Big girl panties!!!

Well, we have officially put away diapers and are in big girl panties. I decided this week was the week. Hana has been ready for a long time but I didn't have the time and we were traveling too much. We finally have time.

Hana has technically been potty training for 19 months! Yes, that is correct, 19! However, it has been an awesome experience. When Hana was very young I heard about infant potty training. I was fascinated and decided to try it. Hana caught on very quickly. She always pooped just after eating and I knew basically when she was going to pee most of the time too, so I started taking her to the potty or holding her over a bowl, and she would do it! I started using specific words when she did her thing and before long I could tell her what to do and she often would. By about 7 months it was not uncommon to go through a whole day without her ever wetting or dirtying a single diaper. However, when she started crawling she stopped being so predictable and didn't want to go sit on the potty, and we regressed a little. She has almost always poopied in the potty since the beginning but teetee has been off and on from this point.

Several months back I tried big girl panties but it didn't work, we had lots of messes and a very cranky mommy and baby! So I sort of continued to take her to potty when I could and just let her wear diapers. I began to wonder if I couldn't accomplish potty training IN diapers, but over the last month have realized she just KNOWS she can choose to go in her diaper. After meals she is happy to go the potty and even asks to be taken but any other time she prefers her diaper and gets mad if forced to sit on the potty.

So I decided the only way to get over that is to take away the diapers, and that we did. Yesterday was her first full day in big girl panties. She had one small accident in the morning and the rest of the day was perfect. Today so far has been perfect! She is even dry in the morning also. She fusses sometimes when I make her go if it is not after a meal (when she is happy to go), asking her if she WANTS to go ALWAYS gets a "no". So I just make her go and sit there when it has been two hours or more she last went. It is so funny, she will be crying and I tell her she has to put teetee in the potty or she can't get down. She then teetees as she is crying and then says "yea, teetee" while still crying! But what an obedient child! I have no idea why she doesn't want to go if it isn't after a meal, but the fussing is getting less intense with each visit.

I was thinking we would have to wear diapers when going out and at night, but so far it looks good. She went out for two little outings yesterday and did fine without a diaper, and the last two mornings she has woken up dry. She hates when I make her go first thing in the morning but she'll get used to it, she fussed less about it this morning than she did yesterday and the day before. So we may not even need diapers at night. I'm going to give her a few more days to be sure she is consistently still dry every morning.

The only baby thing left about my baby is she still sucks her thumb. Otherwise, she is feeding herself, talking like crazy, sleeping in an open bed, and now out of diapers. My baby isn't a baby anymore, she's a little girl!!!