Potty training

**Disclaimer: this post is about peepee and poopoo**

Yesterday we decided to take a different approach to potty training.

So far I have done a few different approaches, and none that worked. Mostly what I have tried has been Carly staying in her pull-ups, and then I ask her every 15 minutes if she'd like to use the potty, and actually make her sit and try every half hour. No success. Okay, very little success. I'll occasionally catch a peepee, but mostly she sits for the obligatory 5 minutes or so, then puts her diaper back on and promptly fills it.
We tried panties... same story.
I tried letting her lead (laying off).
Taking her in the bathroom when we use it.
Making her stay on the potty until she made peepees.
Potty in her room.
Potty in the living room.

It has all been horribly frustrating and really fruitless. She totally understand what we would like her to do. She has EVERY SINGLE readiness sign. She has potty books that she loves to read. She knows she gets candy if she makes potty. She makes her dolls and toys potty on their own make-shift potties. She doesn't like being dirty and will take her own diaper off (has been for months and months) and tell us she needs a new one.

She gets it. She is really stubborn.

Or maybe I have been trying the wrong approach...

Yesterday I tried the very last resort in potty training...the thing I have been avoiding out of sheer terror for the horrible mess it would involve: Bare Butt Potty Training. This is a method that many of the ladies in my ward use that they all swear by. You basically strip your child down and let them run naked for a few days. And there will be accidents, but you can try to direct your kiddo to the potty as soon as you see them start. And not having the feel of a diaper or of panties is supposed to help them know that they aren't meant to 'go' in them.
I have been hesitant because we are in a small, enclosed apartment. And getting a carpet cleaner up 3 flights of stairs is daunting.

Plus, lets just be honest: I don't do well with poop. I lose it when it comes to human defecation. Cannot handle it. Biggest trial as a mother, hands down, is the poop. Some people gag when other people throw up near them. I have that retching reaction when it comes to poop. Dis-gus-ting!

Yesterday morning I got Carly out of her room, and stripped her down. I put her potty chair in the middle of the living room. I got out the bribe candy. And I waited.

It went well!

She peepeed in the potty like 9 times between 9am and 2pm, and even did a big poopoo! I didn't have to direct her to the potty much at all. She just kept walking over, doing her business, and demanding her candy reward (1 smartie for peepee, 1 large candy of her choice for poopoo). We did have one little peepee accident in the kitchen, but it was when I was running water, so I can't really blame her.

This morning I got her out of her room and made a big deal of the potty again. I stripped her down and got the bribe candy out. Potty chair in the middle of the room. I was jazzed and ready. Ready to take this on again. Ready to be done with diapers. Ready to have a potty trained 2 year old.

Carly was not ready.

I asked her if she wanted to try the potty. "No," she said, "I want my diaper." I showed her the bribe candy. Talked about big girls. Put her on the potty. "I want my DIAPER! I NOT want candy!" She ran to her room, got a diaper and handed it to me.

We'll try again tomorrow, I guess.

She is really stubborn.