Potty Training - Take 1

Potty Training – Getting Ready

Not too long after Hannah was born, Vanessa came home form work one day and told me about 3 day potty training. A guy at work had tried it and said it worked. We read through the instructions several times and it sounded great. I had heard from a couple of people that it worked for them as well. The internet is full of success stories. We followed the directions and did all of the right stuff leading up to the start.

Two weeks before starting, we took her to the mall. It was “Big Girl Day”. We went to 4 or 5 stores and had her pick out panties. She was very excited.

Potty Training Day 1

Well, I was in Pheonix the morning of day 1, but this is based on what I heard when calling home and once I got home. Vanessa had some sort of conversation which Hannah about being a “Big Girl ” and learnging to use her toilet. I called around 9:30 in the morning to see how things were going. Hannah helped throw out all of her diapers. She had on her first pair of Big Girl pantines and it was time to start. I called home aorund noon. Hannah had just gone pee pee in the potty for the first time. I was so excited! I was also in a suburban full of executives from work. I tried to convey as much excitement to Hannah over the phone without everyone in the car thinking I was insane about the potty.

During the day Hannah went through around 20 pairs of panties. Mostly just very small leaks where she realized she was going pee and then stopped.

I got home at 5pm. From then until 9pm Hannah went pee pee 3 times. She went in the toilet the first time. We clapped, jumped up and down, gave her high-fives, and called Grandma and Grandpa Chatigny. She had a little accident, but finished on the toilet the 2nd time. Then she made it to the toilet the 3rd time. Fantastic!!! This was going to be great.

Potty Training Day 2

The instructions say to wake them up a couple of times during the night and have them sit on the toilet. We opted not to do this. I set the alarm for 5:30 am. The instructions say to get them up a little before they normally wake up since most kids empty their bladder shortly after waking up. I woke Hannah up. She was dry! I was so excited that she made it throught the night without peeing! Yes! This was going great! She said she didn’t have to pee, so we sat on the couch and I gave her some juice. By 9:00 she still hadn’t peed. She was visably uncofortable and was holdinhg her panties saying, “peep, peep” while walking around on her tip toes. We tried a couple of different things. I then suggested we put her in the bath. Hey… it works for me. She was excited about the bubble bath, but then flipped out once she was inside. She started screaming and crying. She didn’t want to pee.

Sure enough a couple of seconds later she peed. We we very excited for her and told her repeatedly, “Good job!” and, “It’s okay!”. She was not happy. Still crying and screaming. We took her out of the bath. Throughout the day, she continued to hold her pee. She would sit on the toilet for 2 seconds and say, “all done”, but nothing was in the potty.

At nap time, she would lay down, say, “peep”, get up ,run over to the potty, sit down, say “all done”, then head back to bed. Then repeat it 20 times. She never did take a nap. Throughout the day she was walking on her tip toes, hold her pee, crying, and saying “peep, peep”. It was heartbreaking. We couldn’t get her to go pee.

At some point in the afternoon, she was running down the hallway (tiptoes, holding her pee in, yelling “ppep”). She peed on the floor while running, slipped in it, fell on her back and hit her head. No good. Big contusion on her back and a bump on her head. Follow that by lots of crying. The rest of the day didn’t get any better. When it was time to go to bed, it was a repeat of nap time.

By 11:00 pm we had had it. Too much stress. Hannah was freaking out. Vanessa and I agreed to put her back in a diaper. We still had 5 in a diaper bag in the car. She ended up falling asleep in our bed while Vanessa held her. We never let her sleep in our bed.

Potty Training Day 3 (aka Un-Potty Training Day 1)

Hannah woke up with the same dry diaper we put on her the night before. Hmm. The morning ws a repeat of the previous day. Holding pee, walking on tip toes, crying “peep, peep”, screaming, etc. The shower trick didn’t work this time. Nothing was working. I offered to take her to Disneyland if she peed. I even offered to buyer her a house. She didn’t take me up on the offer.

At 10 am, 11 hours after putting on a diaper and around 14 hours from her last pee, she finally let it go, although it was still against her will. She completely flooded through one diaper including covering my shirt, shorts, and the floor. I was so happy I could care less. We cheered and celebrated. She was not happy. 10 minutes later she flooded through a second diaper. Wow! That was a lot of pee.

We immediately put her down for a nap. While she was sleeping, we decided we would take her to Disneyland for the rest of the day. The idea was to get her mind off of the peeing thing. We went to Disneyland and went on Jungle Cruise. She loved it. Next we stopped to eat. That didn’t work out so well. She started holding, crying, yelling “peep”, and walking on her tip toes again. Vanessa took her to the bathroom, but Hannah didn’t pee. After she came back, we switched. I took her for a walk. She was so uncomfortable and stressing out. She wouldn’t pee in her diaper.
There wasn’t anything we could do. We kept taking her on rides. King Authors’ Carousel, Dumbo, Casie’s Circus Train, and Nemo. When we got to the front of the line in Nemo, she finally let go and filled her diaper to the brim again. Her diaper held through the ride. We changed her afterwards. Went on Small World, then headed home.

Thngs didn’t get any better last night. Still holding. Had to fall asleep in our bed. Woke up at 11:30pm, 3:30 am, and 4:30 am. Thank you Vanessa! You are the best.

She was still holding today, but it doesn’t seem quite as bad. Not sure where to go from here. We will see how things go for the next couple of days/weeks. Play it by ear.