Dry all day!

We are one week into potty training (I will now be calling it potty learning, because it helps me to remember that pottying, like all other developmental milestones, is a learning process and will not happen overnight. I have more patience with Isabel if I remember this small fact! Admittedly, the experience has been a bit overwhelming for me at times, since I have Josiah here to care for as well, and sometimes it is hard to meet both of their needs when Isabel is needing my near-constant attention for the potty-learning to be successful.

In the middle of the week, we had some bumps in the road, including Wednesday morning where she literally peed in her panties 5 times in a row. She will tell me she needed to go potty but it was too late every single time. Another bump was that Thursday, we were heading out on an outing, and she refused to try to go potty before we left. I gave her a choice, try to go potty or put on a diaper, and she actually chose the diaper. I had been sure we would not put diapers on her during awake time anymore, but once I had given her the choice and she chose it, I really couldn't go back on my word. So she wore the one diaper, and peed in it (of course, since she is used to peeing in diapers!) No biggie.

So last night I sought some counsel from a much trusted friend, and also did some additional research on online discussion forums, and went into today with a much more optimistic outlook. And it paid off! SHE STAYED DRY ALL DAY!

We went to the zoo this morning for 3+ hours with friends, and while yes, we did visit the zoo potties no less than 5 times (all at my prompting), I still find it extremely rewarding that I did not have to change a single pair of wet panties while we were there! And, we had a breakthrough once we got home, in the pooping arena. I knew beyond the shadow of a doubt that she needed to poop toward the end of our zoo visit (around noon), and when we got home, she told me almost immediately that she needed to go, so off to the potty we went. After 10 minutes of her switching back and forth from her little potty to the big potty, me reading books and letting her watch a YouTube video of babies breakdancing (at the suggestion of a mama who I met through an online forum), it was clear she was not going to go, but still needed to. I knew that the moment I put panties back on her, she would go in them. So, she stayed naked from the waist down for about 45 minutes, venturing off to the potty on her own several times with no results, and finally, at about 1:15, I heard her say (from the living room where she was playing) in a concerned voice, "Poop coming out now!" She clearly did not want to go on the floor so I told her to hurry to the potty. I followed along, and a small piece of poop did fall onto the floor, but she didn't notice so I didn't tell her, not wanting to upset her and wanting her to continue her progress toward the bathroom (and knowing that if I picked her up, it would be an ugly scene). We got down there, and I encouraged her as she finished her pooping on her little potty!! I, of course, celebrated with her immensely and got her special treat that she gets for going poop on the potty, a Hershey's Kiss.

Successful pooping on the potty happened once more in the evening (she was again running around bare-bottomed), with one more small incident on the floor, but this time the poop hit the floor in the bathroom, so she was clearly trying to get to the potty. I consider this amazing progress and am encouraged that we will not go back to awake-time diapers! And she did not have a single wet accident all day, no matter if she was in panties or no panties.

Great job, Isabel! Mommy is so proud of you!