J.C.
You have to let her figure out that there's a sensation right before she goes potty. That's the first step to potty training. The way you do that is by sitting them on the potty until they go pee and then showing total excitement about them doing it. The first time they look at you like "what did I do?" but it's how you teach them that that "feeling" they've never paid attention to before is actually the feeling they get right before they go pee. With both of my kids I put the little potty in the livingroom and the first day of potty training was spent all day on the potty basically. I would sit them down first thing in the morning and I sat down beside them and fed them, read to them, played with them, whatever it took, until they went potty. Then I set the timer on the microwave for one hour and when it went off, I sat them there again and played with them, whatever it took for them to sit there, until they went pee again. I just kept repeating this process. There were a couple of times when we'd sit on the potty literally for about 2 hours, but the kids never minded because I was sitting there with them, playing, giving them tons of attention the entire time. Oh, and I also bought a piece of poster board that I'd decorated and had a bunch of stickers they got to choose from to put on it. I put it up high so that they got to stand on the counter everytime they went potty and put a sticker on it. They thought that was awesome. The second day, it got a lot easier because they started to realize that when they sat on the potty, they were supposed to go pee, so they'd go almost right away. Atleast within 10 minutes or so. I put them both in thick pants and thick socks so that if they peed their pants there was minimal mess on the carpet, if any. My daughter went on like this for about 5 or 6 days before she started telling me that she had to go potty. I just kept up with the every hour thing the whole time. My son though woke up on the third day and was telling me he had to go potty. I couldn't get him to poop on the potty yet, he was just going in his underwear (I'd bought some cheapie underwear at Dollar General so I could just cut it off and throw it away instead of cleaning up those messes), so on that third day, I didn't put anything on him except for a t shirt. He would tell me he needed to go potty, and I knew he had to poopy because he was squeezing his butt cheeks together. So, there were about 5 times in a row of me sitting him on the potty and him saying "no! I don't have to go" and then after getting off he'd tell me he had to go again within a couple of minutes. Finally, he just couldn't hold it any longer, and he pooped. He was scared that first time, and was crying, but I kept telling him how good he was and then when he was done I let him choose a toy from a "poop bag" that I'd filled with toys from the dollar tree. AFter that, he never had trouble pooping. I reminded him though for the next few days that if he went poopy in the toilet, he would get a new surprise from the bag. I also cut off juice one hour before bedtime, and a week after being potty trained, I didn't even put pullups on him at night. With my daughter, if I remember right, she wore pullups at night for almost 2 months. As long as YOU are ready, you can potty train. I honestly think it's more about the mom being ready than the child because it takes a lot of consistency and patience. Just like when you train a puppy, you just keep at it and keep at it until they learn where to go potty. I know, kids aren't like puppies, but the consistency needed to potty train a child and a puppy is the same. You don't give up on a puppy because "oh, he's not ready". You keep at it until he learns. It's frustrating, but you only have to last a few days or a week or two before they're trained. Another thing, I waited until 26 months with my daughter and it was pretty much a perfect age. She was telling me she went potty also at 20 months, but I thought I'd have a better chance if I waited until after she turned two. I trained my son when he was 4 months away from being 3. He trained in only 3 days, so I sometimes wondered if I would've waited until my daughter was closer to three, if she would've been super easy too. But, then again, the closer they get to three, the harder it is to keep them still long enough to sit on the potty until they go pee. So, you know your child best and you'll know if she's ready, but like I said, it's mostly whether or not the mom's ready. Good luck! Once it's over it's great!!!