In the Home Stretch (for this one)

Bye, Bye diapers!

Lily (21 months) has been completely out of diapers for a week and a half now. She is very young to potty train by today's standards, but she hit a point where she started to get it and with a little help (and a few m&m's) she is about 90% there now.

I have chronicled our potty tales in the posts Elimination Communication and Elimination Communication - A Year Later. There came a day a couple weeks ago when she stopped wanting to pee in her diaper and would tell me or show some sign of needing to go potty. Then, soon after that she woke up from sleep, restless and unable to settle again. I asked her if she needed to go potty and she said yes. She did pee that time and woke one more time that night to potty. I figured that if her body is getting it to the point of waking her for a full bladder, she is ready for panties.

So here we are - my teeny tiny 21 pound toddler potty trained - or mostly trained. I do still need to watch the clock a little, because she hasn't quite worked out how long she can hold it. Sometimes she will ask to go every 20 minutes and sometimes she will wait a little too long for her body and have an accident.

We had a very interesting family night at the ball park last week. A friend gave us tickets to take the whole family to a major league baseball game. My husband and I looked at each other and at Lily and wondered if we could do this - she had been out of diapers for 2 days at the time. But we decided to go all together and just do our best. With a diaper bag full of clothing changes and a little potty in the car we set out on our adventure.

Upon arriving at the ball park we made our first potty stop right at the car. Success! This would give us enough time to get everyone in, find our seats and get settled. Once we were all in seats and about 40 minutes had gone by, Lily said she had to pee. Thankfully we were very close to the restrooms. Success again. The next time (40 minutes later) was my husband's turn. Success again. Six potty trips later and no accidents, we took our very tired, happy children back to the van and home.

Potty training can be a tricky time. For a while it seems like the child needs to go every half hour or so. They are just learning the signals of their body. Then once they get that part down they might wait and see how long they can hold it. Again, this is a learning process and they might have a few accidents while they learn when it is urgent to go and when they can wait.

Right now as we navigate these, um... waters, both Lily and I are learning abut her body. One especially helpful item is nylon pants. It allows me to keep her in training pants, but protects a bit more if an accident should happen. Lily wears these over her training pants at night and they are enough for us. If your child is not usually dry at night, you might still want to use a full diaper then.