*The picture above is what my bathroom looked like after Day 1*
This is the 3rd post regarding my potty training journey, to read from the beginning please refer back to Potty Training…Ugh and Oh Crap! Potty Training.
Day 1
I went into day one very anxious and nervous about how the day would go. I knew I had to be watching her every move, all day, and I had to keep her entertained inside. My daughter loves to be outside, so I knew trapping her in the apartment would be challenging. I was also really concerned about how she would handle this change. Would she resist it? Would it take her a while to register her need for the toilet? I really had no idea.
I am happy to report my daughter did very well today! I followed the direction Glowacki laid out for Block One of her method. My daughter didn’t mind being naked all day; I think she kind of loved it. She, of course, had a couple of accidents, but for the most part, she would give a ‘pee signal’ and would hold it until she got to the bathroom! She even managed to get her poop in the toilet today. I did a happy dance!
She far exceeded my expectations of the day. Although this excites me, I’m making sure not to get too ahead of myself because, as Glowacki points out, many children do well in the first block, but it’s the second block that seems to cause the most difficulty.
There are some things that I did a bit differently then Glowacki laid out. For the first pee of the day, I did sit her on the potty for a while, hoping she would pee. This was a bit of a challenge because my daughter didn’t like sitting there but, she did eventually pee. For the rest of the day, I followed Glowacki’s plan to allow my daughter to either begin to pee herself or make a signal to pee before I brought her to the toilet. Admittedly this did seem to work out better. As well, I did not use a potty. I used the toddler toilet insert with steps, that you see in the image above. My daughter did well with this; she climbed up to the toilet herself and sat well on the insert.
I had many reasons for choosing this toddler toilet, one being that I didn’t want her to get used to the potty and then go through another teaching process to get her on the toilet and two if we are out in public or at someone’s house the big toilet is the only thing she will have.
There are some things that didn’t go exactly as planned. For one, my daughter thought it was fun to say “uh oh” and run to the bathroom, so by the end of the day, this was happening every 3-5 min, and obviously, she didn’t have to go each time. I wasn’t sure how to handle this, so I decided it was best to go with her each time and if she did nothing, just walk away from the bathroom. I tried to make it an uneventful experience so she wouldn’t keep wanting to go back. As well, she loves washing her hands, so I wouldn’t let her wash her hands unless she actually peed or pooped. I’m interested to see if this continues tomorrow.
Lastly, I found it difficult to entertain my daughter in our apartment, ALL DAY, so I often turned to Netflix… don’t be ashamed if you have to too. My daughter learned something new today, regardless of how much TV she watched!
Day 2
Before I get started detailing my 2nd day of potty training, I wanted to mention that after yesterday I was a bit concerned about my daughter always wanting to go to the bathroom. I decided to email Jamie Glowacki about it and see if she had any helpful tips. I wasn’t expecting a prompt response as I am sure she is a very busy person. However she really surprised me, she responded to me immediately (or her employees did)! She showed me she really cares and this made me more confident about choosing her potty training method.
Day 2- Beginning Block Two
Glowacki reminds her readers that moving from one block to another is not counted by days. You can spend many days on each block; it is all about the signs you are getting from your child as they learn to use the potty. My husband and I felt that our daughter was ready for Block Two on day 2 (we checked the checklist in the book, and our daughter checked all the boxes).
Block Two introduced clothing to our potty training toddler. They go from being naked all day (block one) to now wearing clothing. As Glowacki recommends, we didn’t put underwear on our daughter during this stage. When my daughter woke up, we took off her nighttime diaper and took her to the potty for the morning pee, which she did! Then afterwards we told her it was time to put clothes on and we dressed her for the day.
The clothes did not seem to bother my daughter; she pretty much followed the same pattern as yesterday. She would mostly give the signal to go potty or pee herself a bit then hold it until I got her to the toilet. It didn’t seem like the clothing changed anything at all! When she woke up from her nap, and I took off her diaper it was pretty dry, which hopefully means she’s also learning to try and hold her pee during sleep (we won’t be night training her anytime soon). We continued to stay home for the rest of the day, and she continued to go to the bathroom. She only had one small accident today!
I have to mention that my husband and I got a bit too confident in our daughter and watched her less carefully today. When I was cleaning up later on in the day, I found a puddle in her playroom. This could have easily been water from her cup, or it could have been pee. We tried to figure out if it was pee but, we couldn’t tell. Therefore, she may have had another accident. We were disappointed in ourselves because if we just watched her a bit more, we would know if it was an accident or not. If it was an accident, it was our fault, not hers. Regardless of this, we took today as a massive success for her. Tomorrow we will continue Block Two with short outings. We all can’t wait to get out of the house!
Day 3
Today was a big day; not only were we going to get out of the house, but we also decided to introduce underwear to our daughter. I know Glowacki emphasizes not to do this for at least a couple weeks, but we decided we had to. Firstly, it is summer right now, and my daughter loves playing in the sand, and her shorts do not fully cover her. I was worried she would get upset with all the sand in her shorts. Secondly, we have her 2-year-old check-up tomorrow, and I don’t think the doctor’s office would appreciate her coming in without underwear. Lastly, her daycare did not seem very happy with her not wearing underwear or a diaper. For all these reasons, I thought it only made sense to introduce underwear to her now.
When we showed her the underwear, we called them “big girl undies.” We gave them to her right when we threw out her diaper. Right after putting them on, we also reinforced the idea of the toilet. I am happy to say she followed the same routine as yesterday and continued to pee in the bathroom.
Today we finally went outside!
In the morning we went to the park, and in the afternoon we went to the beach. I am trying to get her into the rhythm of going to the bathroom before leaving the house but, she is reluctant to go unless she has to. Very grudgingly, she went to the toilet before our first outing but refused before leaving for the beach in the afternoon. I may try to just wait for a pee before going out if this continues.
When we got to the park, we followed Glowacki’s suggestion to show her where the public washrooms were. We also brought a potty in case the public bathroom freaked her out but, we didn’t show it to her. She had no accidents in the park, and she didn’t need to go to the bathroom at all.
After her nap, we got ready to go to the beach. We brought the potty with us (I pictured us having to take her swimsuit off to let her pee just like Glowacki mentioned but, I was also okay with her just peeing in the water). On our walk over, she looked up at us and said, “uh oh poo-poo,” so we stopped in the middle of the street, took out her potty, and she went pee. We both laughed at the sight of it but, it worked! Once we got to the beach, she played in the water, no mention of the potty, and after about an hour, we left to go home. No potty stop on our way home, my guess is she peed in the water.
Once she got home, she got back into her routine of going to the bathroom when she needed to pee. She had no accidents today!! However, this is the second day in a row she has not gone poo in the toilet. Yesterday she didn’t poop at all, and today she went poop during her nap. Glowacki says this is normal, and she will go poo in the toilet again when she’s comfortable.
Day 3 was a success!
Day 4
I wanted to try and have a typical day today to see how my daughter would do.
In the morning, she went to the bathroom before leaving the house for her doctor’s appointment. I brought the potty to the car but did not bring it into the doctor’s office.
When we got to the office, I took my daughter straight to the bathroom, and she had no problem using the toilet. The doctor was also a bit backed up, so I knew we would be spending more time in the office then I had planned. We were there for about 2 hours. She used the bathroom a couple more times while we were there, and she had no accidents!
When we got back home, she continued her pattern as before. However, right before her nap, she went to the bathroom, peed a bit, but then got up as though she was finished. She wasn’t finished and continued to pee on the floor. She said “uh oh” and sat back down, but she had nothing left at that point. This was a bit worrying because I feel like she tries to rush herself when she is peeing. I try to get her to wait and sit on the toilet until she is entirely done but, she doesn’t like to sit there.
The rest of the day went pretty well until about an hour before bedtime. She wasn’t in the best mood and seemed a bit bored. She then began to pee herself while saying, “uh oh”. She stopped, and I rushed her to the bathroom, and she peed a bit more in the toilet. This was a bit of an odd accident; I was cooking while it happened, and I worry she was trying to get my attention by peeing. I hope this isn’t the case, and we will see how she does tomorrow at daycare.
Day 5
Today I brought my daughter to her first day of daycare since beginning potty training. Luckily, her daycare was very supportive of this transition and assured me they would make sure to bring her to the bathroom throughout the day. I was a bit worried about how the day would go. My daughter loves daycare; she loves playing with the other kids, eating with her friends, and so much more. I was worried she would forget about the potty or she just wouldn’t want to go due to all the fun she is having.
Unfortunately, my daughter did not do well at daycare. She had three accidents, two times peed her pants and once pooped in her pants. I was a bit disappointed by this. However, her daycare was very supportive. They felt that she did very well regardless of the accidents. Each time the accident happened, she brought it to the teacher’s attention and was taken to the toilet to continue peeing. When she began to poop herself, she also told the teachers, but by the time they got her to the bathroom, she had already pooped in her underwear. Hopefully, tomorrow will be better.
Luckily once she got home, she got back into her routine and used the toilet to go pee. However, we are noticing that she doesn’t really want to go to the bathroom anymore. In the beginning, it was a fun new game that excited her, but now it’s not as fun anymore, and I’m beginning to see some resistance. Hopefully, this doesn’t last!
Day 5 was not a great day, but I am staying optimistic that tomorrow will be better!
Day 6
My daughter woke up a bit early today, which was a bit difficult to manage with her potty time. She went pee right when she woke up, but then when we were leaving for daycare, about 45 min later, she refused to go again. Luckily, she made it to daycare with no accidents. The moment we got to daycare, I took her to the bathroom, and she peed.
My daughter did very well for most of the day at daycare. She peed and even pooped in the toilet. However, after she woke up from her nap, they went outside and then she seemed reluctant to use the bathroom again. Her daycare teachers took her, but she didn’t do anything, only to have her pee herself 10min later. They told me she peed herself three times within 30min. I am worried that she will now think it is okay to pee outside. I hope this was just a little bump in the road, and this doesn’t continue every time she’s playing outside.
On our way home from daycare, she peed in the car seat, which she has never done. It made me feel a bit discouraged about her progress.
Luckily, when she got home, she continued in her routine.
Day six did not go as well as I hoped but, tomorrow is day 3 of daycare and day 7 of potty training, so crossing my fingers tomorrow is a good day!
Day 7
Today was my daughter’s last day of daycare for the week. I am excited to report that she only had one accident at daycare! She went to the bathroom almost every time she had to pee. This is so much better than her first couple days at daycare, and I think this will continue to improve the more accustomed to toilets she becomes.
She also did pretty well when she was home; she only had one accident close to bedtime. As she began to pee herself, she stopped to continue peeing in the toilet. This shows me she at least knows she shouldn’t be peeing outside of the bathroom.
She only had two accidents today, and I am very happy about that.
My Final Thoughts…
I loved using Glowacki’s method for potty training. I think it has worked very well for our toddler. I recommend her book, Oh Crap! Potty Training to all parents about to take on this new milestone.
I must admit, this has been a very challenging week. I felt mentally drained at the end of each day. Additionally, there was added tension between my husband and I as we both try to figure out how to best help our daughter with this change. Luckily, my husband also read Glowacki’s book, so we agreed on most aspects of how to support our daughter in this transition. It was exhausting for us both, and it was especially exhausting for our daughter. However, we are thrilled that we started this journey, and we know now that the hardest part (we hope at least) is behind us.
Whenever you decide to take on this new task with your toddler, it will bring challenges, but it also brings out a whole new side to your child. Watching this new toddler emerge is pretty amazing. Sadly seeing her in underwear does signify the ending of her baby stage but, we’re so excited to see what’s in store for us in this next chapter of our daughters growth.
I hope our potty training journey will help you when you decided to embark on this new adventure. If you have any questions or comments, please write them below.
Turning Pages with Trish 