Potty Training: In Summary

View more of the series here --> Day One: Intro//Day Two: The Prep//Day Three: The Big Day




I hope you've enjoyed this series as much as I have. I've been meaning to write about this experience, so I enjoy using this blog as a digital baby book of sorts for Alea, but I needed a kick in the butt from Tricia to do it! Today I'm going to share with you some tips & tricks I have for you when it comes to venturing out in public and what to do if your significant other disagrees with your training method ;)

When I decided that it was time to buckle down and get Alea potty trained, Cory and I didn't really discuss it much. I was going to be home with her and I was going to be the one doing the training so we were going to do things my way. Or so I thought. Turns out a little discussion with your significant other wouldn't hurt things and it might provide some insight. Cory thought that my day one strategy was a little hardcore and thought that we could potty train her in a more simple manner and maybe lay off the oodles and oodles of sippy cups. However, he also thought that it could still be done in diapers and there's where I disagreed. So we met in the middle.

Day two of potty training, I went with Cory's strategy but stuck with the undies. I let Alea drink as she pleased but didn't constantly make sure she had a sippy cup in hand. Of course there were less trips to the potty, but this helped her understand the sensations of needing to use the potty, whereas day one she basically just needed to go all the time. Taking it down a notch helped with her understanding, no doubt. So, believe it or not... guys sometimes know what they're talking about... but to a certain extent of course!

Now when it comes to venturing out in public with a newly potty trained little one I'm going to agree with Kate Gosslin on this one (yes... I'm a closet Kate fan) and say that I think you should wait at least a week before you take your little one to the supermarket or wherever else you might go. However, I'm the airhead mom that scheduled Alea's 2 year check-up that Friday. (We began potty training on that Monday.) Here are 5 things I made SURE to do on this trip:

1. Make sure they at least try and go before you leave.
2. Do not let them liberally drink from their sippy within an hour of when you have to leave.
3. When you get to your destination, bring them to the bathroom.
4. Ask them a billion and twelve times whether they need to go potty while you're at said destination.
5. Bring them to the potty again before you leave.

And one more recommendation I have is to bring their potty chair with you. I say this because the day after Alea's doctors appointment we had a 4 hour road trip scheduled to visit Cory's family. Our first stop on that trip for Alea to go potty was in a Wal-mart restroom. Wal-mart restrooms have automatic flushers. And now Alea is absolutely traumatized and scared-to-death of any public restroom! I'm sure she'll get over it eventually, but until then I tote around her potty chair when we go places because I can't stand sounding like I'm torturing my child in the bathroom!

Back to road trips. I recommend buying a waterproof cover for either their car seat or one for them to wear. We bought one for Alea to wear off of Amazon for about $12 and chose to go that route because then we wouldn't have to completely switch out her outfit OR have her sit in a soggy car seat for the rest of the trip. It worked great-- but she also began her first day of ZERO accidents starting the day of our trip!

That's right folks, Alea Lou was officially potty trained 5 days into our potty training! She's had an accident here or there since then, but I honestly don't remember the last time she had one. She's still wearing diapers for naps and bed time, but usually wakes up dry! I'll have to keep you updated when we decide to take away diapers all together and tackle nap time and night time potty training. But until then... 2 diapers a day is NO biggie!

All I can say is, stick to your guns. It's going to be hard and you're going to want to pull every last strand of your hair out and collapse dead on your bed at the end of the day, but it's so worth it in the end!