I'll Have Another Diaper, Please...

By request from my favorite sister-in-law, I'm blogging about our potty training experience this weekend.

I did the research on the Three Day Potty Training method and thought it would work for us.  I posted on FB about it and several friends (or ex-friends now) told me it worked for them and that they recommended it.  Erin is pretty sharp and had been showing interest in going on the potty.  This method says that 22 months is the ideal age and I thought it would be even better since she's 24 months old.  Wrong.

For those of you who do not know, the Three Day Method is 3 very intense days where you do not leave the house and you literally do nothing but concentrate on catching your kid in the act of having an accident.  From there you scoop them up and run to the potty the whole time being supportive and encouraging as they pee all over you.  You tell them things like, "keep your big girl panties dry" and "tell Momma when you have to go potty".  Over and over and over and over.

Erin did okay the first day.  She had big accidents and didn't mind when I scooped her up and ran with her.  On the night of Day 2 she was asleep and I heard her moving around and she said "I go pee pee."  According to the method I was supposed to go up there and strip the sheets and wake her up to go potty.  But, after cleaning her bed the night before from her many night time accidents we had put her in a Pull up.  Peeing in her sleep wasn't waking her up.  She was actually talking in her sleep when she said what she said so I thought it was sinking in.  So no way was I waking up my sleeping kid to have her go potty at 2:00 am.  (Now would be a good time to interject just how tiring this method is on the parent in charge.  I was exhausted.)

Day 3 comes and so does our little Rebel With a Cause.  She was so stressed out by the whole experience to this point that she was screaming bloody murder when I would pick her up and point out she was having an accident.  Her accidents were much, much smaller and I could tell she was holding it longer, so I was encouraged, until I took her to the potty and she would go all stiff and scream "no potty, no potty.".  By 10:00 am on Sunday Day 3 I/we gave up.  We put her in a Pull up and she was a new kid from that second on.   She started smiling again and was so happy the rest of the day.

I think the Three Day method has merits and I won't knock it too much, but it just wasn't for us.  What sucks is that the woman who invented it is a stay at home mom with nothing else to do I guess.  I had to use a vacation day to do this method and still failed.  Tommy did tons of research on it on line after I cried uncle,  and found more people said it took more like 8 to 9 days to get it then 3 and that thinking a kid is ready at 22 months is total insanity.

I can tell you that we will not be trying the Three Day Method again.  It was so stressful in our house.  I'm going to wait until Erin starts her new class at school in 2 weeks and work with the daycare to potty train her.  I'm  not sure exactly how they do it, but it has to be better then this was.  There are too many kids there that are potty trained for them not to have a tried and true method in place.

Oh, and since we hadn't left the house in 3 days, Erin and I went to Target on Sunday afternoon.  We were looking at the girls clothes like we always do and she said, "Momma, I go pee pee."  Excellent.  We were finished shopping and on our way to the check out and just glancing at the clothes in case there was something too cute to not get.   We were no where near the bathroom and I didn't have any of the necessary public restroom armor with me.  So I just cheered her on and told her good job of telling me and basically encouraged her to pee her pants.  Yes, I am mother of the year.

Did I mention we were buying diapers at Target?