WE DID IT!
We did it, Savannah did it, she is FINALLY potty trained! Goodness, it was the longest trial with her we have ever had. Last year around her birthday, she asked if she could use the potty. I thought "oh, awesome! Potty training is going to be a piece of cake!" How wrong I was. She showed interest only for a couple of weeks, and then gave up. I didn't push it, mostly because I wasn't really planning on potty training her until she was 3, but by the time she was 2 1/2, my mom kept telling me that it was probably time to have her ditch the diapers. I tried off and on, mostly making her use the toilet before bedtime, but with a new baby and school, I didn't really want to devote time to rushing her off to the bathroom every 20 minutes. And Savannah absolutely hated every minute of it.
We tried everything, we bought her books about pirates who used the potty, kept her naked all day, gave her rewards like stickers and candy, watched cartoons about being a "big girl" and using the "big kid potty". But absolutely none of it worked.
A few weeks ago, I just about threw in the towel. I thought "If she wants to stay in diapers the rest of her life, I'm ok with that. She can go to college in them for all I care!"
But then I made a trip to the store and bought DJ a box of diapers and her a box of pull-ups and it cost me almost 90 bucks. That's when Bryant and I thought, alright, that's it. This whole not-wanting-to-be-potty-trained thing is costing us a fortune. We agreed that would be the last box of diapers for her.
The weather has been cold and windy for the last couple of weeks, so I thought it was perfect for staying indoors and having her be naked. The first few days, I kept her naked, and she didn't have a lot of accidents. So I moved on to keeping her in just underwear and a shirt. She had a lot of accidents the first 2 days. Then it got less and less. So I moved to keeping her in underwear and fully dressed and she was able to be aware of when she needed to use the bathroom, and would ask "Mom, am I wearing diapers or skivvies?" And when I told her skivvies, she would say "ok, I need to use the bathroom."
THAT has always been our biggest hurtle, was getting her to TELL us when she had to use the bathroom. She would go every time we sat her on the potty, but she just couldn't figure out to tell us if she had to go beforehand.
But, I am very happy to announce that she has gone almost 2 weeks, and she's only had 1 accident and it was because we just couldn't get her to the potty on time.
The last few days, she has been taking herself to the bathroom. That's been really nice. And today, we were going to her friends house to play and on the way there she asked "Mom, does Connor's house have a toilet?" way to think ahead kiddo!
To say I'm proud is an understatement. It's a relief to know that when I drop her off at her college dorms someday, I won't be handing her a box of diapers to get her through the semester.
