Potty Training Woes

Sooo...potty training...is it a dirty word at your house??

Because it is at mine right now!!!

I'll just be real honest with you all...
I am NOT a big fan of potty training!!

I wish I could send my kids off somewhere and have someone potty train them for me!
But, alas, I suffer through.
Let me explain briefly...
Child #4.
 Attempt #1:
She is about 26 months.
We start the process, I use a method where you potty train in 3 days.

You never leave their side.  You give them lots of liquids.  Lots of encouragement.  Don't get mad when they have accidents, just brush it off and move on.  You don't ask "Do you need to go potty?"...instead you remind every 10-15 minutes, "Remember to tell Mommy when you need to go potty!"
All this goes fine.  She does amazing and after the 3 days she is doing great!  Even at night she is staying dry in panties! (Because this method says take away diapers and pull-ups completely!)

Then after 1 week she starts digressing.
And after 2 weeks she is having more accidents than successes.
I am beyond frustrated and I decide she is too young and not ready.  She is a stubborn girl, I know this already.
I put her back in diapers.

We wait a few months and try again.
Attempt #2
Now she is 2 1/2.
Again, she takes to it well at first.  But after a few weeks she stops doing good.
I mean, she just wets herself and doesn't even care!!!

This goes on for a couple weeks (so at this attempt #2 she has been trained for almost 2 months).
I decide at this point that I am just going to have to potty train my last 2 kids together!!
(they are 17 months apart)

I put her back in diapers.
And I vow that I will wait until my baby is 2 and then train them together.  At this point my baby is 18 months.
Well, the week of Christmas, my stubborn #4 decided ON.HER.OWN that she wants to be potty trained!
She insists on wearing panties.
And guess what...she actually did great!  No accidents...going like a champ.
I thought, "Whew, finally!  She just wanted to decide on her own that she could do this!"
Soooooo....
about 1 month after  Christmas all of a sudden this said child starts digressing BIG TIME again.
What?!?!?!?!?!
I was beyond words of frustration!!
She was having more and more accidents and just simply not caring that she was doing that.
Shockingly enough, I was pretty calm with her when she would do it...but inside I was so confused and frustrated!
Would my child be in Pull-ups walking into kindergarten??
I contemplated AGAIN putting her back in a diaper.
I sought advice from friends and my mom.
Then I talked it over with the husband.
Could we both be on board to suffer through this stage she was in and keep going?
To stay calm and keep encouraging her and pray she would eventually get this?!?
Yes.
We were both on board.
Keep trucking through this.
And guess what...after a week or two or lots of accidents and not caring
SHE GOT IT!
I think she would just get to a point where she was lazy and didn't really want to do this so she would regress and then we would eventually give in and she would get a diaper or pull-up to just sit and have a pee party in and she was fine with that.
By us staying strong through that phase, she eventually realized that she HAD to care and that we weren't giving in this time.


See, she never ASKED to have a diaper back...in fact she would get very upset when we WOULD put one on her.
But she quickly started freely wetting in it once it was on her.
So once we stayed strong and kept panties on her consistently, she had no choice.  
And I feel confident saying that my 40 month old child is FINALLY potty trained!
Now, what will child #5 bring??!!

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