Hell No, She Won't Go!

If you follow me on facebook or twitter you already know that we have been having a rough time with potty training. It's not that I'm frustrated that she isn't completely potty trained, I frustrated that she pretty much never goes on the potty ever. Let me start at the beginning. I bought Aubs a potty when she turned 18 months old. I had no real plans of starting to potty train that early, I just wanted to get her familiar with it and maybe have her sit on it occasionally. We didn't do much except talk about the potty until she was about 22 months. Then I decided to start having her sit on the potty more frequently. I would have her sit on it when she woke up in the morning and after nap time and then maybe one more time through out the day and then before bedtime. We lucked out and she peed on the potty once before bed. We celebrated this little victory with her and gave her a lollipop. Yes, a lollipop before bed. It was all I had and I didn't want the opportunity of rewarding her for her first time on the potty to slip by. It carried on like this for a couple of weeks or so without any success so I decided that maybe she wasn't ready yet. I still would sit her on the potty and talk about it but I wasn't as strict.

When Aubs turned two I decided to step up my game by getting a few potty books and having her wear underwear when we were at home. I also bought a seat to put on the big potty because I had some friends tell me that their kids preferred that over using the little potty. I basically did the same things as I mentioned above with the books mixed in plus an Elmo potty video. Again nothing really changed. She would either wait until I put a diaper on her to go or occasionally until she was out of my sight and then pee on the floor. Then about 3 weeks ago she started holding herself when she had to pee which I was so excited about. I figured now that I knew exactly when she had to go it would be so easy. Well, I was wrong. She would sit on the potty for 30-40 minutes and not go. Occasionally she would let out a tiny trickle and then freak out that she was peeing and hold the rest in. If anything this just made our potty training more time intensive. She spent two plus hours a day sitting on the potty singing songs and reading but not peeing or pooping.

Last week I decided that I would do a whole morning of hardcore potty training because obviously the slow approach wasn't working at all.`I tried to gave her a bunch of juice, water & milk which she wouldn't drink much of after an hour or two because she realized what I was doing. I followed her around like a hawk. We played together all morning, barely had the t.v. on and spend tons of time reading on the potty. Six and a half hours later and still no pee or poo I decided to wave my white flag and lay her down for a nap. If you're wondering if the six is a typo, it is not. My two year old held it for 6 1/2 hours.
I put a cloth diaper on her so that hopefully she would feel it more and then I put her in her crib. Two hours later when she woke up- her crib was soaked. I guess I should have figured it would be but her Fuzzi Bunz are usually really absorbent, I guess not for nearly 7 hours old held in pee. Yeah so basically potty training sucks.

What's the point of this post? I don't know I guess to vent and to let anyone else in a similar situation know that they aren't the only one. I feel like the only one in this boat right now. I have heard of kids being hard to train but not any who never go on the potty, like ever. I just thought that if I made the effort then it would happen or a least start to happen. She is such a smart kid in all other aspects of life. Maybe a little too smart and strong willed, I suppose. I am just going to keep leaving her in just underwear at home and on short trips out. I am going to keep talking and reading to her about the potty. I am going to keep sitting her on the potty when she holds herself and does the potty dance. I mean she has to get it at some point right?

***side note- she sees me "use the potty" all the time because she follows me in nearly everytime, lately she has been telling me, "Good job, Mommy" after I go.