Unfortunately I don't have any picture of this process, but I decided to blog about it anyway -- mostly to remind myself that, despite the rocky beginning, it has really turned out quite well.
We cleaned a lot of puddles on days 1 through 3. Adelaida hadn't yet learned that she couldn't just pee whenever she wanted, so there were a lot of puddles to clean up. Fortunately we have tile downstairs and lived in that part of the house for several days.
A slight victory occurred on day 4 -- Adelaida realized that she was not supposed to pee in her panties, but didn't yet understand that it was OK to pee in the toilet. She did a lot of dancing and holding her urine and really didn't want to pee at all for the next several days. We were able to take her places during this time -- she went to soccer classes and grocery shopping and out to eat with us, all without incident. We just had to be really vigilant and make sure she was in a "safe" place when she started doing the toilet dance.
Around day 11, Adelaida realized that when she needed to go to the bathroom, she was supposed to let us know and sit on the toilet. She did this very consistently, but still didn't want to actually pee in the toilet. So, she'd hold her urine until she couldn't hold it anymore, tell us she had to use the toilet, sit on the toilet for about 30 seconds, stand up and say "all done" and then cry while she peed. At least it was predictable!
On day 14, Adelaida put all the pieces together. She told me that evening that she had to use the toilet, sat down, and intentionally peed into the toilet. She then stood up and said "all done." The process was happening in the correct order! I was so proud of my big girl!
For the next six days, Adelaida did a great job of letting us know when she needed to use the toilet, sitting down on the toilet, and peeing or pooping on the toilet. She still had a few accidents each day, mostly at naptime (she has been wearing panties at naptime and sometimes would go to the bathroom while sleeping or immediately after waking up from her nap).
Today, day 21 of toilet training, Adelaida hit another milestone: she had no accidents at all today! Every time she needed to pee or poop, she let her teacher or me know, waited until she got to the toilet, sat down, and did her business on the toilet! She was dry at naptime, she had no dribbles from trying to hold her urine, no accidents at all. She has been telling me for the past three weeks that "Adelaida is a big girl" and she certainly is.
I'm not so naive as to believe that there will be no accidents at all in her future, and we still need to tackle night-time (it was too difficult to get up several times a night to change her panties/pajamas/sheets/blanket when she was still peeing several times a night). But she certainly knows what to do and is good about letting us know when she needs to use the toilet.
Here is a picture of my big girl, from a few months ago.
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