Third Times a Charm

I've done more than my fair share of potty training, and pretty much I hate it.  Diapers are so much easier than potty training, except when its way finished, like months or years later.  Because when you potty train, that's when the real work starts.  With Andy I had to take him to the bathroom within seconds of him saying he needed to go.  It didn't matter if we were in the car, at the grocery store, in the middle of the library, he had to go right then.  That goes on for months.  And don't get me started on the wiping.  That goes on for years.  It's a lot easier to just leave them in the diapers and if they have to go, they go. Unfortunately society doesn't see it that way so eventually you need to teach them how to use the toilet.

With Amanda, it's been different.  Really different.  In the past six weeks since she stopped wearing underwear, she has maybe had one accident in a public place.  I carry extra clothes with me, but never have to use them.  She gives me ample warning that she needs to use the bathroom, and often will say she would rather wait until we get home than go somewhere else, and she does.  I often have to bribe her to go to the bathroom because it's been more than three or four or even five hours since she's gone and she still says she doesn't need to go.  She must be part camel.

When she first stopped wearing diapers during the day I bought a jumbo pack of around 60 diapers for her to wear overnight.  I figured we'd give it a couple of months and see how she was doing.  For the first few weeks she would almost always wake up dry.  Only recently has she had wet diapers in the morning.  She refuses to go to the bathroom when she first wakes up and then when I finally take her the diaper is wet but it's warm.  Which means she is just being lazy and doesn't want to go on the toilet, she wants to go in the diaper.

If she was wearing underwear she wouldn't do that, but she knows if she has a diaper on she can.  So last night we decided she didn't need a diaper and she could wear underwear to bed.  Not only did she stay dry all night, but she didn't even go to the bathroom until about 30 minutes after she woke up.  The child has a bladder of steel.  I hope this continues, because I'm getting tired and old and I need a win here.  If anywhere you should want an easy out, a simple win, it's in potty training.

I hope this continues, because I really hate to change sheets.