Attempted Potty Training

Well...I am just going to use the excuse that when you have a baby in a car you lose your mind for an undetermined amount of time...

I think this expression on Clark's face says it best.

You see, something in me thought that it would be a great idea to potty train Claire when Clark was 3 weeks old.  I did think it through, I promise I did.  My reasoning just didn't hold up.

My thoughts were...

1. We are home all the time anyway with a newborn
2. Clark is sleeping more now than he will when he gets older so that will be good
3. Claire has been showing all the signs of being ready for months now,  but since we were house hunting literally right until I was in labor we didn't have an opportunity to train her

I read a 3 day potty training guide and prepped myself for a rather difficult, but well worth it 3 days.

Day 1 started off with lots of excitement from everyone!  I couldn't believe how grown up Claire looked in her "big girl panties"!  I remember snapping these pictures and thinking about the blog post and how we would be successfully finished with Potty Training when I posted it...hahahaha!  I may have been a little over confident about that...

Seeing her brush her teeth was almost just too much!  How did my baby girl get sooo big?

We had lots of drinks and repeatedly used the line, "Let us know when you need to go potty!" just as the book said.  Claire had 5 accidents before lunch.  Bless her heart.  In her efforts to make it to the potty she slipped in her pee on the wood 3 times and fell on her head.  I think this where it all went downhill.  We were only hours into it and I thought we would overcome it...but we did not...

To keep from having to run so far we set up toys in the foyer close to the front bathroom!

Then we moved the potty into the hallway since we still weren't making it in time...

This seemed okay for the first day or two.  We were having some great moments and all doing the potty dance, face timing family to share the exciting news, getting chocolate chips for making it in time and keeping our panties dry, singing songs...you name it, we did it!

But, by Day 3 we still weren't there yet...

We were reading books, and wearing princess panties and trying so hard!

Clark watched on from his bouncer...

My mom came over to help 3 days that week.  You can't tell from the pictures but it felt like mass chaos over here between watching Claire like a hawk, trying to encourage her to drink liquids which she figured out made her have to pee so she was now refusing them,  LOTS of nursing sessions, diapers for Clark, cleaning up accidents, replacing and putting down potty pads to prevents slips, etc, etc.  It is safe to say we all had our hands very full at this point.

We finally ventured further away from the potty to get some fresh air.  At this point an accident outside was worth it and would be easy to clean up!

Sweet big sister!

The weather was GORGEOUS!  Since this attempt in Potty Training I have decided it is best to train when the weather is HOT- because then we will be stuck inside anyway.

We had a blast in the swing, as always!

For months, even before Clark was born Claire has been playing, "Shhhhh, don't wake the baby!"

Here she is putting her "Baby Clark" down for a nap.

With an immediate turn she says, "Sshhhh, don't wake the baby!"

Love this sweet "little mommy"

The days rolled on and it became a blur to me.  We would have enough success moments that made me want to stick with it, and then some really hard moments that made me question everything.  By day FIVE I upped the reward for making it to the potty from chocolate chips to a choosing 1 item from a bowl full of plastic jewelry, hairbands, sunglasses, etc  from Wal-Mart  that I knew she would love.  If you know Claire, you know she loves this kind of junk!  YES- it was a bit drastic and yes you could say she is spoiled and it almost worked...at least it did one time, but that was it...only once...

By day 6 she decided to just stop going and to stop trying.  It got really bad and she would only go in her diaper at rest time and bed time.  We could see it was hurting her and she really NEEDED to go, but she is sooooooo determined and when she makes up her mind, there is no going back.  (hmmm, I wonder where she gets that from???)  I remember one moment when I was nursing Clark in the outdoor chairs we set up in the foyer and encouraging her to just try to go and she picked up her potty and threw it towards me.  That was pretty much a turning point for me.  So, the day after that we surrendered.  The truth is that this was probably not the best time (maybe even quite possibly it was the WORST time) that we could have attempted this (mom of the year here!).  In a time when there was so much change that was out of her control, this was the one thing that she could grab control of and she sure did.

So, we are back in diapers again and honestly I am so happy.  Potty training was truly a week from H*LL!  I normally wouldn't say that, but really it was.  Let's just say that I am in no hurry to attempt this again with either of my children!  If Claire turns 3 and is still wearing diapers, so be it.  When she is ready it will happen, and until then I am just soooo happy this attempt of potty training is over!  Even now, almost 3 weeks after the attempted potty training we are still having issues with her holding it and not going in her diaper.  I have since learned that lots of kids experience this "fear of release" during and after potty training and it can be really challenging to overcome and lead to bladder infections and other more serious medical conditions.  Fortunately she is coming around now and we haven't had any visits to the doctor yet.  Who knew potty training could be soooo hard!  I guess I should have known, but since I didn't I am writing this so I never forget!