Fail!

Okay, only read this if you are interested in ready a lot about my failed attempt to potty train. I will just start out by saying that I knew it would be really hard but I obviously thought I would be successful. I will also say that I still believe in the 3 day potty training method but Gabby was not ready. The author talks about signs of readiness but I just thought if I trained her she would just do it. I think with a less stubborn child and a child who was less of a scardy cat probably could have done it even without showing signs of readiness.

Day 1: 9:30 the diaper comes off and the underwear comes on. I got a late start. I slept in that day, I was kind of procrastinating the whole thing. All of her underwear were ginormous and I had to bring them all in (that should have been my first clue). So basically you go straight to underwear day and night. You have them wear just the underwear and a shirt. This is so you can more easily catch every accident. So the idea is you give them all the power. You never go have them try to go. You just sit and wait. You also constantly watch them like a hawk and say "tell mommy when you need to go potty" about a thousand times a day. Or things like, "good job keeping your underwear dry, tell mommy when you need to go potty." So for 4 days when it wasn't nap time or bedtime Gabby was within a few feet of me all day. If she went into her bedroom I went into her bedroom. If I went in the laundry room I took Gabby with me into the laundry room. When they eventually have an accident you are supposed to catch it and rush them to the bathroom. Gabby was so sneaky and quick that even when she was right in front of my face I would miss it while it was actually happening. This process is incredibly annoying and taxing I must say. The only way it's even possible with 2 other children is because my other 2 children are must less demanding anyway. It kind of works out to have your most demanding child need to have all of your attention. It was the most difficult when I needed to nurse Piper. I would try to get Gabby to sit by me and read stories or watch a show. If Gabby had an accident I would stop nursing and put Piper down and rush her to the bathroom. You can't do anything during this process. It's difficult to do a task as easy as cleaning up the breakfast dishes. I waited until nap time and I exercised and got showered for the day. Nap time was my happy place.

I try to train my children on the big potty from the beginning. I don't like the idea of a small potty chair. I think they are gross and take up way too much room in my small bathroom. I should have known better than to try to make Gabby do this however. She was absolutely terrified of sitting on the toilet. In fact she is terrified of riding in a grocery cart too. Anyway after an accident I would rush her to the toilet and try to sit her down and she would scream and straighten her legs. It was no good. Finally on day 3 I borrowed the toilet seat that you put on the toilet. This did not help. By day 4 I borrowed a potty chair. She would actually sit on this but she never went pee in it. Can you tell it was a long 4 days? One in which I did a lot of laundry and cleaned up a lot of accidents. That being said she absolutely did learn over those days. She learned great bladder control. She didn't want to go to the bathroom so she would hold it forever. She would also know when it was going to happen so she learned how the whole thing worked but she just did not want to go in the toilet. I think it was too scary for her, even on the little toilet. One time she started to go potty and she started to cry and say "Uh oh, pee!" It was so cute and sad at the same time.

It was hard giving her rewards because she never once in 4 days even got one ounce of potty in the toilet. But I would do things like feel her underwear and feel they were dry and say "good job keeping your underwear dry," and give her a treat. Or I would give her a treat after sitting on the toilet even for a second. I think if I would have stuck with it longer maybe she would have gotten over it and finally peed in the toilet but it wasn't worth it. By Thursday I was done, during her nap I decided it was time to end it so I busted out her big reward treat and Scott, Corbin, and I ate it. I put on a diaper at 4:00 and decided to take my life back.

Even though Gabby was scared to use the bathroom I think the whole experience was pretty positive for her. She obviously got a ton of mommy time. She got rewards and snacks and tons of juice. I'm hoping that this will just make it so when she is ready that she will be trained very quickly. But I could be wrong about that too.

By Thursday I was so defeated and exhausted. I told Scott that it felt like I was in my college Genetics class all over again. I tried so hard in that class. I got a tutor and worked my tail off and I still failed the class. I got an F before I ever got a C, I still haven't gotten a C before. Anyway this felt like the same thing, I was trying so hard and I felt like I was doing everything right and I was failing! I feel like I wasted 4 days of my life and maybe a few years off my life. That's okay though, sometimes its good to have hard experiences where you fail. In the end it's about Gabby and she has to do it, and she just wasn't ready. The end!