Potty Training

To be honest, I've been thinking about potty training for at least a year.  I knew we had to get Taylor trained but I kept putting it off.  I wanted to make sure she was "ready" (which I'll say more about this in a minute), I wasn't sure she would do it because of her language delay, but mostly I was afraid of being a failure.  Potty training scared me.  I read so many different blog posts on potty training in a week, potty training in 3 days, and even potty train in 1 day!  Yep, ONE day.  I even had that one pinned on Pinterest (I don't anymore).  Over the past year, we've kinda half-hardheartedly tried with Taylor.  We'd put her in undies, or have her wear her cloth trainers.  She spent much of the last school year in Pull-ups.  Our daycare provider was great in that she would put Taylor on the potty every day.  But, Taylor hardly ever did anything.  I figured she just wasn't ready. 
But as the school year ended, I knew it had to get done.  I was NOT sending her to pre-school in the fall in diapers or Pull-ups.  I knew I could (it's a public program so they don't require kids to be potty trained), but I was tired of the diapers and really, when all of her friends have been potty trained for at least a year, it was a little ridiculous that she wasn't.
We started last Saturday.  I didn't really know what to do other than some things I've picked up from random books, articles, blogs, forums, and friends.  I knew we had to say good-bye to diapers for good.  So I took off her overnight diaper and said "okay Taylor, no more diapers."  And then I let her run around naked the whole day.  About halfway through the day, I knew I needed guidance.  I needed help.  I really didn't know how to do this!  I'd read about an e-book called "Oh Crap.  Potty Training."  It sounded pretty good and it was only $15.  I figured it'd be worth it. 
The first thing I read about was the "readiness" part.  The author, Jamie Glowacki, said not to think of it as "ready," but more as "capable."   Wow, when I thought of it that way, it really hit home.  Taylor has been capable for ummm a long time now.  We had to make this work.
The other thing I really like about Jamie's book is she doesn't give you a time-frame.  Instead of saying, Day 1  you do this and Day 2 you do this, and expect this by Day 3, she gives you blocks.  Four of them to be specific.  And each child moves through the 4 blocks at his/her own pace.  Some kids go through all four in 3-7 days.  Some kids take longer.  When I read that, it was like "whew! pressure off!"  That's what made me so nervous about those 1 and 3 day programs.  What if it didn't work in 1 day or 3 days?  Then I give up?  I would feel like a failure for not getting it done in the time frame the author(s) tell you it should happen. 
I don't want to just make this all about the book though.  I will just say that if you are going to be potty training a kid in the near future (and I wouldn't wait to do it- Jamie recommends between 20 and 30 months) I really really recommend you download her book.  You don't have to use rewards (in fact she discourages rewards because why reward the kid for something they are expected to do) and her tone in the book is very no-nonsense but in a kind, funny way.  Oh, she does use the f word a few times, and maybe some other swear words.  That doesn't bother me, but I felt like I should warn just in case it bothers others.
Anyway, the point of all this (hmmm I really digressed there) is we started on Saturday which would make today Day 8.  I'm not going to lie- the first day was confusing (remember I read Jamie's book kinda late in the day so we didn't really start doing her method until about 3 in the afternoon).  Day 2 was awful.  But I didn't give up; we were NOT going back to diapers.  Day 3 was better.  Day 4 was better than Day 3.  Day 5 was simply fantastic.  Day 6 was more on par with Day 3.  Day 7 was good, and today?  Well today has been pretty great.  I'm not going to go into specifics as to how many times Taylor has gone on the potty because honestly, I think that's annoying when people do that. Especially on Facebook.  Like, you don't share your own bathroom habits on Facebook, so why are you sharing your child's?  Let your child have some dignity (okay stepping off soapbox on that one).
Oh...night training.  Yeah we actually are tackling this now too.  I just figured it'd be easier to get it all out of the way.  So right now, Taylor sleeps on just her mattress (I know it sounds awful but she doesn't seem to mind) and her pillow has plastic bags on it under the pillowcase.  She does have her blanket of course and we have extra ones near her bed in case we have to change it out in the middle of the night.  She's only had 2 nights that were completely dry.  But after last night I think I've nailed down when we need to wake her up to pee so we'll see if I'm right tonight.  What is helping is we really cut down on her fluids in the evening.  At dinner she has a small cup of milk (this gives her practice drinking out of a regular cup as well) and then that's it for the night.  If she's really asking for a drink (like she did last night) we'll give her a tiny amount of water.  This may sound cruel but we try and push the fluids early in the day so that she's not as thirsty at night.  Really, toddlers only need about 1 liter of fluid every day. 
So is Taylor fully potty trained?  Well yeah I'd say for the most part she is.  She is starting to self-initiate her bathroom breaks but if I know it's been awhile I will prompt her.  And when I say prompt I mean "c'mon Taylor it's time to pee," not "do you have to pee?"  I know if I ASK, the answer will always be no.  Naysayers might say "well then Taylor's not trained, you are!"  Um, no.  Taylor knows where her pee and poop needs to go.  That is the point of potty training.  You are not teaching your child HOW to pee and poop; they are experts at that.  They've been doing that since birth!  You are just teaching them a new place for pee and poop to go (another aha! moment from Jamie's book).  So yes, I'm prompting her but you know if you think about it, we're always prompting our kids.  "You need to wash your hands before dinner," "look before you cross the street," "get your homework done before you watch TV," etc.  We will be prompting our kids until they are in college.  And I bet it won't even end there.  So I am boldly saying that Taylor is potty trained. 
And after we go to NC in a few weeks, we get to go through the whole process again with Lucy.  This will be quite the productive summer for us. ;)