Major Milestone

After 7 long years of diaper-duty and potty training, we have finally crossed the threshold into a diaper-free home!!!! Olivia has woken up dry without a pull-up for 2 days now and we have decided that we will never again buy a diaper - well, at least not for our children. To say potty training has been an albatrose in my life as a mom is an understatement. I think it is without a doubt the hardest thing about early childhood. Madie was my first experience in pt and I seriously thought she'd just know what to do. I remember that first time I put her on the toilet. I thought she would just automatically start going and instead I got a look like, "what the heck am I supposed to do with THIS thing?". This was my awakening into the potty training experience and for a full year she had accidents, tantrums (both hers and mine!), bribing, joy, sadness, there was a whole 4-month long pooping problem that I won't even get in to....., before we finally had success a lovely week at the very end of Aug '04. I still remember it, because it was just a week before she would have started preschool, had she been potty-trained at the time. And, I thought I could have tried to still get her in, but even though she was potty-trained, she still wouldn't sit on a big toilet and definitely wouldn't have sat on the toilets at school, because they were "cracky" toilets. Which is another word for the toilets that have a missed front on the seat. They freaked her out for another month or two. It was so fun carting our potty seat with us to church each week. ;-) Then there was Noah. He was a bit easier, mostly because I backed WAY off and didn't press the issue like I did with Madie. I started when he was 2 instead of 2 1/2 like I did with Madie. But, because he was a boy, it was a lot different. He hated the blocking thing on the potty seat, so I'd spread out a big plastic tablecloth on the floor, put the potty chair in the middle of it and wait for something to happen. He loved seeing how he shot pee everywhere but IN the potty seat. Fun.... not! Then there were the days where I absolutely think that in his 2 yr old mind he was going to outplay his mommy. He would sit there for 4 hours and not pee. FOUR HOURS! And, I wasn't going to give in, because I knew the minute I put that pull-up on him, he'd go and all that progress would've been lost. My best friends can attest to my emails that would say, "he's going on 2 hrs! he's going on 3 hrs! can you believe he's going on 4 hrs?!!!!!!". So, after another year, he too finally got it. In one day it clicked. I put him in underwear like I did Madie and he never looked back. Staying dry at night took another full year, but at least he made it to preschool when he was 3. :-) Then I had my miracle child, Olivia Rose. My dear sweet baby girl. God saw my suffering and blessed me with a child who potty trained in 2 weeks. The heavens opened up, the angels were singing, and my child was staying dry and in underwear all day long. It was marvelous. The pooping still takes some doing, but as of Fri night, she's been pull-up free at bedtime and I officially declare our home a diaper/pull-up free zone! Thus has been my journey through potty training. As much as I would have enjoyed having a 4th or even 5th child, I can say with absolute certainty that I will never, ever miss the lost opportunity of potty training those children. I close that chapter in my life with a smile and now look forward to a few calm years before I enter the new chapter of my life called "teenagers".