The Princess and the Pee

To say the last couple of days have been rough would be an understatement.

This week, OBB had swimming lessons every day so I purposefully did not plan anything else because I knew I needed to start potty training Baby Girl. Monday, I was having a dinner guest so I didn’t try to start anything that day. Tuesday I felt I deserved to recover from entertaining - again – no potty training.

Wednesday, I began in earnest. After breakfast, I put Baby Girl in her big girl panties and led her to the toilet. She cried, she wailed, she was afraid of falling in – it was a disaster. She’d scrunch herself in half so as not to fall in, but at the same time was preventing herself from going. So I’d take her off the potty and send her in the playroom, where she would proceed to pee on my carpet. Yep – it was a bit like having a puppy. This went on for two days. Not once did we succeed in actually getting anything in the toilet.

By Friday, I decided to change my tactics. I knew that most mornings, she wakes up dry so I thought I would stick her on the toilet as soon as she woke up and just wait her out. At 7:30, I got her out of bed, took her downstairs and put her on the potty. And I waited. And waited. We sang songs, looked at books, I gave her lots of drinks and nothing happened. For 4 hours. (I know what you’re thinking…4 hours? That sounds a little extreme – but honestly, she was pretty happy about it. She only fussed a couple times for a little while – and I’d let her get up and walk into the kitchen every so often.) I refused to turn on the TV because I knew that would make her think she was missing something, so OBB and I sat in the tiny hallway outside my powder room, passing the time with OBB working on a "Language and Math for Kindergarten" workbook I had gotten him. Finally, at 11:30, I took them outside for lunch. At 11:45 she said she had to go – I think she was more in pain by this point than anything else. Of course, as soon as I put her on the potty, the phone rang. I went in the other room to talk and she went. Glorious day!

Today has been better. She’s no longer afraid of the potty (I think spending all that time on it cured her of that) and she started off the morning going both ways! Yay! We had several other successful attempts today (and some near misses) but I think we’re finally on the right track.

If I have learned anything about my little girl through this, it is that she is one determined lady. I have found in the past and through this experience that often times, you have to be willing to literally wait her out to get her to come around to your way of thinking. Someone told me this means she will be an independent thinker when she grows up. I have no doubt about that.