Diapers, We’re So Done (Almost)

Confession: my two-year-old has been going commando for days.

That’s right, nothing but bare baby butt under those pink yoga pants or patterned tights. After 48 hours of wearing the same pull-up-style diaper with no accidents, I decided to do away with them altogether. (And after four days of stripping her crib and washing the bedding I brought them back for overnight.)

The daytime regimen is sticking, though, and as long as I remember to plop her on the toilet every couple of hours, we’re good. As long as I remember . . . Right, so you can see where we’re going with this. It didn’t take long to burn through the two pairs of real, big girl underpants, the three pairs of waffled training underpants and the two or three pairs of cloth training diapers that we have. We wet a number of pants and stockings while going commando, too, to which I reply, “Sucker! If I wasn’t so behind on the laundry, I’d have one more thing to wash now.”

Cross fingers, knock on wood, do your ritualistic sacrifice of a virgin rat, what have you, but it’s been a couple days now since we’ve had an accident. Progress! AND she has even told me on more than one occasion that she needs to use the toilet — pee and poo! Booyah!

That deserves a celebration. I think I might just do a load or two of laundry and then pass out for the night.

Post script:

I know you’re all dying to know how Irene compares to her big brother in this department. So here goes.

Night training: Colum reigns supreme by routinely waking up dry (and thus not needing a diaper overnight) at the ripe old age of 18 months. Listen, I would not lie about this. He can hold it for-freaking-ever.

Daytime, No. 1: Irene has a slight edge because she sometimes tells me when she has to go and will pee just about every time I sit her on a toilet. Colum was strong here, too, and his iron-walled bladder meant that he seldom had accidents even when I forgot to bring him to the bathroom. But he never really told me he had to go. I kept waiting for that development and it never happened. He went from me bringing him to the loo every couple hours to just getting up and going all on his own without a word to anybody.

Daytime, No. 2: This is where I thank my lucky stars that Irene is so much easier. She often goes when she’s peeing and has even told me a couple times that she needs to poo. Even if she has an accident, she has much better, er, form and the clean up is super easy. (Neither kid would sit in it.) Not the case with Colum, let’s just leave it at that.

All in all, Irene is 27 months old and I’m really hoping for full toilet training status by two and a half. Colum was a bit older, but then again he was in daycare at Irene’s age. That changes everything.

And that concludes the toddler excrement session of Way Too Much Information. Please join me next week as I discuss the state of my nursing bras during the first months of breastfeeding.