My life is full of pee and towels. A potty training story.

I, like most people I know, use diapers on my children. It is just easier for our lifestyle. Some people have never changed a diaper in their child's entire life. I change several a day. I learned about Elimination Communication a while back but wasn't ready to commit to that level of attentiveness.
So as the parent of 2, I have found myself in the dreaded "Potty Training Stage". You know that stage when your child starts showing an interest in learning how to use the potty. My oldest daughter, now almost 4, was fully trained by the age of 2. She started by wanting to sit on the potty, imitating others. So we made the decision to start training. As first time parents, I don't think we were quite ready for what we were getting ourselves into. We felt we should allow her to train herself. We didn't want to make demands. We wanted to make her feel successful.
We quickly learned that when any clothing below the waist was put on her, whether it was panties or pull-ups or cloth trainers, she would pee. We had to train naked. We kept her in a shirt and baby leg warmers. When accidents happened, she knew they were happening and she didn't like it. This is where the towels come in. We also quickly learned that accidents happen and we needed to be prepared or it could get messy. We started a stash of pee towels. We kept these towels in the entertainment center so we could get to them quickly. We would tell her to go sit on the potty and that pee-pee goes in the potty and not on the floor and she would finish going, on the potty.
She trained rather quickly until "the incident"occurred. You know those public restrooms that flush so loud it sounds like everything is going to be sucked down? Well, we encountered one of those. My daughter had been doing great, no accidents, even at night. I will never forget this day. She had asked to go to the bathroom so I took her along with her infant sister to the restroom. She started her business when the lady in the stall next to us flushed. My daughter flew off that toilet and peed on the floor. She was terrified.
The first few weeks after "the incident", she wouldn't use any potty so we went back to pull-ups full time. After a couple weeks, she finally started using the potty chair and one of our bathrooms at home. After another week or so, she started using all of our bathrooms at home. It took another week to get her to use her Grandparent's bathroom. She slowly made it back to where she had been before that dreaded day.
As my youngest daughter nears her second birthday, I find myself, again, at the crossroads of "Do we start training full time?". The second time around, I don't get to answer that question. My daughter answered it for me. Every morning she would yell for us because she peed on herself in her bed because she took off her diaper. Throughout the day, she would bring us her diaper. We put her to bed and would have to check on her within an hour because if we didn't she would fall asleep, you guessed it, without a diaper because she would take hers off and throw it on the floor. Then I would have to wake her up to change her and her bed when I would check on her before I went to bed.
So we pull out the potty chair and take off the diaper and amazingly, she goes. So, once again I find my life full of pee and towels. The question now is, how long will it take this time. I guess time will tell.
Follow my journey here on Connected Mom.
Michelle.
The Mom behind Mommy-cart.com.