3 Day Potty Training

{I apologize in advance for all the "potty" talk... this is, after all, a post on potty training}

Charlotte is 27 month old and with all her little friends working on Potty Training, I decided it was time to do it. We had "Sort of" been trying to potty train her, but I wasn't on the ball, and plus... we go out every day so that made it difficult to keep up with it.

A few friends of mine have had success with this 3-Day potty training, so I decided to give it a shot. The catch is you have to be in your house for 3 days straight. I haven't been in my house for 3-day straight since the 3 days after I got home with Jillie (8 months ago). So I knew that was going to be a struggle. Phew!


Potty Treats
Supplies: Salsa jar, paint,
paint pens, m&ms

 So I armed myself with some 'Potty Treats' (aka m&m's), a few presents for when I was REALLY proud of her (gifts from her birthday back in February that we have yet to give her... she has WAY too many; a doctor kit, bubbles, coloring stuff, etc), also I opened up Candy Land that I bought a while back.... but she is WAY too young for that, lol; All she wanted to do was go down the "slide"... but I digress... back to the potty training.


Day 1:
Woke up, got myself ready (like the book said), had breakfast, and then "threw away the diapers". When I say "thew away the diapers", I really mean, I took a clean garbage bag and we threw the diapers in there and they are now stored in the garage until Jillie needs them.
Charlotte really got a kick out of throwing them away.

"Throwing" the diapers away

I meant it when I said "Rough" chart

I made a (very rough) chart with a column for Pee pee and Poo poo; when she successfully made it to the toilet (at least a little bit) then she got a sticker and an m&m and got to put the correct column. She also got a sticker and m&m even if she had an accident, but made it to the potty and pee'd or poo'd a little.

So for day 1 we had:
half - Accident
half - accident
half - accident (poop)
accident
SUCCESSFUL!
{dry nap}
Accident
Accident
Accident

Didn't quite make me hopeful... but at least she made it through her nap dry!

Day 2:
I am happy to announce that we had a dry bed over night!!! Although, I do admit that she hasn't ever really been much of a night time pottier.

We get up and I try to get her to potty, but she claims she doesn't have to. The whole deal with this book is you don't ask "do you have to potty?" because then it turns into a power struggle. You just remind them (constantly) to tell you if they have to go potty.

Day 2 results are:
half - accident
SUCCESS!
SUCCESS!
(of course now I'm getting cocky)
half - accident
accident (poop)
accident
accident
SUCCESS! followed 5 minutes later by...
half - accident (poop)
half - accident
SUCCESS!

Ok... I'm still not hopeful... but we have 1 more day!

Day 3:
Another dry bed over night and I'm feeling pretty confident about this whole 3-day training thing. I gave her a little more leeway, and didn't hover as much as I had the previous 2 days. I even got some cleaning done.

Day 3 results:
Success!
Accident
Success
Success
Accident (poop)
Success
Success
{dry nap}
success
success
{Bed}
Out of bed at 10... Success!

Day 4:
Ok, my 3 days are up.... time to go out (plus I am running out of food)

7:50am we have a half accident (uh oh... not looking so good)
We get ready to go out and right before we get into the car, I say "Mommy has to go pee pee, how about you try?"...
9:55am - Success!
Off to the mall to pick up our JC Penny portraits
10:30 am (at the mall) Success!
Play area -- which I was nervous about, I REALLY didn't want her peeing in the middle of the mall play area.. so after an hour I finally convinced her to go back to the bathroom...
11:25 am (at the mall) Success!!
Then we went to the grocery... once false alarm and a full grocery cart later we checked out and headed home.
{dry nap}
3:45 pm ... in the pool... with no swimmie... Accident (poop, ugh - luckily she wasn't in the pool at the moment)
3:50 pm Success!
8:15 pm Success!

Day 5 (today):
So it's Day 5 (of a so-called 3-day process) and I decided that it's time to get (almost) back into our routine! I say 'almost' because being back in our actual routine would include going to the gym... which I'm nervous about because then it's someone ELSE watching her. But I could probably time it right... I'll let you know tomorrow :)

We got up, pottied (7:40 am Success!), fed, dressed, pottied again (10:00 am Success!), and out the door.
We run to the party store then on to Lowes. When we get there I decide to head straight back to the bathrooms. I bought one of those fold up potty seat things to keep in my diaper bag so she doesn't fall in the big potty... well she used it for the first time at Lowes with NO problem! (10:45 am).
We finish shopping and head home. We rush in to (Successfully) potty at 12.
{dry nap}
Then came the real test... we went to our neighbors a few houses away to play. From what everyone tells me, getting little ones to potty when they are playing is next to impossible.
We had a false alarm and then came home for snack.
She successfully peed AND pooped in the potty... only to be followed 45 minutes later with an accident (poop)... (boo!)
Bed... then up 15 minutes later to pee one last time before going to sleep.

Not to jinx it, but... I think this girl has got it!

I know this method doesn't work for everyone... nor does everyone have 3 days to stay in the house, but I highly recommend it. Charlotte was no where NEAR potty training, she would scream if I tried to put her on the potty and she was ALWAYS asking for diapers. Now, 5 days later... things are going awesome!

Linking up: Finger Prints on the Fridge, Beneath the Rowan Tree