The Memory of Water

Realised I have never done an update on Pottygate, the attempt to get Olivia dry at night. Well, out of 9 days we managed one dry night and that was with me getting her up twice. The rest of the time seemed to mainly involved a LOT of laundry.

I started giving her last milk (she only drinks milk or water so she has quite a lot during the day) at about 4.30 and got her to go on the potty at 7 before she got in bed. Think she must be like some sort of camel, storing milk in her legs or something as she still manages to produce a HUGE amount of urine over night! The problem is that she is a REALLY heavy sleeper and will copiously wet the bed and be soaked through to the skin and be happily fast asleep throughout. It was only because I was going in and checking her that I realised she was wet as she wasn't waiting up in distress or anything 'cause she wasn't waking up at all! There was also a very narrow window of opportunity to catch her before she wet as she wouldn't go if you got her up before 10.30 but yet was wet by 11pm. Even if you managed to catch her dry in this slot the chances were that she would be wet by about 5am anyway.

Have decided that she probably isn't ready just yet so we are giving it a break and will try again in a little while and for now she is back in pull ups at night.

Dry Land

Have put Olivia to bed without her nappy for the first time. We been talking to her about it for the last few days as she has been asking to wear knickers to bed like her older cousin does. She didn't give me any trouble when I gave her a tiny cup of milk at tea time and told her she wasn't getting any at bed time. She also went on the potty just before getting in bed, which she has refused to do in the past. I will get her up when I go to bed and put her on the potty and then leave the potty next to her bed in case she needs it in the night. I have a waterproof pad on the bed just in case and we have reassured her that Mummy and Daddy will not be cross if there are any little accidents. Watch this space and see if it is wet or dry tomorrow!

Dry Land

On Wednesday morning Olivia weed on Mummy's living room carpet. This must have had an impact because she has been dry ever since (including nap time). She is in nappies over night but it seems like we have broken the back of it as far as daytime goes. Yay!

Warm Wet Circles

Update on Olivia's potty training... We have kept everything low key but Olivia seems to have decided to potty train herself. Since the weekend we got her started she has started to ask to be taken to the toilet and on average once a day she actually does something while she is there. She is still wetting a lot and we are continuing to keep her in pull up nappy pants. Someone said to me last week 'my mother always used to say that you never see a bride walking down the aisle wearing a nappy'. We are going to continue to leave her to do it in her own time.

Memory of Water

On Saturday we started 'toilet learning' (the right on expression used by our bible, 'What to Expect: the Toddler Years') with Olivia. She is now 27 months and for some time she has been very interested in what is in Grace's nappy, following Mummy to the toilet etc. but has not shown enormous interest in using the potty . While I am not into competitive parenting, the fact that several children her age at her toddler groups have been out of nappies for several months made me wonder whether we shouldn't try moving her along a little. Yesterday we got her some Disney Princess pull up nappy pants with flowers which vanish if she wees the nappy and encouraged her to tell us if she needed a wee.

She didn't seem to mind sitting on the potty and happily sat there while watching an episode of something special or reading a book with Mummy but didn't actually go to the toilet and would wait until you took her off the potty and then wee her nappy. This got a little frustrating and she was obviously picking up on our mood and so today we persevered in reading her potty related story books and have kept everything very low key, telling her that if she wanted to use the potty she could but that it didn't matter if she didn't want to.

Our plan was to leave it another week and try again. This afternoon we were sitting together when she suddenly said 'Mummy, I want to go to do a wee wee on potty'. We had put her in a nappy today as we were not expecting her to show any interest but we quickly stripped her off and popped her on the potty. After a few minutes of sitting there she stood up and said 'look Mummy' and had indeed done a wee wee. We gave her big cuddles and told her she had been very clever. We are still going to leave things pretty low key and see how it goes if we leave her to her own devices for a bit.

She also got to play in her Night Garden play tent, which we had brought her as an incentive to use the potty (she gets to play in it every time she successfully uses the potty). She wanted Grace to play in it with her and so here are the little monkeys.

Throw Me Out

Olivia has a potty. We are not potty training as such but we keep the potty next to her changing mat and we leave it up to her to say whether she wants to sit on it. We have also got her a story book about potty training, 'Nappy Duck and Potty Piggy', which is a real favourite of hers at the moment.

We will try potty training in the spring/summer next year when she is about 2 and a half and the weather means she can play outside and wear lighter clothing which will be easier to deal with the inevitable little accidents that go along with potty training. In the meantime we are trying to get her used to the potty and what it is for. She is fascinated with the toilet habits of the rest of the family, insisting on accompanying me on every toilet trip and demanding to know the contents of every one of Grace's nappies (' Poo poo? Wee wee?').

We are not really expecting much in the way of performance and she just gets praised for sitting on the potty but on one momentous occasion she did give Grandma a little treat, which she then insisted on bringing through to show to Mummy. Ever the blogger I insisted on taking a photo of the first little heart shaped potty poop...