PT update

Well, I'm officially done.

Eve is in diapers. Yay for diapers!

After her late morning bath so we could both relax, I put her in training pants again. She had a few more accidents, but they were less disturbing sans "procedure." However, it seemed silly to continue to try to make her need to go more if it just meant more accidents, so i stopped pushing the drinks. And, after a few more accidents, and continued struggles to get her to even try the potty every 15 minutes, I kinda dropped that as well. We were down to dry pants checks, and since she didn't seem motivated to actually keep her pants dry, this too seemed pointless. And without all that, why bother with big girl pants? So, I put her in pull-ups. Today, my logical and frugal mind wondered why I would continue the pull-ups when they are more expensive and being used just as diapers. So, again, I dropped that. We're back to the way things have always been. I'm fine with that. I think my dear husband will be trying again next time I'm out of the house for a full day on the weekend. Look for further updates at the end of January.

All that said, since my mother-in-law is "so much better at these kinds of things" than I am, it's possible Eve could be trained tomorrow, as I'm going in to my previous employer to talk about the possibility of returning. If I do, Eve could just move in with Grandma and wear big girl pants every day.

The Harrowing Tales of TOILET TRAINING IN LESS THAN A DAY

The Harrowing Tales of TOILET TRAINING IN LESS THAN A DAY

All I have to say about the title of this book is: HA!

Eve's adventure in potty training began yesterday at 9:30. The book promised the average child who passed the physical and mental readiness tests would be done in an average of 4 hours. Girls even take about 30 minutes less, on average.

Ha!

It's now 11:20 AM on the second DAY of training.

After a few hours, the book said Eve should be progressing from needing to be told directly to go to the potty every 15 minutes, to doing on her own when she needs to pee.

It was about 30 minutes ago that I cleaned up the 7th wet accident since we began (8 accidents in total, the worse of which, blessedly, Tom was here for), steps away from the potty chair. The only self-initiated potty moment occurred when I was putting her to bed, so of course, that must be discounted, since it was mostly a stalling technique.

The really NEAT thing about accidents, is the "accident procedure" in which I must make Eve practice 10 times starting from various points in the house, running FAST to the potty, and pulling her pants down, sitting, quickly standing, pulling her pants back up, and then running to another spot in the house to do it all again. WOW, is that fun or what? I'm going with, "or what" because I had to force every required action, 10 TIMES! She starting crying on time 2. Then, oh, it's not over, I get to make her feel her wet underwear 10 times. Me: "Are your pants dry?" I guide her hand, because she's bawling and not really paying attention, and I have to manually guide everything in this stupid potty training adventure (Let me take a moment to point out that it's my dear, dear Husband who is in a hurry to potty train), and say, "no, your pants are wet. Wet pants are yucky." or some such. And repeat, repeat, repeat. UGH. Then, finally, she's allowed to remove her wet pants and put dry ones on, the only remotely bearable part of the whole thing.

I'm supposed to check her and reward her for dry pants every 5 minutes. That's a LOT of chocolate and sugar. I'm also supposed to fill her up with liquids so we can have lots of success. Or lots of accidents, as the case may be.

I gave up after about 5 hours yesterday, but the patent disapproval for such pansy weakness in my husband's voice (or really, the silence on the phone) proved this was unacceptable. I believe this will continue for days, however I'm resolved to just help her change herself after an accident. I'm too worn out for the rest of the circus.