This past Saturday, Chris and I embarked on one of those parenting milestones that every parent has to go through but doesn't necessarily look forward to: potty training. Thanks to a long Muslim holiday, Chris had a 5 day weekend. We knew we wanted to wait for a long weekend for when we'd try and potty train Charlotte, and this seemed like the perfect opportunity since we both thought she was ready. A couple of days before we started with the potty training, I went to a discount store here in Bahrain and bought lots of little prizes to give to Charlotte whenever she pee pee'd or went poopy on the potty. I also bought poster board to make a little potty chart for her. I wanted to make it as fun as possible for her and for Chris and I! I'm glad we decided to go this route with potty training, because Charlotte has really taken to it and loves to put stickers on her potty chart whenever she goes on the potty.
On the first day, she pee pee'd in the potty 3 times. On day two, she pooped once and peed twice. She did have a few accidents and both the first and second day. By day three, however, we had no accidents and we haven't on day four or five, either! She has really learned to control her bladder and she has even been waking up from her naps and in the morning dry. We are having problems with Charlotte holding her bladder as long as she can before she finally decides she has to go pee. She'll tell us every few minutes she needs to go pee, and so we'll take her into the bathroom, put her on the potty, and then a few seconds later, she says, "no pee pee" or "all done pee pee". We're trying to explain that she needs to go when she feels the urge - not to wait until her bladder is completely filled up to the point of exploding! When we know she really has to pee, we'll sit in the bathroom with her for a 1/2 hour to an hour until she finally goes. Today has been a little better and shortly before her nap time, she said she needed to go potty and she went as soon as she sat on it. Yay! Progress! I am so proud of her and am surprised at how well this is going. It's still not fun and takes a lot of time and energy, but I know it will be worth it when Charlotte is truly and fully potty trained, hopefully before her baby brother arrives. Did I mention we're having a boy? :-)
Here's the potty chart we are using with Charlotte. I ended up using it differently than I planned to initially. At first, we were going to offer a cookie and a reward from the basket if she she achieved 4 stickers. I decided I wanted to reward her every time at first to help encourage her to go potty. We bought mini shortbread cookies and 100 calorie oreo stick packs and we gave her either one shortbread cookie or one oreo stick (2 come in a pack) each time she went potty, plus a sticker on her chart, plus a prize from the basket. This technique has worked well, and of course, the more she gets the hang of going potty, the fewer rewards she'll get and we'll transition from cookies to raisins or at least something healthier that she likes.
Here's a view of her prize basket before we got started. Charlotte loves stickers, so the sticker sheets have been a big hit!
On the first day, she pee pee'd in the potty 3 times. On day two, she pooped once and peed twice. She did have a few accidents and both the first and second day. By day three, however, we had no accidents and we haven't on day four or five, either! She has really learned to control her bladder and she has even been waking up from her naps and in the morning dry. We are having problems with Charlotte holding her bladder as long as she can before she finally decides she has to go pee. She'll tell us every few minutes she needs to go pee, and so we'll take her into the bathroom, put her on the potty, and then a few seconds later, she says, "no pee pee" or "all done pee pee". We're trying to explain that she needs to go when she feels the urge - not to wait until her bladder is completely filled up to the point of exploding! When we know she really has to pee, we'll sit in the bathroom with her for a 1/2 hour to an hour until she finally goes. Today has been a little better and shortly before her nap time, she said she needed to go potty and she went as soon as she sat on it. Yay! Progress! I am so proud of her and am surprised at how well this is going. It's still not fun and takes a lot of time and energy, but I know it will be worth it when Charlotte is truly and fully potty trained, hopefully before her baby brother arrives. Did I mention we're having a boy? :-)
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