So, yesterday was the first day of our second attempt at potty training. My expectations were low after the first go around, I anticipated many accidents in the morning and back to diapers by lunch. I was trying to keep positive about the accidents and trying to let Lily know that because she was still learning it was perfectly okay to have accidents and to go back to diapers after a short time. Lily surprised me!
She put her first pair of big girl panties on at 7:40 in the morning. By 9:30 she had already had two small accidents quite close together, I began to worry that there would be no success on day one, but tried to keep positive. We talked about how accidents happen sometimes and how we have to listen to our bodies and use the toilet when we need to pee. For her birthday, Lily got a book called “Elmo’s Potty Book.” On the first page Elmo tells the readers that the best part about learning to use the potty is getting to wear big kid underwear. So, for most of the day yesterday, Lily was talking about how she was a big kid wearing her big girl panties. After her second accident, Lily had four successful trips to the potty with no accidents in between; she even left the lunch table to have a pee before she was finished eating! After lunch she sat on the toilet again with no success, I did not expect another pee because she had just gone, however, I was worried that if she didn’t try she might have an accident in her bed. So, she went off to bed. This is where MY stress began. She decided not to sleep, but even if she does not sleep she is expected to stay in bed and rest, and ultimately try to have a snooze. This resulted in two more accidents. Each time I asked her if she wanted to go back to diapers assuring her that we could give the big girl panties another try the next day. Each time, she chose the big girl panties without hesitation. When I finally let her get up, she went another couple hours accident-free! Just before 6pm she had another accident, this is when I finally put a diaper on her, no choice, to avoid the frustration and stress I could feel brewing. All in all, a successful first day, she had 5 accidents but she also had 6 successful trips to the potty! We switched back to diapers just in time so that both Momma and Lily could feel great about how the day went!