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Diaper update
Dec. 3rd, 2007 10:27 amI cannot express how thrilled to pieces I am about how things are going.
It was Friday when I first stopped putting her in diapers. I spent some time explaining the concept of panties, hammered it into her head that they are NOT diapers, you do NOT pee in them, and you have to pull them down before using the potty. FINALLY she seems to have gotten it. The first day I don't think we had any accidents. I put her in a long dress and huggalugs leggings, and the panties. She seemed to figure it out pretty quickly, with me asking her every half hour or so if she needed to use her potty. The first couple times I helped her pull the panties down, and she insisted on taking them completely off the first two days.
That night Jake and I were both nervous about the whole overnight thing, so we put lots of towels on the bed, and a diaper with no cover. Around 3am she soaked her diaper and we got up to take it off her. We had her use the potty and then decided to put her in panties instead of diaper. No problem all night. This gave us courage to be more daring the next night.
Saturday was a good day too. She had one accident in the afternoon, quickly cleaned up and not made a big deal of, only reminding her to use the potty instead. Later gave her a bath and she peed in the panties right after. That was the last accident so far. Overnight she wore the panties and was dry in the morning, though I woke up probably every hour afraid I'd find myself in a puddle. She had a cold, so I tried waking her up several times to blow her nose/pee in the potty/drink water, but she would not wake up at all.
Sunday morning we decided to bite the bullet and do a test outing in the car. I wanted Jake to be there because I wasn't prepared to deal with the stress of it myself. It had snowed, and was about 15 degrees, and I was still afraid to put her in pants. So I doubled up the leggings, put on a couple layers of long shirts, and wrapped her in a blanket to get her to the pre-warmed car. One major anxiety I've had has been about accidents in the carseat. Finally came up with what we believe is a good solution: folded a flat cloth diaper in half, laid it on the carseat. I've also decided to put down squares of wool UNDER the flat diaper, to serve as a water barrier, kind of like a soaker over a diaper. Fortunately, I have a couple of perfect-sized squares that I knitted a few years ago with the intention of making a patchwork blanket (yeah right), so I already have everything I need. So we drove to Starbucks, shared a hot chocolate, and got Topaz a piece of the holiday gingerbread loaf. Debated briefly about stopping at the grocery store to pick up a couple things, but decided not to push our luck, and went home. A perfect first outing, uneventful except Topaz screaming about not getting to play in the snow (she got to later).
A side note about preparation. The "diaper bag" is now being used for a different purpose. The little one-piece BNaby Bjorn potty we have fits nicely in it, along with a change of clothes and panties, a few flat diapers, hand sanitizer, lots of cloth wipes, and the spray we use to clean her up. This way, we feel pretty confident that we can go anywhere, and even if there's not a bathroom we could maybe discreetly use the potty in the car or someplace, and not have any emergencies.
The rest of the day was uneventful. A completely dry night. Oh, these small victories.
Yesterday, Sunday, she finally figured out that she doesn't have to take the panties all the way off but can have them around her legs. This makes things a bit easier because she can do it all by herself. A few days ago she tried to put them back on and ended up almost stuck in one leg hole. Anyway, we spent much of the day at Jake's mom's house. Packed up the formerly-diaper bag and went (it's two blocks away). Every time I asked Topaz if she needed to use the potty, she either ignored me or said no. Clearly, she was too busy playing/tormenting the cat to pay any attention to this. So every time I went to the bathroom myself, I asked if she wanted to come with me. Oh, of course. So that was my strategy all day, and it worked great. Not a single accident. Last night I put her in pajamas--top and bottom (shorts). I had been nervous about putting pants on her, lest it might confuse her or be too much for her to pull down/up.
Another completely dry night, and we went to the bathroom together this morning. She's having no trouble with the shorts at all. A few minutes ago I saw her hobbling down the hall with her panties and shorts around her knees, headed for her potty. So she's doing fine (if a bit off with the timing occasionally). I think she's really got the whole concept down. The real test will be nursery school on Wednesday morning. I'm nervous about it, but things are going so well that I'm not worried THAT much. My strategy is to have her use the potty before we go, then as soon as we get there I'll take her in the bathroom again. I'll keep the diaper bag nearby all the time. We'll see how it goes.
I don't know how to handle pants that button/zip, which she won't be able to do easily by herself. I'll work up to that, I guess. Dresses and stretchy pants in the meantime.
Honestly, I'm amazed at how well this is going. I guess it was the right time for both of us. I didn't really have the mental capacity to think about it till last week, since I've been preoccupied with so many other big things. But this is working out great. Next step is to get her to use the little fold-up toilet seat we bought a while ago, so we can put that on any public toilet and not have to drag around the little potty. But I think we'll be okay until then, and I'll try it in a week or so. Or maybe at the end of this week depending on how things go.
It was Friday when I first stopped putting her in diapers. I spent some time explaining the concept of panties, hammered it into her head that they are NOT diapers, you do NOT pee in them, and you have to pull them down before using the potty. FINALLY she seems to have gotten it. The first day I don't think we had any accidents. I put her in a long dress and huggalugs leggings, and the panties. She seemed to figure it out pretty quickly, with me asking her every half hour or so if she needed to use her potty. The first couple times I helped her pull the panties down, and she insisted on taking them completely off the first two days.
That night Jake and I were both nervous about the whole overnight thing, so we put lots of towels on the bed, and a diaper with no cover. Around 3am she soaked her diaper and we got up to take it off her. We had her use the potty and then decided to put her in panties instead of diaper. No problem all night. This gave us courage to be more daring the next night.
Saturday was a good day too. She had one accident in the afternoon, quickly cleaned up and not made a big deal of, only reminding her to use the potty instead. Later gave her a bath and she peed in the panties right after. That was the last accident so far. Overnight she wore the panties and was dry in the morning, though I woke up probably every hour afraid I'd find myself in a puddle. She had a cold, so I tried waking her up several times to blow her nose/pee in the potty/drink water, but she would not wake up at all.
Sunday morning we decided to bite the bullet and do a test outing in the car. I wanted Jake to be there because I wasn't prepared to deal with the stress of it myself. It had snowed, and was about 15 degrees, and I was still afraid to put her in pants. So I doubled up the leggings, put on a couple layers of long shirts, and wrapped her in a blanket to get her to the pre-warmed car. One major anxiety I've had has been about accidents in the carseat. Finally came up with what we believe is a good solution: folded a flat cloth diaper in half, laid it on the carseat. I've also decided to put down squares of wool UNDER the flat diaper, to serve as a water barrier, kind of like a soaker over a diaper. Fortunately, I have a couple of perfect-sized squares that I knitted a few years ago with the intention of making a patchwork blanket (yeah right), so I already have everything I need. So we drove to Starbucks, shared a hot chocolate, and got Topaz a piece of the holiday gingerbread loaf. Debated briefly about stopping at the grocery store to pick up a couple things, but decided not to push our luck, and went home. A perfect first outing, uneventful except Topaz screaming about not getting to play in the snow (she got to later).
A side note about preparation. The "diaper bag" is now being used for a different purpose. The little one-piece BNaby Bjorn potty we have fits nicely in it, along with a change of clothes and panties, a few flat diapers, hand sanitizer, lots of cloth wipes, and the spray we use to clean her up. This way, we feel pretty confident that we can go anywhere, and even if there's not a bathroom we could maybe discreetly use the potty in the car or someplace, and not have any emergencies.
The rest of the day was uneventful. A completely dry night. Oh, these small victories.
Yesterday, Sunday, she finally figured out that she doesn't have to take the panties all the way off but can have them around her legs. This makes things a bit easier because she can do it all by herself. A few days ago she tried to put them back on and ended up almost stuck in one leg hole. Anyway, we spent much of the day at Jake's mom's house. Packed up the formerly-diaper bag and went (it's two blocks away). Every time I asked Topaz if she needed to use the potty, she either ignored me or said no. Clearly, she was too busy playing/tormenting the cat to pay any attention to this. So every time I went to the bathroom myself, I asked if she wanted to come with me. Oh, of course. So that was my strategy all day, and it worked great. Not a single accident. Last night I put her in pajamas--top and bottom (shorts). I had been nervous about putting pants on her, lest it might confuse her or be too much for her to pull down/up.
Another completely dry night, and we went to the bathroom together this morning. She's having no trouble with the shorts at all. A few minutes ago I saw her hobbling down the hall with her panties and shorts around her knees, headed for her potty. So she's doing fine (if a bit off with the timing occasionally). I think she's really got the whole concept down. The real test will be nursery school on Wednesday morning. I'm nervous about it, but things are going so well that I'm not worried THAT much. My strategy is to have her use the potty before we go, then as soon as we get there I'll take her in the bathroom again. I'll keep the diaper bag nearby all the time. We'll see how it goes.
I don't know how to handle pants that button/zip, which she won't be able to do easily by herself. I'll work up to that, I guess. Dresses and stretchy pants in the meantime.
Honestly, I'm amazed at how well this is going. I guess it was the right time for both of us. I didn't really have the mental capacity to think about it till last week, since I've been preoccupied with so many other big things. But this is working out great. Next step is to get her to use the little fold-up toilet seat we bought a while ago, so we can put that on any public toilet and not have to drag around the little potty. But I think we'll be okay until then, and I'll try it in a week or so. Or maybe at the end of this week depending on how things go.
