Today, baby went the whole day diaper free with all pees landing in the potty. That is, not one spill to clean up. Even during nap. What a wonderful oasis of hope in the midst of my potty learning stress!
Yesterday didn’t go so well. She peed on the potty a couple times in the morning, and when offered the option, voted for panties over diapers for our grocery shopping trip. She wet herself after we’d been in the store for less than a minute. Fortunately, I had packed a complete change of clothes, so we went back to the car and peed a bit more (yes. I held her and let her pee on the ground. It’s muddy dirt in an industrial area of town, and I’m okay with that, and I don’t mind if you’re not). Clean, fresh, we went back in. Shopped (she had her own grocery list :). I love that girl!), browsed, then nursed to recover from something that upset her. Then wet again. Fortunately, I had packed two complete changes of clothing. But two was my limit, so we went home after that. And at home, after she ran around bare for a while, I found a LARGE pool of pee on the floor.
I think that my openness yesterday to lots of wetting kind of helped with today. She’s a baby, she might wet, nothing to get upset about.
Today, we cued her to sit on the potty. A lot. She was occasionally resistant, but that’s okay as I learn that she doesn’t always have to pee when I want her to. By midday, she had peed maybe 6 times on the potty. We were going to put a diaper on her for nap, but she said no – “I’m a big girl now, I go pee and poo in the potty, I don’t need to wear a diaper.” Okay! No diaper, though we snuck a pad under her once she was asleep. Sure enough, she woke up dry and sat on the potty quickly and all was well.
The only diaper she wore today was at bedtime. She didn’t want to: “I’m big now, I don’t need a diaper.” So we talked about it. We talked about how she likes to wake up and have um nums at night. Does she want to get up and go potty in the middle of the night? No, not right now. And if she wets the bed, what will we do? “We can get up and change the sheets!” Do you want to change the sheets in the middle of the night? “No!” So she agreed to a diaper: “Otay.”
I’m hopeful. We now know that she can go dry for extended stretches. She is identifying with herself as a big girl who doesn’t need diapers and who pees on the potty. I expect that as we continue to cue her, she’ll start getting in the habit more of going herself and we can stretch out more between potty trips. I also know that this will be back and forth; there will be times when she’ll need a diaper; and I certainly expect more wet floors. However, things are in process and I can only say “Yay!”
Excited for you and her 🙂
Thanks 🙂 The day has not been repeated, but it certainly gave us hope! And we’ve had lovely dry spells, plus fun things like her waking up in the middle of the night and saying, “I went pee!”
Hope you are all well and healthy.
Yay! Sounds like she is right on her way! (And I dont mind a bit that she went pee pee out there while you all were shopping – our version of that was in the park, where there is no potty ((You know laurel park…what am i talking about?)) Is she even 2 yet? this seems very advanced to me….
I guess my concept of when kids can learn to go potty is based on my reading about international potty learning, and some of the science of kid’s physiology. My understanding is that they’re born knowing when they have to eliminate and if you follow those signs, they’ll keep awareness (so don’t have to re-learn later). However, I never did this successfully … perhaps I was too busy multitasking? too stressed? who knows. Regardless: she does know what potty is, she is okay with using it, she wants to be a big girl and go diaper-free, and it will eventually happen whatever I do or don’t do!