Patience and Potty Training

I finally have my 2 year old on a regular potty training schedule, after a few months of her playing with the potty. Marli sits on the potty after each meal she has during the day, and once right before bedtime. At first, I was getting a little frustrated because she wouldn't sit on the potty long enough to actually do anything. Then once I got her to sit long enough, it seems like she would just hold it until I put a pamper back on her. This potty training thing was really starting to frustrate me, and having newborn twins to look after was not making the situation any easier.




I knew that I needed something to help me get her potty trained a little easier. Since my baby girl loves to look at pictures in books, I figured that finding a potty training book would be my best option. I ended up finding a cool girlie potty training book called, "Big Girls Use the Potty." The book has a cute potty story to follow for girls, with great pictures for her to relate to, as well as a cool potty training chart with reward stickers. Before I read the story to Marli, I let her spend some time looking at the book as she sat on the potty. The book distracted her, from the fact that she was actually sitting on the potty. She seemed to like the book, and she took interest in the fact that the little girls in the book were using the potty too.

I decided that reading to Marli and allowing her to hold the book herself, was the technique that I would be using to encourage potty time. After I included the book along with a few others to her potty routine, Marli has become pretty good at peeing in the potty. She gets a sticker on her chart, everyday that she does well on the potty. The book came with a 40 day chart, to mark her progress as we go along. For the days that she does extremely well, she gets the bigger stickers with the teddy on the potty as a reward. A little over a month into potty training, and my only concern now is getting her to be comfortable enough to relieve her bowels in the potty. I need to try and place her on the potty, right when I think that she's about go number 2 in her pamper. I'm not frustrated with that fact that she is not comfortable with passing her bowels in the potty just yet. Her 2nd birthday isn't until the 20th of this month, and I think that she will do it when I least expect it. As of right now, I am happy with Marli's progress on the potty. I'm just not looking forward to doing it all over again with twin boys next year.