Roller Coaster

WARNING: Long detailed post about potty training.

I started potty training Kendi a couple days ago. It has been the biggest roller coaster ride ever. It started off really well. We used the doll-that-wets meathod. I was thrilled at how fast Kendi caught on to teaching the doll how use the potty. She did everything by herself. Then when it was Kendi's turn she sat right down and used the potty like she been doing it forever. I was so excited.

Then after a while Kendi got really sick of anything that had to do with the potty. She would completely ignore me when I tried to prompt her to go. At this point I didn't know how often Kendi needed to go. I got really bummed and thought that Kendi must have thought that it was all just a little game. I kept her in her undies so she would know if she wet her pants. I didn't know if I had done the training all wrong or if I should even keep trying. She stayed dry for the next couple of hours and then she told me she needed to go potty and sure enough she did in the potty. Now I was excited again. This was right before bed so kept her in her undies at night to see what would happen.

After she had been asleep for about an hour she woke up screaming because she had wet the bed. I tried to get her wear pull-ups, but she refused. She only wanted her undies. So I put her back to bed thinking that this was going to be a long night. To my surprise she slept all night a woke up with dry pants. She even stayed dry for an hour or so.

I knew that she probably had to go potty really bad so I coaxed her to sit on the potty a couple of times, but she wouldn't use it. I was feeling a little frustrated at this. And then while Kendi was standing right next to the potty she had an accident. I figured every kid has to have an accident while standing next to the potty right? I had her practice using the potty and then had her help the doll again and she still had another accident. I was really bummed at this point. So we practiced some more. Maybe the accidents and all the practicing is what got it to sink into her head because after that she started using the potty again.

My mom came over to get Kendi in the afternoon and I thought that this might distract Kendi, but I was ready for a break and my mom said that she would take over training. I was a little worried because Kendi was past due for a B.M.

After a few a hours I went to get Kendi. She hadn't had any accidents, but hadn't gone potty the whole time either even though she kept saying that she needed to and had been sitting on the potty a lot. I wondered if she was afraid to have a B.M. on the potty, but I didn't really know. She didn't have any accidents during the rest of the day, but she was acting miserable. She kept sitting on the potty and getting right back off. She got to the point of screaming so I put a pull-up on her hoping that she would just go, but she didn't.

We put her to bed and she kept waking up all night. By morning I concluded that she must be constipated. She hasn't been constipated in months. WHY NOW? She had a ton of gas. She thought that she needed to sit on the potty every time she had gas so she was asking me to put her on the "big" potty every five minutes all morning. I'm not exaggerating. I finally put her in pull-ups hoping that we could just get through this constipation episode. I put her down for a nap and decided to take one myself. I'm not a napper so this was huge. After 20 minutes I heard her cry. Luckily Jared works at home and knew that I was trying to sleep so he picked her up. She had finally had a B.M. She had definetly been constipated. Jared put her back down and she took a long nap.

I decided to take it easy with the potty training. When Kendi woke up she was sitting with me on the couch eating yogurt. She told me that she needed to go potty. I asked her if she wanted to go to the potty and she said something about her yogurt and then wet her pull-ups. She looked up at me because she knew what she had done. I asked her if she wet her pants and she said yes. I told it that it was a no-no and that she needed to use the potty next time. I was thankful that she wasn't constipated anymore. A short while later, she told me she needed to use the potty and she did. We were both very excited about it.

My mom came to get her again and I let her go wearing pull-ups. I know that Kendi knows what she is supposed to do and I will continue to encourage her. It may take weeks of training at a slower pace, but I feel like its not worth being stressed. My stress effects Kendi too. Its hard being a first time parent because its the most important thing I've ever done yet with the least amount of preparation.

Any advice is welcome.