Potty Training 101

Well, yesterday was the day...the day I was going to potty train Mary Fran. When we were at this point with Evie, I heard about a book called "Toilet Training in Less Than a Day" by Nathan Axrin and Richard Foxx (both Ph.D.'s). If you know me, that concept most definitely appealed to me and I quickly ordered the book, read it, and picked a day for me and Eves to hit it hard. These men came upon this idea by training severely handicapped adults who couldn't care for themselves at all to feed, dress, and toilet themselves using this method of "intense" (or concentrated) training and rewards. It worked really well with Evie and I was ready to tackle this milestone with Mary Fran. Well, it didn't go as well as I had hoped. Mary Fran just has to decide that she wants to do it and she will. It's also tough to use this method when you have a little one that is still nursing. However, I was determined!
Today was tough as there were a lot of accidents, this was not how it was with Evie, and I felt as though I had failed. I finally (through talking to my wise husband and sister-in-law) decided to change tactics. I was reminded again that you have to know your child and go from there. We are now wearing panties at our house and letting her have these accidents knowing that very soon the "gotta go" sensation will click and she'll go running for the potty before voiding as opposed to after. Patience is something that does not come naturally to me but the Lord is using these situations to refine me...Praise the Lord!