Potty Trained!

Sofia is officially potty trained! She has shown signs of being ready for a couple of months but I wanted to make sure we chose the right time to officially get out of diapers. I waited until the day after Christmas because our family events had finally calmed down and I was off of work for a week (I work in the mornings which is a pretty important time of day for potty training). For a couple of months before Sofia would go into the bathroom when she had a diaper with poop and she would take it off and try to put the poop in the toilet (since that's what we usually do). I always helped her wipe, and I still do even now that she's potty trained.

Anyways, the day after Christmas we talked about her underwear and going pee and poop in the potty. Sofia said she wanted to do that so we put undies on straight away in the morning. About 20 minutes after breakfast I told her we were going to go read some books on the potty. She loves to read so she quickly ran to the bathroom and I helped her pull her undies down the first time or two. After a couple of minutes of reading she peed in the potty. Every time she peed or pooped in the potty for the first week I went absolutely crazy (jumping up, clapping, high fives, the whole nine yards). We called several family members and made sure that Sofia knew how proud everyone was of her. For the first day of potty training I didn't put pants on her, it was a little cold so I put baby legs on, but I wanted to make sure she could get to the toilet as quickly and easily as possible. She had three accidents that day (only pee) but went in the potty several times. The next day she only had one accident and Tim brought home a giant balloon for her to celebrate. The next day she didn't have any accidents and her Grandma Rainey took her to pick out new undies.

A lot of people use little toilets but Sofia had no interest in a little toilet. She went straight the big toilet with a toddler seat on it. We just keep a step stool near the toilet. Sofia is usually pretty good about remembering all of the steps in the process, but sometimes needs a reminder about washing hands. I'll admit that my biggest fear about potty training was not being able to run errands without worrying about accidents. I keep a little travel potty seat in the car but generally if Sofia goes potty before we leave the house she can hold it for a long time (3 hours). She really does not want to go potty at stores etc. Frankly, I don't blame her. I do keep a spare pair of undies, socks and pants in the diaper bag just in case.

It's been about two weeks since we started and she is completely independent in the potty department, except for wiping with poops. She could probably do it but we want to make sure she stays clean. We do keep her in a pull up or cloth diaper at night and I always ask her what she prefers for her nap time. She goes back and forth between a pull up or just undies for nap time. Even when she only wears undies she wakes up dry. I just make sure to get her to the bathroom within 10 minutes of her waking up.

So I guess we got lucky with having a very easy potty training experience. But honestly I don't think it was luck at all. There is always pressure from people to have your child hit the next milestone or to potty train but I think you have to trust your instinct as a parent and you'll know when your child is ready. In August Tim and I tried to potty train her when she was obviously not ready. It was only one day but it was frustrating for everyone and we made the mistake of listening to others instead of trusting our instincts.

It's kind of nice only having two diapers to change, and I know Sofia enjoys being able to wear underwear like all of her friends. Most of all she likes feeling older and more independent. We are very proud of her but it's sort of bittersweet to see how quickly our sweet baby girl has turned into a little girl.