Saturday, November 14, 2009

My girl likes to potty all the time...

I just dated myself with the title.
Anyway, we bought a potty for our daughter two weeks ago, not to start the potty training, per say but to allow me a moment of peace while I'm in the bathroom doing my business. Everytime she came in wanting to pull me someplace or another, I'd ask her to sit on her potty. Next to her potty I placed 3 bath books for her to peruse while she was sitting and waiting for me.
My mother has been telling me how I was potty trained at 3 months of age. I think that's a Mom fib which is excusable but if this was true, it would explain my anal retentive tendencies.
My mother in law sent a potty book to my daughter in the middle of the summer.
Still both of us felt there was no need to pressure the child. I mean there is enough pressure in the world, why do we need to pressure her to eliminate on cue?
For the past few weeks, she's been bringing her stuffed animals to us with the exclamation, "Diaper?" Then she'd go to her diaper bin and pull out the changing mat and the wipes. Sometimes we'll catch her taking a diaper off the doll and wiping the bottom. We took this as cues she needed a diaper change and would happily comply.
The last few days I noticed she'd tell us this but when we checked her diaper it was dryish. Could she be ready to start potty training?
At a recent Le Leche meeting I brought this up and the leader who is also a leader of an elimination communication meeting said to try to bring her to the potty a few times a day and see what happens. No pressure.
Skip to yesterday...
Without even mentioning the discussion at LL to my husband, I received a text from my husband, "Guess who pee peed in the potty?"
Any Mom knows this is mind blowing and I did what a newbie Mom would do. I stopped everything and called my husband for a play by play.
DH said she had just finished her second breakfast and he was leading her toward the bathroom. So he took her diaper off and sat her down and grabbed a few books. A few seconds later he looked down and there was pee pee in the potty. "I cheered with the enthusiasm of a sports fan." said my non-sport husband.
I found myself telling people on the street my kid pottied in the potty. This is another sign your life is not what it used to be pre-child. At lunch, I couldn't stop telling my friend about it. And I wonder why I have very few non-Mom friends these days.
TG pottied again later the afternoon. That evening, DH and were enjoying a meal together, for the first time in ages and we decided that we'd try to bring her to the potty first thing in the AM, approximately 30 minutes after a meal, after naps and before bedtime. We weren't going to pressure her but we figure the more she does it the more she'll be more comfortable for the day when she goes sans diapers.
Ok, who are we kidding, we (DH and I) are not ready for the sans diaper 3 day potty training fest. We're not ready for the accidents. We know we'll have to dive into it sooner or later but we're quite happy and proud that we've only had 2 pee messes and 2 mini poop blowouts so far in our daughter's life. Oh and don't get us started on the nighttime potty training. We are so not there yet. Baby steps. Baby steps for the parents that is. TG is making huge leaps.