For the rest of the fall and winter, we continued to keep potty talk top of conversation with her, and also casually encouraged her to sit on the potty every few weeks. There was lots of interest on her part, and more and more signals that she was becoming mentally and physically ready, but when it came to actually DOING anything into the potty, she was way too apprehensive and scared to go. We backed off for months, and then finally a few weeks ago, Layla started throwing fits all of a sudden about being put in diapers and declaring she wanted to use the potty.
Jeff and I decided then that it was "go time" and made preparations to start the next day. Armed with juice, goodies, M&Ms, stickers, a mountain of new underwear, and positivie attitudes we began that Sunday. I wasn't sure how it would go, but honestly, the first 3 days were TERRIBLE (for both us and her). Yes, there were plenty of successful "deposits" into the potty those first few days, but every trip was a struggle unfortunately. Layla was happy to sit on the her potty chair, but was so terrified to actually urinate into it that she would hold and hold it until she was about to burst, crying through each time she went pee into the potty while one of us sat there and held her hand. It was so hard on us emotionally, but we made the decision to stick with it a little longer.
On Wednesday, we went to Nonna's for a visit and it was a lot more of the same procrastinating and squirming through every trip to the bathroom, but she was not having any more accidents. We were finally starting to feel like this time was going to work! On Thursday morning, my mom started leaving her alone in the bathroom by herself to do her job, and something clicked! Once she realized she could do it all by herself, she became excited and highly motivated to use the potty. No more tears for pee-pee since that morning! Poos are still somewhat of an ordeal for her. She would rather hold it and be uncomfortable all day than go to the bathroom, when she finally gives in and does her business on the potty at the last second, and then she is fine. I just wish I could convince her to go when she needs to go. It will come with time and practice, I suppose.
It has now been 2-1/2 weeks since we started this adventure, and I can confidently declare that Layla is completely potty trained and diaper-free while we are at our home and at the homes of family members! She is still wearing a cloth diaper to bed overnight, but is in underwear and has stayed dry during naptime for almost a week. When I look back on the experience, it was a lot of work, but at the same time it happened quite quickly and easily compared to many others' experiences. She has yet to try her new skill out in public bathrooms, so that will be the next phase of her learning.
Here she is playing on her potty with all her clothes on:
And here is the potty chair we picked up for our downstairs bathroom (The Prince Lionheart PottyPOD). It was chosen because of it's nice cushy seat. We are still using the Baby Bjorn potty in the upstairs bathroom, although she doesn't seem as comfortable on it.
And here is the sticker chart that became part of the reward process during training. We have a whole ritual that involved flushing, getting a sticker, eating M&Ms, and lighting a birthday candle and singing "Happy Pee Pee (or Poo Poo) to You". I'm trying to start phasing out the candle-lighting ceremony, since obviously that would be pretty impractical and embarassing to continue out in public, for instance, in the middle of the bathroom at Target or something.
We are just so proud of our big girl and everything she has accomplished over the last couple weeks.
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