Potty trained!

As of last month Sienna has officially been potty trained!

With that said, I wanted to share with a few tips  that worked for us that may help make potty training simpler and less stressful for you and your toddler. 

• Normalize the idea of using the potty early. This is my biggest tip for you! Bring your child in the bathroom with you. Tell him what you are doing and why. Everyone needs to go potty. There should be no shame in it. We introduced Sienna to her potty at about 9 months, of course not pushing her to use it that young but just so she got familiar with it. 99% of the time she would go #2 after breakfast so I would sit her on it and we'd read books, most of the time she wound up going and Id make a huge celebration that she always loved and found hilarious.

• Don't be forceful especially when they show zero interest. They will at some point. We've made a few attempts when she was a little over 1, she was interested for a few days then wanted absolutely nothing to do with it, which was fine. We laid off and didn't push it until she showed interest herself. (you dont want to force it on them and scare them away from it)

• Have lots of naked time! (or at least pant-less time) Almost every mother I have spoken to say this was key in their training! Yes, there will be accidents, but thats how they'll learn. Right when Sienna turned 2 we got her undies, we let her pick them out herself and told her she was a big girl now (she was thrilled about this idea) which I think sparked her interest & made her decide "diapers were for babies" a month later....at 25 months she was 100% trained. When they have an accident in their undies, they feel it and dont like it all over their legs.... undies was key for us

• Just stay calm and don’t expect too much right away. It will save you a lot of headaches and battles. It can be frustrating at times, I know that....but you really need to muster up all the patience you can - it takes a lot of it. I had to remind myself of that as I would clean pee of our rugs and couches extremely frustrated and ready to throw in the towel. Thankfully it didn't last long and we put away our living room rug for the time being and put towels on the couches.

It was very random with Sienna I have to say, she's always had access to her potty and would use it on rare occasion since she's had it- absolutely nothing consistent till recently. One day last month she just became really interested and asked to go on it (my parents were in town visiting at the time so she liked showing off for them)....we praised the heck out of her when she did and shes been good from then on....of course there were some accidents along the way but for the most part it was just like something clicked and she was done with diapers. From that day on, we kept her in undies only and asked her if she needed to go very frequently...she would go often...even if there were only a few drops of pee it was still good practice.  #2 was on the other hand was a little harder...she was all about doing that privacy, even when she was in diapers she would go hide in the closet or behind a dining room chair, If i happened to walk in and at the time she was doing it she would cry and tell me to go away...so she hasn't been a fond of the idea of poop on the potty being a spectacle with me in the bathroom trying to assist her. So that part took some bribing...gummy snacks & mini ice cream cones....and more accidents in her undies than there were with pee...but after about 2 weeks she got it.

When we'd go out, we would constantly remind her shes in undies and ask her if she needed to go every several minutes, I'm sure it was quite annoying to her, it was even annoying to me asking her so often...but it just kept her from forgetting she wasn't in a diaper anymore and couldn't just go in her pants. She does still wear a diaper overnight, I don't really expect her to hold it in her sleep. Most days she wakes up with a dry diaper anyway, and I rather her not get woken up by wet sheets in the middle of the night.

At the end of the day, Potty training taught me a big major lesson in life and in motherhood. 

Listen to your child. Forget the books. Forget the experts. Forget what every other kid is doing. She isn't like every other kid, she is her own self.