Potty Training... Take 3

 So the title of this post has a double meaning... Yes, this is my 3rd child potty trained AND Yes, it took me 3 tries to potty train her!  You might notice in the pics that she looks younger (and her hair is shorter) well, these pics are from last May.

 

I tried to wait for a week that were home (mostly) but it wasn't happening so I decided to take the plunge and give it a go.  We got all the undies (including new "My Little Pony" undies from her Easter basket), we got the treats (suckers and gumdrops), we made a BIG deal of this, and... we had an AWESOME first day of potty training!  I'm talkin' 4 successes and only 1 accident.  For day 2 we were not so fortunate... something like 4 or 5 accidents and maybe 1 success.  Day 3 and 4 were not good.  I would have called it quits after day 3 but Sadie was really rooting for her and really wanted her to try another day.

 After 3 solid days of cleaning up a lot of messes I was content to put her back in diapers.  We took a break until August.  We tried again when Sadie started Kindergarten.  The second try also did not go well.  She was not interested in sitting on the potty.  She would have accidents and not tell me.  She basically peed in her underwear ALL DAY LONG.  Our second attempt was short lived... 2 days.

 As you know, I found out in October that we were expecting again.  The months of November and December were a bit of blur (lots of throwing up and as many naps as I could squeeze in!)  By the time Christmas rolled around I was determined to get this girl into underwear so our bank account could have a brief reprieve before the diaper buying would start again.  We started talking about how Macey would be a BIG girl and use the POTTY after Christmas.  We talked about it A LOT!

When January finally rolled around I decided to wait until Sadie was back in school; however, Sadie once again was eager to be mommy's assistant and convinced me to start the day before she went back (she actually was a big help!)  We made a princess chart for Macey to fill with stickers.  We set the timer for her to try and potty every 15-20 minutes.  We bribed her with m&m's, and we did the potty dance like crazy.  Something worked (or else she was just "ready") because take 3 was Absolutely Amazing!  I have to admit I was dreading it... hoping for the best but preparing for the worst.  Macey went potty all day long on the first day.  On day #2 she had only 1 accident (while we were walking home from taking Sadie to school).  Also by day 2 we did not need the timer because she told me whenever she needed to go.  I felt confident letting her take short car trips in her underwear because she was doing so well.  I started off putting her in a diaper for bedtime but by the second night she was waking me up early (4am) to go potty so we switched to pull-ups.  After about a week she was ready to wear undies to bed (although she was very hesitant because she was so nervous about peeing the bed!) 

I'm so proud of my BIG "baby" girl.  I'm so thankful to be out of diapers.  When this little guy comes he'll be the only one in diapers which is also something I'm thankful for.  I do feel like most kids can be potty trained between the ages of 2-3 (earlier if you're really ambitious!) but for me, waiting was definitely worth it!