Even the night before "Maggie's potty day" I had a great amount of nervous and expectant anticipation...only to be multiplied that morning as we put on her first (of many) pairs of big girl panties. She has been telling me she has to pee-pee on the potty for at least a month. This girl seemed all about the potty.
We started by trying to train "Bear" to go potty...Maggie was not into that. She was much more interested in the medicine dropper that "Bear" was using to go potty than in anything else, haha. And when "Bear" had an accident and I told her, nicely, "No, no, bear! Don't pee-pee on the floor, pee-pee on the potty!" Well, Maggie started to cry for Bear. It was hilarious and sweet! But, we gave up on that pretty fast. I thought I'd just focus on potty training the actual child instead of trying to get her into the animal thing. (She wasn't into any of the "key" elements of this method of training, haha.)
She woke up with a super runny nose and wasn't really interested in eating or drinking which definitely hindered the process. It was over an hour before she had to go potty, on the chair or on the floor. But when her pee-pee decided to make its debut, it was on the floor! It was a trail of pee-pee that she walked and slipped nervously around, and then started to cry! Well, then within the next 45 minutes she pee-peed on the floor 3 more times. We were flying through princess panties! We were sitting on the potty like every 5 or 10 minutes, but she was not feeling it. I had to sing round after round of Old MacDonald and The Itsy Bitsy Spider to get her to stay put! And then before I knew it, it was nap time! Praise The Lord. We were 0 and 4, and preggo mommy needed a break!
When she woke up (early of course), I reluctantly put another pair of panties on the girl. Well, by now she was starting to get it, miraculously!! She went on the potty 3 times in a row. I think she started making herself go once she realized the "reward" aspect of the training. Each time she went on the potty she got 3 peanut butter M and Ms and 2 stickers! Totally worth it. Anyway, even though she was having success and I could see things clicking, both of us were still stressed out! She kept getting off of the potty while she was still going pee-pee, so we were still flying through underwear. And I could tell Mags was tired of the whole thing. She had a few more accidents and a few more successes, the end of the day was coming, and then she just broke down. And then...I CAVED!
So, long story longer...my little girl will not be potty trained before her sweet brother is born and I will be a mom with 2 in diapers, and I'm ok with that! I talked to a few of my most trusted and beloved mommy and they really encouraged me to enjoy these last few weeks with just me and the Mags... Honestly, she was totally getting it and would have been "potty trained" for sure by the end of the week. But I wasn't ready - physically or emotionally, haha. Not because I don't want her to grow up; it's way more lame reasons that that. I don't want to deal with accidents and emotional break downs and nursing and using the potty at Kroger and all of that. I want to take my little girl on walks these last few weeks, and go to the aquarium, and the pool, and not worry about dry pants and asking her if she has to go to the potty every 30 minutes. That sounds selfish...it was certainly humbling, though, to realize this stuff, especially after I made such a big deal about it. But, the Lord is good! And Mags and I are going to have a blast these next few weeks while we wait for Charlie! So thankful to be her momma and for all of these opportunities for my sanctification (at least after the fact, haha)!
