We got a potty a few months ago and tried it a couple times, but Avery just wasn't ready. In the last month, she tells us every time she is going to the bathroom in her diaper, she wants us to change the diaper as soon as she goes, and she is normally dry after a nap. So, since I have been off this week, we thought it would be a good opportunity to start the training off again.
I hate that it's so cold, but we have gone by the "nothing on the bottom method." We attempted to let her wear big girl panties, but Sunday she went tee-tee in them twice. We just thought it wasn't enough of a difference to allow her to know she needed to use the actual potty. She didn't really want to get on the potty at first. I assumed it was because she didn't like being on the big potty so I went and got her a little potty. That doesn't work at all. She thinks its a toy and hasn't gone on it yet. But by Monday, she started really catching on. She went in the potty twice and got her M&Ms, so we were happy about that. Monday night, we had people over for New Years. Tuesday, we just didn't care to try. Wednesday, we went to the museum. So, I was hoping we didn't just start over today. Well, this morning, it took her a few tries, but she actually went in the potty. And I mean, poo-poo. She was SO proud of herself! Before she went down for her nap today, she has gone at least 5 times, telling us each time when she needed to go! She even came running out of our room to us going, "Mommy, I need to go tee-tee!" and held it until she sat down. I really think the M&Ms and positive reinforcement is what's doing it. She loves being praised and even told me "Good job Mommy!" for going to the potty today. (I think we all need some praise for small things once in a while, ha!)
I think we will go two days bare-bottomed, then try panties again on Saturday. She can't go bare-bottomed forever, and she really needs to go to church and daycare next week, so we will see how that goes. I really hate to ever compare dogs to children, but in this instance, I really think it's almost exactly the same. When I potty trained Bella, it was the same. I started taking her outside about ever 30 minutes and then less and less until she got the hang of it. It took about a week, and we had some accidents. I was tired of taking her out so much, and it's the same way with Avery. I have to make sure she tries to go every 30 minutes to an hour. Most of the time, she will tell me, but I can't trust her just quite yet. We had a couple accients. Just like with Bella. So, I am not frustrated with it. It takes time. It took time for Avery to know how to eat with a spoon, it took her a while to learn to crawl and walk, why should potty training be any different? Although, I will say that I am happy that we haven't forced her before she is ready. I don't want Avery getting frustrated, and she really loves that she is doing it well.
We will see how things go, come Monday morning!
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