Here is a small idea of what I'm talking about:
- Saturday: pants on for 10 minutes, I'm sitting on the floor beside Noelie, watching her like a hawk, trying to read her body language. Is she about to go? Yes, no? Several attempts to sit her on the potty have been met with screams of 'no, no, no' and trying to get up. Suddenly, dribbles, quick, sit on the potty, no time to take the pants off. Accident number 1. She is quite happy with herself as we cheer and clap. Not sure she understood why we were clapping and cheering but she dutifully comes with me to empty the contents of the potty into the toilet and wave it goodbye. Time for a pants change. Mr Foodie decides to throw me a clean pair of pants. Unfortunately, these bounce off Noelie and land, I'll let you guess. Yes, in the full potty. Does that count as accident number 2 for Noelie, or accident number 1 for Mr Foodie? 2 pairs of pants wet in a matter of minutes. Good thing I bought a 10 pack!Thinking she won't go again for a while, I relax a little and decide to give her a bit of space. Wrong! 5 minutes later, puddle on the carpet. Oops, she says. She doesn't seem very pleased with herself or comfortable. Time for another change. We are now less than 30 minutes into potty training and I already have 3 pairs of pants to wash. Despite efforts to try and get her to sit on the potty (even for just a few seconds), she is defiant, she will not sit on the bloody thing for more than 5 seconds at a time, screaming no and panicking. We all take turns sitting on the potty (fully clothed, of course) trying to show her it's ok to sit there. In the process, Mr Foodie nearly does his back in. It is a long way down to sit on the thing and joints you wouldn't even know existed cracked and protested at being maltreated in such a way. Another 2 accidents in another 30 minutes and we resign ourselves. Let's forget about it for today and start afresh tomorrow. And who knew a toddler could pee so many times in so little time? At least, we know that she won't be suffering from another UTI in the coming days!
Sunday: operations resume in the morning. After breakfast, we put a pair of pants on. We also bought some hideous tracksuit bottoms for her, things she can have as many accidents in as she wants. 1 hour in: still no accidents. Good. She won't sit on the potty without having a hissy fit though. She goes off and starts playing with her sister. Less than 2 minutes later, she comes back in. Did she have an accident? I check. Not sure. Feels dry enough. Time for lunch. I grow suspicious 2 hours without an accident. That's not possible not after yesterday when she proved that she could pee 5 times in less than an hour. After lunch, I check. There we are. There was an accident. Bloody stupid tracksuit bottoms are so thick that they just absorb everything. Time for a nap anyway so nappy on. A lot of questions go through my head. Is she ready? Is she not too young? After all, she just turned 20 months. Why does she not want to sit on the bloody thing? She plays with it and puts her dolls on it. Surely she knows what it's for. Is it not comfortable? How come she peed 5 times in less than an hour yesterday? We only put the pants on her yesterday, no tracksuits. Could she have been cold and it made her pee more than usual? I just don't know. Maybe she is not ready to try for more than a few hours at a time. How long do I need to keep following her and watching her like a hawk for? What about things I have to do? Surely, I can't just keep following her like that. What if she wants to sit on my lap, and she's wearing pants? I am not putting her on my lap, just in case! She gets up from her nap and we put another nappy on. Enough for today. I have things to do.
Monday: What do I do? I have so many things to do this morning. Can I run the risk of putting pants on her again? OK, we'll give it a shot. We can't just give up like that. So on go the pants. She is playing around and is ok for a bit. I try to get her to sit on the potty. She manages to sit on it fully clothed for a few minutes as long as I am sitting behind her. I try and get her to sit on it, not fully clothed and the screaming starts again. I wonder maybe I need to research this a bit further before we start properly. Time for lunch in a few minutes anyway so I put a nappy on because then it will be nap time. She has worn pants for about an hour without an accident. So not all that bad really. While I get lunch ready, Noelie strolls into the kitchen with none other than.... a pair of pants on her head. Oh boy, this is not gonna work, is it?
Any tips or ideas on how we could kick start this thing?
