Potty Training for real!

Omigod, I am so excited. After about six months of on-again, off-again interest in her potty chair, Miss Thing has really started to get the idea, and today she's gone for the gusto! WAHOOOOOOOOOOOO!

She's been showing so many signs of readiness for potty training, yet often I feel as if my encouragement might be being viewed as pushing, which would be a bad thing... I've heard that pushing a child to potty train can add 6 months to the learning process.

Anyway -

A week and a half or so ago I ordered cotton training pants (and waterproof nylon pull-up covers, very important) rather than cotton diapers from our diaper service, simply so that we could have standing-up diaper changes, thereby eliminating most of the screaming, crying, and kicking that had started going on during forced lying-down diaper changes. Spare the Mama, spare the toddler, spare the in utero baby sister.

Of course I was hoping that training pants, which fit much more loosely than diapers and can be pulled up and down by the wearer, would help Miss Thing become more independent with her potty usage. What happened, though, starting her very first day in said pants, was that she started to really feel the effects of peeing in her pants. And she didn't like it. During her third training pants change that day she said, "I hope I don't go pee pee in these twaining pants."

Some days we run out of clean waterproof covers and have to go back to diapers until the laundry is done. I was initially a little concerned that this back-and-forth would confuse her or make her complacent with the diapers, but no - she now stops walking, puts her legs apart and makes a whining noise when she's peeing even if she's wearing diapers!

Well, today, let me tell you, all of this new realization came together for her. this morning when her favorite kitty cat sauntered into her bedroom, Miss Thing got up and ran into her room to slam the door. This is a normal morning routine, and almost without fail, this is the time of day when Miss Thing poops in her diaper. As it happened, this morning she had been sitting on her potty in the living room when she got up and ran, so she was bare-bottomed. I took her potty into her bedroom and made sure she knew it was there, then left, content in the knowledge that we have a carpet shampooer.

A little later I went to her door and said, "will you be okay in there with the cat while I take a shower?" There was no answer. That has never happened before. Usually she yells, "NO! Don't open the door! Don't let the kitty out!" So I opened the door and she was playing as usual... but the room smelled. I said, "did you go poopie in your potty?" She said, "I did," and went over to look at her creation. I praised her to the skies - what with the way she's been fighting poopy diaper changes, I wasn't sure we'd get to this point for another year or two. I cleaned her up (SO much less mess than cleaning her after she's been sitting in it!), cleaned up her potty, and then we started making the requisite phone calls to Daddy, Grandma, Auntie... After that I left the room again and got ready for my shower. Came back to make sure she had everything she needed, and again, no answer. I entered the room and she looked up and said, "I did it again!" Sure enough, the potty was full of pee pee as well as poopie this time. There was also a bit of poop on the floor... it looked as if she had started to go in her training pants and then thought better of it. Another huge success.

Apparently being barebottomed and left alone are key for this particular child. And Miss thing is extremely pleased with herself. I feel like she's suddenly grown a whole foot taller in one day or something. What a big girl!

To top off all of this wonderfulness, she is now taking a nap, after two days of no naps. AND she slept 11 1/2 hours last night, so I wasn't sure she was going to nap today. This is just a day of all good things! Wahoo!