Our first ever potty-training journey was not planned. One day this past week, while lounging with my 18-month-old daughter in her room, I simply decided to whip out her flashy, “flushable” kid’s toilet and give it a whirl.
I wasn’t armed with any significant knowledge about potty-training; however, I had heard somewhere or another that it was best to block off your schedule for a few days and hunker down at home. Peering ahead at my schedule for that week, I concluded that I had the perfect 3-day window available! Not to mention, I was battling a lingering cough from the previous week’s cold and had no desire to be out and about.
Green light!
So there I was, stripping my daughter down to her birthday suit and plopping her onto this foreign, plastic contraption—cheering her on like it was the coolest thing she’d ever do in her life! Lo and behold, her first few droplets collided ever-so-tenderly with the two metal sensors below, causing her toilet to erupt in cheers of its own!
I snapped a quick photo of her as she curiously and proudly examined her “pee-pee” for the first time, and then I fastened her back into her diaper. I set the kitchen timer to try again in 10 minutes—not really knowing what I had just committed myself (and my husband) to.
I continued on this way for the majority of the morning until my daughter went down for a nap. While she was napping, I casually reached out to a close friend to ask about her personal experience with potty-training. She jokingly said, “Hide yo rugs. Hide yo shoes.”
Uh, wait a minute…why?
Why would there be any need to hide anything if I was keeping my daughter in diapers whenever she wasn’t directly on the potty?
Come to find out, nixing diapers completely in between potty sessions was a non-negotiable element of the 3-Day Potty Training Method that worked for her daughter. Well, if it worked for her daughter, then by golly, it was going to work for mine!
So, after my daughter woke up from her nap, the diaper came off. And that’s when the true fun began for this sick and pregnant mama. I won’t say it has been easy, but I will say I’ve learned (and continue to learn) a lot. My goal in writing this is simply to preserve and share some of the lowlights, highlights, and laughable moments of our potty-training adventure thus far! So without further ado, here they are! Be frightened, encouraged and entertained all at once!
Lowlights
- Bending over a million times while pregnant to clean up pee accidents all over the floor. I’m not exaggerating—a million times.
- Sitting on the hard ridge of the bathtub for countless minutes of the day waiting for my daughter to exercise her blossoming, God-given bodily functions (I genuinely think I bruised my butt bones)
- Being confined to the house for 3 days straight.
- Having to say “Pee-pee goes in the potty” like a broken record all day.
- Wiping down my daughter's legs and feet (and sometimes mine) after each accident.
- Coughing and sneezing so relentlessly throughout those 3 days that my pregnant bladder caused some minor accidents of its own (Is that TMI?)
- Waking up and realizing I had to do the same thing ALL OVER AGAIN.
- Venturing out of the house to go to Chick-Fil-A on the evening of day 3. I arrived right before the dinner rush and the only spot left was at the threshold of the drive-through (surely to be blocked upon my departure). Little did I know there would be a gaggle of college students at this particular location that night, forming a line that felt longer than the wall of China to a mom on her first outing with a potty-training toddler. I basically swallowed my food whole, while checking my daughter’s pants every 2 seconds. Then, I tried to take her to use the regular-sized potty, thinking she’d get it. Wrong. So as I’m gearing up to go get my refill and rush home, I realize one of my daughter’s shoes is missing. Thankfully, a college girl found it by our table and brought it to me! (Phew!) I got to the car—still no accidents—and tried to make my daughter go pee-pee on her toilet in the back seat (my car was now blocked by an impenetrable line of drive-through customers). After about 20 minutes and no pee in sight, I threw up my white flag and strapped her into her car seat. I hopped into the driver’s seat and managed to knock over my sweet tea (at that point, I may or may not have lost it and had to reassure my daughter that I wasn’t yelling at her). A drive-through customer was nice enough to let me back out of my spot—the only catch being that I had to wait behind the entire sea of drive-through customers ahead of me in order to exit (I thought about ordering an Ice Dream at that point, but then decided against it). I spent the whole car ride home gently reminding Avery that “Pee-pee goes in the potty”. So naturally, I expected her to be dry as a desert when we got home. Wrong again. Her panties and car-seat were soaked. (Wow, that was a long lowlight—but it was definitely one of the lowest, most anxiety-ridden moments of my entire potty-training experience at the time)
Highlights
- Witnessing my daughter start to make the connection between needing to pee and heading towards the potty.
- Getting to spend intentional time with my daughter by reading many books, singing many songs, and sitting on a single bath towel together for hours because I was too anxious to let her roam around the house.
- Feeling so stinkin’ proud of the progress she made from day 1 to day 3.
- My daughter being able to sleep through her 2-hour nap without wetting her panties as well as through the night without wetting her diaper (It’s amazing how fast their little bodies can develop control!)
- Seeing my husband join me to cheer her on whenever she had a successful trip to the potty.
- Receiving my husband’s encouragement that I was doing a great job and that he could sense my patience (praise the Lord!)
Laughable Moments
- Watching that chubby little tooshie waddle all around the house.
- Witnessing her first “Poo-poo” happen right before my eyes (No, not on the toilet—but on the garage floor, right at my feet, whilst squatting like a dog.)
- I allowed her to watch some videos on my phone the first day. She watched Barney for the first time. I explained to her that Barney was a dinosaur and proceeded to make a roaring sound. So, throughout the following days of training, she would sit on the potty and start to roar (As if requesting to watch Barney).
All in all, I have felt the Lord provide me with the patience necessary to stay positive during this process. I have had the sanctifying privilege of experiencing what it’s like to extend grace to someone who messes up (literally) again and again and again. I have felt the sense of accomplishment that comes from teaching my daughter one of the most important life skills she’ll ever need.
Sure, I may have started potty-training on a whim without fully considering the long-term implications of my decision, but I am so grateful for the memories I’ve made with my husband and our daughter—however stinky and messy they may be!
