Potty training

Date: 27 December 2010
by Mommypixie

Think I got trained instead.

I started my research on potty training when Isla.X was turning 15 months and liked the 'Potty training in three days' as featured in Baby Center. When she was at her 15 month mark, I let her go diaper less for a few days and started letting her sit on the regular toilet bowl with the training potty seat. I managed to let her poo in the toilet a few times and that was because her poo was hard to start with and I could see her constipated look and was able to rush to the toilet on time.

At her 15 month, I was back in JB for almost 1.5 months and since I don't have a helper with me, I did not continue with my haphazard potty training. (I was not very systematic to start with as there was always something that crop up and training her for a consective 3 days was not possible.) But I did let her wear cloth diaper for a while as she started protesting when I put disposable diapers on her. Guess that helped as she could feel the wet sensation, which is part of potty training.

When we flew back to Beijing in mid Oct, when she was about 16 months, I did not continue with the potty training as she wasn't very well on and off for about a month.

But when she was into her second half of 16 months, one day, she dug out a part of the potty, which is a bowl like shaped container which was meant to hold her pee and poo, and started squatting on it, saying 'shee shee..'. It was so cute.

Sometimes when she does that, I will bring her to the regular toilet bowl and let her sit on it, with the training potty seat placed on the toilet bowl.

It was hard work as she likes to say shee shee...and then when brought to the toilet, will sit there and shake her head.

At 17 months, when she says shee shee...it usually means she want to poop, only that she doesn't want to poo into the toilet bowl. And she turned this into a tactic to delay sleeping time. She would go 'shee shee' when I am settling her down to bed and to give her the benefit of doubt, I would remove the diaper, bring her to the toilet, wait with her for her to pee, which she doesn't, and bring her back to bed and struggle to put a new diaper on her again.

When she was turning 18 months, she liked the idea of saying 'shee shee', where Mommypixie would remove the diaper, bring her to the toilet, and she would ask for 'zzeee' (meaning the toilet paper), and she would pretend to wipe herself and throw the toilet paper into the bowl.

Having said that, she managed to poop into the toilet bowl a few times, which she would be rewarded with 'flushing the toilet'. We would also say 'bye bye' to her poop before we flush so she was quite happy with the whole ritual.

Today, on 21.12.2010, at night, she wanted to remove her diapers and the Grandma asked Mommypixie if Isla.X wanted to pee (We returned to JB from BJ a few days ago). Well, I wanted to say "NO LAH! She always say shee shee but never does it. She just want to sit on the toilet bowl and play with the toilet paper" but stopped myself and brought her to the toilet instead (although I had none of the potty parts with me) and helped her sit onto the toilet bowl.

After about 5 seconds, Mommypixie heard the trickle and she pee-ed! Mommypixie was so surprised and happy!

And this feat was immediately announced to the Grandma and the Grandpa. and the Daddy when the Daddy called.

So we let her take a break from the diaper and let her wear her undies instead.

At bedtime, which is about 1 hour after the successful pee in the toilet, Mommypixie brought Isla.X into the toilet and told Isla.X to pee, even though she did not say shee shee. She sat there for a while, and proceeded to pee!

Wow...she can control her bladder now!

I am mighty pleased with her and have decided to mark today with this blog.

Not exactly sure if she is indeed potty trained yet as 2 successful tries in less than 2 hours does not seem to suggest that to me. But I vow to take her seriously now the next time she says "Shee Shee".

And I concluded that Isla.X has trained Mommypixie instead. Trained Mommypixie to rush to the toilet whenever she says shee shee, whether or not she indeed does want to pee or poop.