Potty Training and Other Growing Up Updates

I never updated the blog on Lyla's stats from the pediatrician from her last two appointments. I want to have them recorded on here, so here they are :)

18 month appointment -- Weight: 24lbs 14oz (75-85%), Height: 32.5 inches (75%), and Head Circumference: 48cm (85-95%)

2 year old appointment -- Weight: 27lbs 13oz (75%), Height: 34.6 inches (50-75%) and Head Circumference: 49cm (85-95%)
At her two year appointment, she had shots, blood drawn, flu-mist and her eyes checked. She was such a champ and never cried at all. She was too excited about the "bam-baids" (band-aids) and the "tickters" (stickers)!! Haha.

She is SUCH a BIG girl. I was telling Adam the other day that over the last few weeks, every time I look at her, she is no longer a baby or a toddler. She truly is a BIG girl now. What does that make her? A preschooler? She is starting school in the Fall and she could not be more excited to go to "my tool" (my school). What does that make me? Sad. I love how she is growing up and that she is so smart and funny and pure joy! But it is just going TOO fast.

In other big news my BIG girl has accomplished the potty training phase. This is one phase in her life that I was ready for, nervous about, and had NO CLUE what I was doing. This takes SO much patience!! It takes trust. It takes time. It takes patience. It takes "teats" (treats). It takes lots of trips to the bathroom. It is boring! And did I mention it takes patience?? I did not do a whole lot of reading/research on the subject. I just listened to what friends had done and kinda ran with it.

WE I attempted potty training Lyla when she was around 18mo old....Definitely was not ready AT. ALL. She had NO concept of what was supposed to happen or what she was supposed to do. We were still in the condo at this time, so I had her confined to the kitchen with just a t-shirt on (nothing on the bottom). She would drink lots of juice and I would sit her on the potty. After getting off the potty and immediately having an accident on the floor three or four times, I quit before lunchtime.

We I attempted again right before Lyla turned 2 years old after we moved into our new house...so somewhere around 22-23mo....This was a short lived attempt as well. I gave up before lunchtime, because every time I looked away for one second, she would have an accident....even if she had just sat on the potty. Not ready!

Lyla wanted to wear big girl panties on Wednesday January 30th, 2013 after she woke up, so I let her...It was a week where we really had nothing going on, so I thought, why not? We would be home anyway, let's try it. So I brought the potty down in the play room, filled her sippy cup up, turned on some music and we just played all morning. She was dressed in just her panties and a t-shirt. I set the timer on my phone so that it went off every 10 minutes. She knew that when it went off she had to sit on the potty. Then I would re-set the timer for 2 minutes and that is how long she had to sit on the potty. Every time she actually went, she would get one treat (a m&m). We made it to lunch time and she had gone on the potty several times and not had a single accident. So after lunch I put a diaper on her for nap time, but as soon as she woke up, she got to put her panties back on. Wednesday and Thursday we were home ALL DAY LONG. We did nothing but drink juice and go to the bathroom :)

Friday, we went on a lunch date to Chick Fil A with Nicole and Tripp. I was really nervous about leaving the confines of our house, but Lyla blew me away and did not have a single accident!! She did so awesome!

Sunday we went to church and we were so nervous about sending her in her panties. But we knew we had to bite the bullet at some point, so we did. 5 days in and we did. I took her before we left her. We asked the teacher to take her half way through and they did, but during the last five minutes she had an accident. So they changed her and every thing was fine. That was the ONLY accident she has ever had at church! Yay Lyla!

Over the next few weeks, we worked on really learning to "listen" to our body and tell mommy and daddy when she felt the pee-pee coming. It definitely took a few weeks to get this down, actually if I am being honest and remembering right, it was really FOUR weeks to get this down. And by that I mean that after those four weeks, we were not going to the bathroom just to "try", I was not telling her she needed to go, she was telling me, and there was no more letting the pee-pee come just a little bit (where her panties would get just a little wet) and then she would let me know. By week four she was perfect about telling me when she needed to go versus me just forcing her to try all the time. She never had any all out pee-pee accidents. The most she ever really did was get her panties wet when she would let it come a little before realizing she needed to go, but I think that is normal when a child is learning their body. There were a couple of times where she went enough to get her pants wet as well, but never anything horrible. I always carried extra clothes with me when we went anywhere and she always had to go before we left. She was also limited on her drinks in the car (this girl loves to guzzle her sippy cups in the car, so this was a hard one!). I always had to scout out where the closest restrooms where whenever we got to where we were going.

The pooping was what I was most worried about. I mean, I DID NOT want to clean up one of those accidents off the floor!! The first couple of days, she always pooped at nap time, so it ended up in her diaper. Then, that weekend she went poop on the potty! It was easy and not a big deal. She did have 3-4 times where she did have  poop accident in her panties, but I nipped it in the bud and made a H.U.G.E deal about how big girls DO NOT poo-poo in their panties. Momma doesn't, daddy doesn't and therefore Lyla doesn't. I also told her that she did not want to get her princess panties dirty, otherwise she would not be able to wear them. Plus, she would get TWO treats every time she went poop on the potty. After that, she never had a poop accident again! Thank goodness!! I was finding however, that she preferred to only poop in her little potty. Well that got old (for momma) quick, not to mention gross...I hated cleaning it out!! So the little potty went away and she was told that she could only go on the big potties. I never got one of those little toilet ring seats to go on the toilets. I am too cheap, plus I did not want to have to move it depending on what bathroom she was using or be confined to only using one potty in our home. So I just hold her so she doesn't fall in.

She is so amazing!! She blew through that potty training stage faster than I could have ever imagined!! It is hard work, but it turned out so much easier than I expected!! She tells us every time she needs to go and I cannot remember the last time I actually had to use the extra set of clothes I carry with me. It definitely was worth waiting until she was ready. That made the difference for us.

There are still a few things we are working through, one is how frequently she goes. She goes ALL the TIME. She will go to the bathroom and then 5 minutes later says she needs to go again. Sometimes she actually does go and sometimes she doesn't. But I always take her because I just don't know. I am not sure if it is because she drinks so much, she does not get it all out in one sitting or she just wants attention. But she KNOWS that if she says "momma, pee-pee", I have to take her and pay attention to her. Her other issue is pooping. She HATES to poop!! Like majorly hates it. Crying, tears, screaming, "no momma, no poo-poo". It is heart-breaking really. She says it hurts. She will tell me she needs to poop, and then she gets on the potty and decides she doesn't want to go. So we sit there and I "help" her and I hold her and I tell her it will be alright and she will feel better once it is out. I feel so bad for her. I have upped her fiber intake and give her prunes in hopes that it will help soften things and make it easier. That seems to help sometimes.

Can I also mention how nice it is NOT to buy diapers!!?? Well ok, she still wears diapers at nap time and bed time cause I do not trust her yet. She mostly wakes up from her naps dry, but still wakes up in the morning wet. NOT ready to cross that bridge yet. Not even sure HOW to attempt that process. So to buy diapers for those times is ok by me :) Although she did ask me at nap time today if she could wear her panties to bed....not yet little one. But maybe in the near future. Try not to grow up any more.

The first day of our "successful" potty training attempt!

Big girl panties on that sweet little squishy bottom.

The phone was our friend that day between the timer and watching shows.

"Its potty time!"

Such a big girl!!

Juice and panties.

Finding things to keep us busy.

Gotta get some things at the grocery store.

Love that bottom!

"Cheese"