A mess

Lily is really going...I can't even believe it. I mean, I am a big believer in not potty training until the child is ready. As in...no involvement from the parent. I don't understand cleaning up accidents for 6 months so you can say your child is "trained". I don't understand how a child is "trained" if you have to ask them every 15 minutes to sit on the potty. I just don't believe in that. But I have never been forced to do that...my kids are fall babies, and they are nearly 4 before starting pre-school.

But once your child clears the ripe old age of 3...you start to wonder if there will be a college roommate in the future who will tolerate a diaper pail in the corner of the room. The pressure is palpable. It feels like people are coming out of the wood work, potty training their 18 month olds successfully (see above about what I believe about those "trained" children). My logical brain repeats the mantra, "No one starts kindergarten in diapers", but when you watch your daughter scream in rage at the mere suggestion of the potty...you wonder if Lily will be the first.

But I didn't give in to peer pressure. I just waited. And waited. And like I said yesterday, every couple of weeks I'd cave to the pressure in my head. I'd convince myself that it was because I didn't pressure her a little that she just lazily stayed in diapers. Once I jack-knifed her into the underpants, she would pout and scream and quickly wet through. And then I'd mentally kick myself and berate myself for thinking this was something I had any control over. And then we'd go another 2 weeks or more with diapers until I caved to peer pressure again.

And now...voila! She is potty trained. Today she went from 7 until 12:30 without asking to go potty. I thought for sure yesterday was a fluke. But when she asked to go at 12:30, her pull-up was dry and she filled her little potty. Hooray! Then I put her down for her quiet time.

When I went to get her, she was lying in bed naked. Uh-oh. There were tissues covering the floor. It took me a while to figure out what had happened, but eventually I saw that she had pooped in her pull-up. Then she tried to change her own diaper...getting poop on the floor in the process. She threw her diaper away (in the hamper) and tried to wipe up the poop with tissues. Then she peed on the floor. Then she took clothes out of the hamper and tried to mop up the pee. Then she lay on the bed and tried to put on a new diaper. She looked ashamed and mortified when I came in. She said, "I tried to get out to go potty, but the door was locked" (it was not...she just couldn't get it open). I felt AWFUL. I clearly had not gaged her potty training readiness. I just am having a hard time changing gears this fast.

How do we go from last Friday having zero interest (rage against, in fact) in the potty to Wednesday we are ashamed of dirty diapers and try desperately to clean one up? Other than the nap fiasco, Lily stayed dry all day, and went potty (#1 and #2) successfully 5 times. No prompting from me.

I promise I won't write more about this...I am just in shock. And thinking she'll be wearing underpants to Thanksgiving dinner tomorrow. Amazing.