Just like that, there are no more size 4 diapers in this house. No more stinky toddler poops. No more droopy, soggy morning diapers or refusals to be changed. One morning, Lilah woke up and just decided that she didn't want to wear diapers anymore. Before coming into our room, she took her diaper off and replaced it with a pair of her princess panties and never looked back. We had a few brief stints of potty training over the past year or so - by brief, I mean like a day. As soon as I ran into any hesitation from her about using the potty, I backed right off and decided that out of all the battles we could possibly have, that was not one I wanted to take part in. I had no problem keeping her in diapers, especially after the boys came home. There was no extra time or energy that I had in reserve to potty train her, and I just thought well...what's one more diaper when you already have two newborns' bums to change? So I never made a big deal out of it, and I guess Lilah had her own plans anyway!
She had a few accidents the first couple of days, but nothing major. After those first few days, she's been dry. The only step I was afraid to take was night time training...I wasn't ready to have to throw laundry in every morning. But we bit the bullet and just tried it, deciding that if it took more than a few days that we'd just keep her in diapers at night until she decided to do this part on her own, too. She woke up a little wet that first night. But every night since then, she's woken up dry!
We realized that we've been doing a slightly modified version of the '3 day training method' without even knowing it. The method emphasizes reminding your child often to tell you when they need to use the washroom. But with Lilah for whatever reason, since that morning she's never told us that she has to use the washroom - she just goes. And without fail if we ask her if she's got to go, she'll say 'not right now'. The only time I really push for her to use the toilet is before bed, and if we're about to head out for a walk or drive in the car. I make it sound really exciting with a hint of threatening to not leave the house if she doesn't try to pee. Works like a charm every time ;) So aside from those times, I rely on her listening to her body to know if she's got to run to the bathroom. It's worked wonderfully. She's even started to do this on her own a bit...like today, we put up her little pool on the back deck and even though she'd recently used the toilet, she ran there again without asking to 'try and pee' before she put her bathing suit on! Such a smart cookie! We also haven't been using any kind of reward system for potty events (ie. stickers, treats, etc) like this method recommends. We find that she quickly loses motivation for this kind of system because the rewards get 'old' and it just becomes a lot more work on our part to come up with new gimmicks to keep her going...it wasn't fitting well with the way I like to parent. We do however have a giant, loud, peepee/poopoo dance party in the bathroom immediately following a potty event, and this seems to do it for her just fine!
Actually...come to think of it, I did buy her a pair of sparkly pink 'glass slippers' as a reward for the next time she pooped in the toilet (on a few occasions, she'd poop out of the toilet...and then throw it in...so I needed this to stop pronto). That worked really well, and she's going poop all by herself IN the toilet! Our next step is to get her to tell us that's she's about to poop, or that she has pooped, so that we can help her clean up. We'd also appreciate it if she didn't grab a new pair of panties every time she uses the toilet...I suppose she's used to getting a new diaper when she pees, so why not panties?
Even though all of this is absolutely incredible, and I am beaming with pride over my self-potty trained little girl, there is one thing that blew it all out of the water. Those that know us, know that Lilah was very dependant on us for all of her night time needs until very recently. She needed us to be with her when she fell asleep, and for every night waking, and we slowly weaned her from rocking to sleep for 2 hours to where we are at now, which is a perfect snuggly bed time routine and leaving the room while she's still awake. That alone has been amazing, but when we threw in night time trips to the potty I thought we'd be doomed to repeat that night time dependancy (sometimes she's up more often than the boys!!). Anyway, the other night around midnight when I'd finished baby chores and was heading into bed, I heard her bedroom door open and thought 'oh great, here she is...' but I only heard her little footsteps lead into her bathroom instead. She'd gotten up to go pee, and didn't come to get me! So I waited behind my bedroom door for her to finish and then come get me to put her back to sleep. Instead, she cleaned herself up, went back to her room, turned on her light and grabbed a new pair of underwear, turned OFF her light, CLOSED her door, and went right back to bed without so much as a peep from her for me!! HOW DID THIS HAPPEN?? I've also noticed that although she wakes up incredibly early in the morning, she doesn't call for us at night anymore, or at least hasn't in quite a while.
It's beautiful and also a little scary to watch your baby grow up and gain independence like this. And only those in our shoes could understand why we're not crazy for missing the 'old days' of rocking her to sleep and needing to be there for her multiple times through the night.
No comments:
Post a Comment