Disclaimer: The following post contains information about potty training as it pertains to one toddler. Words such as “pee” and “bowel” are used. As well as words like “potty,” “underwear,” and “wet.” It may come across as graphic in nature to some people. Please stop reading now if you have an aversion to potty talk. Thank You. You have been warned.

Bridget has been potty training. . .
I’ve spent far more time in the bathroom that I would like to admit. At times it bordered on 30 minutes per potty session. I am thankful that part is over. She’s gotten to the point that if she says she needs to go, she really does go – previously we would ask if she needed to use the bathroom and we’d end up in there for 15 minutes (or more) with no success, just to have her pee in her underwear 2 minutes later.

She’s tried crying wolf. It drives me insane. “Got to go potty” “Just kidding” – or the times that she needs to use the bathroom just as an excuse to stay up a few minutes longer. She’s even nearly fallen asleep on the toilet once.

Some days she goes through 3 or 4 pairs of underwear, other days she’s dry all day. Once she decided that every time she sat on the potty she needed new underwear, whether or not they were soiled. She wore every pair she owned that day.

But the worst part. . . dry, chapped hands. Now that I wash my hands every time I use the bathroom AND every time she does, my hands have gotten beat up. The cold winter air doesn’t help. And I didn’t even mention all the baths and dishes. I bought some Curel hand lotion the other day. It has helped a lot.

Anyway, here is an attempt at a potty chronology. Some of the dates are approx.:

June 2007 (19 months old)
– We bought a “potty” for Bridget. She was still a bit young to really try, but she was starting to express some interest.

. . . The interest came and went, and the potty got put away for awhile. It came out now and then when she remembered about it. . .

November 2007 (2 years old)
– We bought her first package of underwear and just let her get used to the idea. She would wear it when she asked, but we didn’t push the issue.

. . . Thanksgiving and Christmas meant a lot of traveling. We weren’t terribly rigid about the underwear wearing thing. Though, when she did wear it, we didn’t have too many messes. But we also spent 20-30 minutes in the bathroom (several times a day). Some days I felt like all I did was sit around in the bathroom. Some days it was the truth. . .

December 25, 2007 (2 years, 1 month)
– Santa brought Elmo underwear!

. . . And a few good underwear wearing days transpired. . .

December 27-29, 2007
– We decided to go out of town. And although we took underwear with us, she spent a good portion of the trip in diapers. We got daring and let her ride home from Syracuse to Logan wearing her panties. She did great!

December 30, 2007
– We don’t dare let her loose at church in underwear just yet. Out come the “big kid pants” (pull-ups).
– We tried letting her wear underwear to bed. That was more stressful (for me) then it was worth. I woke her up in the night once to go potty. She woke up in the morning with dry sheets, but slightly wet underwear screaming “I got to go potty, mom.”

December 31, 2007
– I hear that they way to do things is to keep the kid in underwear all day and fill her up with liquids so she’ll know when she needs to go. It went alright. She even napped in underwear. Just one accident later in the day, but it wasn’t very bad. She stayed up until midnight. Pull-up for bedtime.
– She thinks she’s big enough to go potty all by herself. She’s wrong.