You go girl! Wanna come potty train Alana? I could use the help lmao.

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  9. Great job Payton!

    And hang in there mom...you can do it!! Yes, persistance IS the key. Never assume she can't do something until she PROVES she can't do it. I know the feeling of having the whole "developmentally delayed" stuff being thrown at you all the time, but I always try to tell myself that I will not assume she can't do something until she proves she can't.

    I kinda started potty training Kaia by accident. I wanted to wait until school was out for my oldest so that I had nowhere to go and could just stay at home and work on it. But at the beginning of June a couple summers ago (3 weeks before she turned 3, and almost a month before school was out) she all of a sudden decided she did not want to wear her diaper at all. So she kinda made the decision for me. We went straight to underwear and never looked back. I, personally, don't like pull-ups, I find they impede the process. The first 4 or 5 days we had TONS of accidents, but I just kept on trucking. Every day the accidents became less and less, and I remained more stubborn than her. I refused to stop trying figuring if I did then it would be much harder later on. And after about a week it got better. After 3 weeks I was confident in saying she was potty trained. She couldn't tell me when she needed to go, BUT, she would say yes or no whenever I asked her. So I just asked her all the time and took her if it had been awhile since she last went. So maybe *I* was the one one who was trained....whatever, I wasn't changing diapers and that's what mattered!! After about 2 months I'd say was when she started initiating.

    I say with her typical pre-school...send her in underwear. If she pees, then they will learn pretty quickly that they need to be on the ball and start taking her! LOL

    Good luck to you!!! I'm cheering for you guys all the way! I'm right there with you with my youngest and I HATE HATE HATE IT!

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  10. whohoo! princess undies for a little princess :)

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  11. She's got it down, Bethany! Stick with it-persistance! And yes, send her to preschool with 2-3 pair of underwear and pants and they will do it with you! Good luck. I can't wait for 3 weeks from now when you say she is officially "potty trained"--Go, Payton, go!

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  12. YAY Payton! Can I ship Karli to you??? :)

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  13. WTG! Sounds like she's off to a great start.

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  14. That is awesome!! I too am not persistant at all. Ella has been pooping on the potty for a few months now, I bet if I worked on the pee thing she would do it but she's only 2 1/2, Hunter wasn't potty trained till after his 3rd b-day (when HE decided he would do it.)

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  15. You are WELL on your way! Em does great as long as I remind her when she is busy doing something she REALLY doesn't want to be interupted during!

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  16. You are WELL on your way! Em does great as long as I remind her when she is busy doing something she REALLY doesn't want to be interupted during!

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  17. Woops, was signed in with the wrong account when I first posted, now I can't figure out how to delete the first one! Sorry for mucking up your comments!

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  18. Best of Luck! WE are still trying really hard over here! Making progress slowly! Let me know if you find anything that just WORKS so well!

    ps: gave you a bloggy award! Check it out!

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  19. Wow! Keep up the good work. Sounds like she is doing awesome!

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  20. We are working on this too with Joshua! Way to go Payton! I wish he had the pooping part down but he will pee every time I take him.

    I've been meaning to ask someone...but how do you cross out words in your posts? I can't figure it out:)
    Wendy

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  21. yeah i understand since we havent been persistant either. =( wich makes me sad becaue Elias is going to be 4 next month and I have waist too much time thinking he cant, when the reality is that i dont know if he can.

    Next august Elias will go to another preschool where they wont change diapers, so , Im against the clock

    so dont let your time goes fast, and let pass another year

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