Big Girl Type Accomplishments

I haven't written about it much, other than to say that it might be the death of me, but we've been working hard on getting Gabbie potty trained. I really wanted a few months without diapers, and I don't want to jinx it, but it looks like we might have reached that goal! I have about three months left before our Littlest Miss gets here and Gabbie has been accident free for over a week now.


Potty training may be the hardest thing I ever did. Throw in a busy work schedule, a strong pregnancy gag reflex that caused my husband to have to be the only one who had to deal with the number two type accidents, and all kinds of evening and weekend plans, and you get one stressed out family. Gabbie was ready, though. I don't think we would be where we are without daycare, and their strong efforts in the potty training arena as well. The peer pressure from the other kids in her class, big girl underpants with "Melmo" (Elmo), "Ancy Ancy" (Fancy Nancy), and "Minnamuss" (Minnie Mouse) didn't hurt either.

I am not above bribery to get my way in certain situations, and so we bribed with treats, "big treats" (fancier candy when she did a number two), and small presents for entire days (or entire multiple days as she progressed) without accidents. Now that she has gone more than a week, I'm thinking we'll get her one more surprise and then call it quits with all the treats. We've been phasing them out anyway.

As our work stress levels have lessened a bit, we've been able to see more humor in the whole process. Aaron has taken a page out of Gabbie's book and run out of the bathroom announcing to the room, "I PEED!" (Then I about peed - he should know better than to make a pregnant lady laugh so hard.) She's so proud of herself, though, that she can't help but announce her success, and sometimes clap too, every time she goes to the potty.

The best humor came a few weeks ago when Gabbie came with me for a potty break in a fairly crowded department store restroom. As I was taking care of business, Gabbie busted out with the clapping and a "Yay Mommy" for my potty success. There was snickering from the rest of our audience in the room, and one mom reminisced with me about when she was going through the same thing. It was pretty awesome.

I'm so proud of my big girl. She is growing up so much every day, and I feel like every time I blink she's doing something new. Two may sometimes be terrible, but I have to admit I'm enjoying it quite a lot. Even more now that I don't have to change diapers!

2 comments:

donna said...
September 16, 2010 at 11:20 AM

That is awesome news! Isn't it great when they can just go on their own? We still struggle at night but it's getting there.

Just be aware that when the new baby comes, Gabbie might regress on her potty training. It's so common in older siblings - I guess they want to be treated like the baby again too. You might not want to get rid of ALL the diapers in her size :-)

Cassie said...
September 16, 2010 at 2:11 PM

I will be e-mailing you for tips here soon. I know I just need to take the leap and just DO IT -- I'm pretty sure Andrew's almost ready -- but I'm dragging my feet. Did you go to Pull-Ups first, or just straight from diapers to underwear? I really need to start doing some research.

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