Potty Training Brooke

My friend Melissa potty trains her boys at 20 months, and when I learned this I decided to try it and see how Brooke would do since she just turned 20 months. I planned to give it a week, and if she was too resistant I would give it up for a few months.

Here she is on Day 1, so proud to be wearing underwear. (I HATE the word "panties". Gag!)

The first couple days were traumatic for both of us. She was scared and I was frustrated. Cory got this shot of her once she had fallen asleep on my lap from pure exhaustion. That first day she peed through 4 pairs of underwear, and freaked out every time.

Day 2 wasn't much better. We put her on every 20-30 minutes but she would fight it and peed a lot in her diaper during her nap.

Day 3 she finally pooped. She must have been holding it in. I was working out, so I didn't notice until I saw her walking funny, then I smelled it. That was the last straw for me. After cleaning out the poopy underwear, I decided to put her back in diapers.

Days 4 and 5 were much better than expected. Even with diapers on again, she was wiggling and making urgent "I need to pee" faces. So we kept putting her on the potty and she was much more comfortable about going. In fact, she even went in the restroom at Walmart and also on the mini nursery potty at church.

Now we're on Day 13 and it's going great. She pees every time I put her on the potty (about every hour still) and she's even pooped a handful of times. I learned I need to give her privacy to get that job done. She's still in diapers, but she's only going through a couple a day. Her bladder control is so much better, and I think it is the result of those first couple days of underwear. Occasionally she tells us she needs to go, but not as often as we'd like. Sometimes it's after she's gone in her diaper. We'll see how she does the next month, and I think (hope, pray!) by mid-August she'll be back to underwear.