The latest development around here has been a miraculous milestone: underpants. Freida has now been dry for a total of 6 days and 5 nights. And we're all smiles.
I'm sure you all remember when I bought her a little potty - in October! Back then I was planning on doing the "naked method", i.e. letting her run around for 2 days without a diaper and learn the sensation through "accidents". Thankfully, I have sisters and sister-in-laws who are far more wise and experienced than I am, and their advice was to wait. I had lots of people tell me it's about the parent being ready (to train them and take them etc.) and not about the child, and I had just as many people tell me it is about the child being physically ready. I decided to take a bit of a medium. I introduced her to the potty, and I have been putting her on it everyday before her bath to "try". Sometimes she made, sometimes she didn't. But aside from putting a sticker on her potty chart, we didn't make a big deal about it.
A few months ago I bought her some underpants, and showed them to her and let her try them on and feel them. I told her she will be able to wear them everyday like Mommy and Daddy once she learned to use the potty. She reacted the way I had hoped, and was very excited about the prospect, but forgot about it shortly thereafter. Around the same time, I bought a potty seat cover for our toilet, to give her another option.
About a month ago I thought I'd switch her to pullups (well, Pampers EasyUps, to be exact) which would make the potty even more accessible to her. We gave the diapers to the babies (like her bottle), and she was very proud to have graduated to something a bit more grown-up. We continued to use the potty about once a day...
Then, on the second day of Shavuot, Freida called out "Mommy! Peepees coming!!" so we headed straight to the potty where she proceeded to pee! I thought it was just a fluke, but when she went another 3 times in the next few hours, I let her put on a pair of undies. She's been in them and dry since then - nighttime included!!!
Freida is currently sporting these Sweet Ivy undies that I picked up at Nordstrom. They came in a sweet little zippered clear plastic pouch, and I just couldn't resist the happy little colorful prints! (The longest part of our day is now Freida trying to pick which color she wants to wear!) :)
Also, for those of who are in middle of training and need a bit more coverage with regards to accidents - I stumbled upon these adorable cotton training pants from Giggle. When I was a little girl, all of us were potty trained using something like this - a pull-up/panty hybrid. They are so genuinely old-school, and many parents seriously swear by them. The point is they feel more like undies so your kid gets more of the sensational feeling when they go, but the extra interior layer holds more pee so it doesn't go running down their legs and all over your carpet!
I'm totally shocked and amazed at the success of the whole child-led training process, and I can't believe she actually just decided to do this on her own (although, this is so like her - remember the self-weaning episode??)! I'm so happy for my little lady I'm just bursting with pride!!
P.S. If anyone has any tips for successfully waking your child at night to pee - please send them this way!! (I'm kinda going nuts from having to sleep alert enough to hear her random middle-of-the-night cries of "peepee cominggg!!") :)
