Potty go-go!

I really need to get more pictures to document this whole thing.

So, two weeks ago, I started full-scale cold-turkey potty training with Alaina. Meaning NO MORE daytime diapers. My plan was to keep her confined to the kitchen and living room (and sometimes the backyard) and keep her naked until she was reliably going in the potty. Then I would add unders (aka underwear) to the mix and get her to keep them dry. Then pants. Then teach her to get them up and down on her own.

I've stuck to this plan for the last two weeks except that I added pants and unders earlier than I planned because we were out and about a few times before she was reliably going and because we went to California this weekend and I wasn't willing to put potty training on hold despite the vacation. I felt like it would be confusing to her to go back to diapers--she wouldn't understand that it was because we were on vacation. So I just kept at it and dealt with the mess. I armed myself with lots of unders, prefolds, pants, and carpet spray. And two potties. Amazingly, I didn't use the carpet spray or the prefolds! She had accidents throughout the vacation, but very few of them were when we were hanging out at someone's house (I carted her potty with us wherever we went). Most of the time it was in the car or during naptime (yes, I kept her diaperless for naps from the get-go too!). I think, in the last two weeks, I've only had to clean poop off the carpet once and out of the unders twice (but it could have just been once... can't remember). I had to clean it off the wood floor a couple times, but I'll take it because it's been DAYS since I've had to clean a poopy diaper or a poopy mess off the floor. And today, our first day home from vacation, she didn't have a single accident!!! Not one! AND I didn't ask her ONCE if she needed to go--she initiated it every time!

So, how has it been working? Well, the first week, I just kept her naked and let her pee on herself and the floor. It's awfully hard to ignore pee streaming down your legs! Every time she peed, I said, "Pee goes in the potty." And cleaned it up. Fortunately, it was almost always on the kitchen floor and was a cinch to clean. I'd ask her now and then if she needed to go, but I didn't push it. I just made sure she always knew where the potty was. At the end of the week, I had a few things going on that took me out of the house and I knew she was going to wet her pants a bunch because she was still hardly going in the potty at all. The only reason I wasn't discouraged was because I could see her tuning in big time and not liking the pee on her legs and puddling at her feet. She stopped whatever she was doing and stared at it and said, "uh, oh! pee." So I knew it was working and she just needed to connect the dots. Anyway, changing her clothes was no biggie and I lined her car seat with a waterproof mat and a prefold. The second week I stayed home and kept at it and she started making progress. She would pee or poop in the potty one more time each day than she had the day before. Then, on Wednesday, we left for California. (Oh, I should also mention that part of why this was taking a long time (at least, it seemed long to me compared to what I was expecting) is because she only pees about 5 or 6 times a day, even though I packed her full of fluids. That gave her very few opportunities to learn.) So, California. I was so busy and caught up in the fun of our vacation that I didn't really pay close attention to the numbers. But I did notice that she was taking herself potty often and peeing in the potty often. Most of her accidents were during nap and in the car. But since she hardly ever goes pee, it wasn't that difficult to deal with. And I'd already committed myself to pushing through whatever came and NOT going back to diapers no matter what! I think that was my biggest mistake with my other kids. I would give up and go back to diapers because I just couldn't take the mess. I think confining Alaina to an area where she was never out of my sight and making a solid commitment to it is making all the difference.

We have been using diapers for bedtime. She pees twice in the night and I've tried taking her in the night, but it hasn't worked so far. I think I'll work on mastering day first and then work on night. But I felt bad leaving her in a wet bed with pee all over herself. But half the time, she takes off her diaper herself anyway, so she must not mind much. I also put the potty in her crib during bed and nap and that has started working! She uses it for sure if she has to poop (she does NOT like poop in her crib!) and she used it today and maybe one other time for pee.

All in all, I think this is working wonderfully! I mean, today she stayed clean and dry all day despite being babysat this morning and going to Walmart this afternoon! Not one accident!! And she's 20 months old. I think that all our efforts at baby pottying with Alaina has made a huge difference and made this part go really smooth, but I also think that confining a child to an area you can see and having them go naked for a while to see and feel what is going on with their body is totally effective even without the EC foundation.

Studies say that the average potty training rigmarole takes a year. The longer you wait, the shorter the potty training efforts, but the longer you've had to change poopy diapers. With part time EC in infancy, I think I would estimate our investment to be about 10 or 11 months by the time she's fully potty trained. I think another week and she'll have it. In the first 9 months of her life, I worked on it a few days a week and a few hours at a time, which, I guess, is kind of how people do it with their toddlers. I don't know too many people who use a cold-turkey method. After the first 9 months, I hardly worked on it at all. Now and then I'd try to get her to go in the potty and I've always let her sit on the potty if she wanted to but she hardly ever went. Now, with this method, I think this will be the last week of daily accidents. After this week, I think she'll pretty much just use the potty. BUT! Even though it's taken close to a year of effort to get her potty trained, I didn't have to change a two year old's poopy butt! She won't be 2 until January and she'll be fully potty trained well before that! So even though it was a lot longer of a road than I'd planned on or hoped for, I still only had to change her diapers for 20 months instead of the culture average of 36! I'll take it! And I think it will go MUCH better with Landon. I hope...

Landon:
So while I was at it with Alaina, I figured I might as well work hard with Landon too. My sister and her 6 month old joined in the fun as well. I just kept Landon naked for most of the day and tried to tune in to his cues and take him when I thought he needed to go. My intuition got MUCH better! Still not great, but it's coming along! He'll pee and poop in the potty about 5 times a day if I'm paying attention. And that doesn't mean that I'm offering the potty 100 times when he doesn't need it. I offer it and he goes about 5 times a day. Only about 2 times a day will I offer it and he won't go. I did get peed on a few times:

I was holding Landon and he peed ALL over me! It ran down the couch and onto Alaina's back. Gina snapped a picture right after it happened. Oh, I was also just about to take him potty when I got a phone call. Two seconds into the call, he peed. At least my intuition is on!

I've been thinking a lot about this and I really want to dedicate a week or two to carrying Landon around naked all day. I really think that other cultures learn the baby's cues and have fully potty trained babies at WAY early ages because the alternative is to get peed on and messed on. If that was what was at stake, you'd better believe you'd be motivated to get it figured out pronto! So I thought, maybe I should just go for it and risk getting peed on for a while and get this handled quickly! The learning curve would be so much shorter if I had something to lose by not tuning it. I have a lot coming up that will impede this idea, but I think I might just do it anyway. We'll see.

Alternatively, I found a super small study of four babies who began a potty training program when they were between 3 and 6 months of age. Even though it was a small study, it was 100% successful! All four babies were fully and independently potty trained by 12 months old! I'm so doing this program! Assuming I don't have more/faster success by getting peed on...

Oh, by the way, "potty go-go" (the title of this post) is what Alaina says when she has to go potty. It's particularly cute and funny when she's just woken up and she calls, "Mooooommmmmmyyyy!!!! Potty gooooo-gooooooo!!!"