Ride on the Train, the Potty Train!

Reading these posts about potty training from, oh, 11 months ago is cracking me up! What a naïve little lady I was. My friends with more older children were so nice not to laugh at me to my face. Ah, those were the days. Well, here we are, 11 months later, and Shelby still is not 100% potty trained! Surprise, surprise! But we are nearly there (I think? Maybe?). Several times I have thought we were there only to have a regression. Before Matilda was born and even up until a few weeks after she was born, Shelby was nearly potty trained, only to regress fully into diapers. She has been reliably wearing panties accident-free now for a few months. She is not at all potty trained for sleep (and that doesn't concern me in the least) but she is not potty trained for poop (this doesn't concern me either since she saves it for the diaper, but I would like to have her poop in the potty just because I am tired of wasting a diaper for every poop!). She wears a diaper for her nap and bed, and that is when she chooses to poop. So here's what has and has not worked for us thus far in our potty training adventures:

• Pull-ups: FAIL! Okay, not a total fail. We do use Pull-ups for outings with the grandparents and her one morning a week at school, not because she “goes” in the Pull-up, but just to avoid an accident situation with another caregiver. We briefly tried Pull-ups and she just used them as diapers and fully regressed.
• Absorbent panties: PASS! These were great in the early days when she had a hard time anticipating having to go.
• Waterproof covers: PASS! Great in the very early days.
• Non-absorbent panties: PASS! The best way to potty train. She didn't stop having accidents until I put her in plain old panties with no cover. They made the accidents rather inconvenient for her since her legs would get wet.
• Reward charts: FAIL and PASS! These were a total failure until she was a few months past two and then she started to respond to them fairly well. Though if she isn't in the mood for it, she really doesn't care if she doesn't get a sticker or star or whatever.
• Prizes: FAIL! We have a bag full of prizes for pooping on the potty. While she loves the prizes, they don't motivate her.
• M&M's: PASS! We used these initially for peeing. She loved getting an M&M for peeing. Later, we also gave an M&M if her panties were dry and she responded really well to this.
• Potty books: PASS! It's the only way to keep her heiny on the potty. Her doctor suggested we get special books that she can only look at on the potty and then let her keep one when she poops. This has not at all motivated her to poop.
• Timers: PASS! We used a timer and said, “When it beeps, it's time to go potty.” This worked great and was much better than a parental reminder.
• Having a baby: FAIL and PASS! Having a baby initially caused a regression, but a couple of months later, she proudly announced that the diapers were for Matilda and that's when she started wearing panties all day and not having accidents.