Potty Training Attempt #17

I decided to get serious about potty training. Again.

So, yesterday morning, we got started.

Britt's potty chair had been banished to the garage because the only interest she had in it was using it as a step stool to reach things I'd put up out of her reach. I brought it in and polished it up and plunked it down in the middle of the living room, and told Britt that I wanted her to start peeing and pooping in it.

She said no. And then she crossed her arms and went "Hmph!"

I took her wet overnight diaper off and decided to leave her bare-assed. I told her that if she needed to pee or poop, she just needed to sit on the potty and do it.

She wasn't going for the potty chair or for the butt-naked thing; she laid on the couch bleating like a dying calf. And occasionally hollering, "Diaper! Diaper!"

Already my plan was going off the rails, not even 15 minutes into it. We compromised on a pair of big-girl panties if she would tell me when she needed to potty. And...

It worked! Well, she still won't have anything to do with her potty chair, but I put the potty seat on the toilet and she tells me she needs to go and I pull her panties down and set her up there and she goes. About every 20 minutes.

But she flat-out refused to poop in the toilet. No, no way, not happening. I was afraid of losing the little bit of progress we'd made (because we've been this far before), so I put a diaper on her and let her poop, then put her back in panties. And she only peed in her pants twice yesterday.

Whew! So far, so good.

Today it was more of the every-20-minutes peeing, and this morning she pooped in the toilet! She had a couple of accidents today and she did her afternoon poop in her panties (which is way worse than cleaning up poop in a diaper), but we're heading in the right direction.

I knew her poop schedule already, but I had no idea she was peeing so often. I'm thinking maybe I should cut down on her fluid intake, because she's obviously a well-hydrated child. And she can't pull down her own pants or hoist herself up on the toilet yet, so less peeing would be great for me.

Also, the wiping thing. Her arms are too short to reach her poony from the back and her legs are too fat for her to reach between them from the front, so we'll have to work on that.

But Britt's into it, so that's half the battle right there. This afternoon the cat came in to use his litter box while we were sitting in the bathroom. We listened to him pee, then Britt started clapping and went "Yay! Good!" just like I do with her.