The cost of doing 'bizness'
Yes, only insanity convinced me to start potty training Bella the day after Christmas! I honestly thought it would be one huge mess, but I went into with that mindset, which helped me relax, I had no idea whether she would really get it at all! She is our wildcard for sure. She has done amazing! We were so surprised. I had been saying for weeks: 'next week you are going to learn to go potty like a big girl....' and those weeks turned into months...So finally we just started. Here is what we did:
1. took a more laid back approach than the 'boot camp' we did with Sophia, which had us trying to 'force' her to go by sitting her on the potty half the day (it wasn't that bad but I remember the first day we learned what NOT to do. Sophia got it pretty quick, and never wore pull ups or anything after stopping the diapers)
2. we knew we would still put pull ups on at nap and night. the goal was to get her used to the feeling of going.
3. we juiced her up. our girls usually get juice (diluted) once a day. I gave her whatever I knew she would drink a lot of all day long for 4 days (tapering off towards the 4th day). She peed SO MUCH and got the 'feeling' very quickly.
4. we gave GOOD prizes. at first it was two M&Ms, then it was 'gummies'. She also got a sticker on her chart.
5. we pulled up the rugs, but it wasn't really necessary.
6. Our world concentrated on this but did not revolve around it, there was no way it could. We asked her a lot if she had to go and did not make her. Once she 'got the hang of it' it was just a matter of making it in time, most of the time she did.
7. Going #2 took more practice, but she now pretty much has the hang of it too. We have been accident free for many days now.
8. She now gets prizes for having a dry pull up at nap or night, which she often does. During our 'mad' week last week I forgot to put pull ups on at nap 2x and she did not have an accident.
Day one was incredible! This was by like noon, yes, her bladder was working real hard!
She only had 1-2 accidents a day (of course some of those were doosies!), and then on day 5 she had zero. She is pretty much potty trained! Whew! Congrats girl, a big milestone in the life of a two year old!
