Trained!

Sophia is potty trained.

This is a certified big deal type thing for all of us in the offspring world, in case there are any non-childrened or differently childrened* reading this. It was a surprisingly painless (and damp-less) process as well, considering all of the "how to potty train your child" books and advice columns out there. We had a feeling we were in for a long haul, but everything "went" smoothly, ha ha.

Our strategy seemed to have been "change begets change". A month away at the cottage means sleeping in a different bed, doing different things, and hanging around with different people. Our thinking was that it would be natural to make a change like staring to potty train at this point since it wouldn't feel like such a big deal. Also, we took her soothers away (see a previous post, more gory and disturbing details to come) so change was a significant theme.

Our intention was to make using the potty a standard part of the day. When we arrived at the cottage (and had unloaded everything we owned) we set up the potty in the living room and told her that every time she felt like she needed to pee, she was to tell us and we would help her use the potty.

The first day she did alright, what with the novelty and all, but for a few days after that, we would have the odd accident. She never missed the potty when she knew she had to pee and had made that known to us, but for the first little while a pee could sneak up on her when she was distracted with something else. There is nothing so forlorn as a three-year-old standing in the middle of the room looking sheepish with a wet spot on her pants.

Apart from these few accidents, she took to it well, being interested in the process and in the excitement we displayed when she was successful. Using the potty is also making her bowel movements more regular and easier. She had real trouble for a while there, a few months ago, when a BM would build up inside her and all she wanted to do was to poo in her diaper but there wasn't enough room, so she'd end up holding it in and then it would inevitably end up with us using suppositories and whatever else we could do to help her pass four days of poop**.

So after a few days, she was regularly announcing her need to pee, and after a few days more, she was regularly using the potty without our assistance. She'd be quietly playing and we'd be watching Jacob or doing something else and we'd hear: "Mommy, Daddy, I peed!" and there she'd be, sitting proudly on the pot.

It did help that Uncle Adam and Auntie Kristine gave her a book called "Have you seen my potty?", where a bunch of animals steal a little girl's potty. Pretty insensitive on the part of the animal's part, but it's a fun book and we read it about a million times while she was getting used to the idea. It's by Mij Kelly and Mary McQuillan, and it is the story of "Suzie Sue, who had something very important to do". A great book, truly.

She hasn't had an accident in three weeks, and will even ask to go to the potty when she is in the bath or going swimming, something that I am given to understand can be a tricky lesson, because, hey, who would know?

Diapers are still around for naps and bedtime, and although they remain dry during naps, they are still wet when she wakes up in the morning. And yes, she delays changing as long as she can so she can take the easy way out and pee in the diaper. But once she is changed, she is good for the day and always goes to the potty. She also always announces it, and we always cheer. It's important.

So the long and short of it is that Sophia is now registered for preschool. What does that have to do with potty training, you ask? well, the local preschool which is close to us, french, and in what will be her elementary school, only takes potty-trained kids. So since this was our preschool of choice, it was a requirement that we were willing to accept.

* by this I mean with a pet, like a small dog or a bird, which you think of as a child but for which potty training isn't as much of an issue.

** I never thought I'd ever write something about poo and then broadcast it to the entire world.