I knew that Isabelle was either going to be stubborn as a mule or act like a big girl and catch on quickly. I should have started potty training her a few months ago, but we were all sick and then I had sinus surgery and then we were all sick again and I didn't want to deal with all the messes when I wasn't feeling well. Out of the blue on Saturday without discussing it with Jordan, I decided it was the day to start training. Here was my thinking: Isabelle's diapers were running out (I mean like less than 10 left), Isabelle was liking her diaper less and less when it was wet or poopy, we had pull-ups ready to go, and Jordan was going to be around more the next couple of weeks to help out with the messes.
We tried a few things with Matthew that didn't work and then did the straight to underwear method that worked better than anything else. You just put them in underwear and set the timer for 15 min. and have them go to the potty every 15 min. until they have success and reward them for that success. If they have an accident then I set the timer for 45 min - 1 hr. to give them ample time to build up more fluids. Matthew's first day, I swear there were a million accidents and I don't even know if he went to the bathroom on his own once for the first week or so, but would go when I asked him to. Isabelle is a super potty trainer. She had 3 accidents on Saturday, none on Sunday and had a dry pull-up after church, and had just a couple of accidents yesterday and today when she couldn't get to the bathroom in time-BUT WAS trying to get there. She has gone on her own so many times and after Saturday I haven't even set the timer once.
We do use a little potty that you can dump and she even dumps it herself and flushes the toilet and I have never asked her to. She is running around in Matthew's old white underwear until we think she's really ready for sure and then we'll move her into her new princess underwear. She's been dry after her naps and nighttime the last few days and then will take herself to the bathroom once she wakes up. We've found that it has to be her decision though. She doesn't like to go to the potty right after she wakes up, so we just change her out of her pull-up into underwear and once she's ready she'll go use the bathroom. What a smart girl and we keep looking at ourselves in disbelief as this time around is a million times easier than last time. It holds true in our household that the boy was way harder to train than the girl.
Isn't her white boy underwear cute and hilarious!
...and she loves to do puzzles and can do 24 piece puzzles by herself. Not that it has anything to do with potty training, but her little brain is so smart!
