At about 17 months old, Hailey started asking to go on the potty, but it was always after she had already gone in her diaper. Around this same time she started to really be upset with being wet/dirty, would often bring me a diaper, lay down, and ask to be changed, and started to really resist having her diaper changed. I was seeing a lot of signs of readiness, but she was so little! One day I tried having her go diaper free and tried to help her learn how to use the potty chair, but it didn't work out. She was having accidents, which is fine, but then would scream and tantrum when I would try to place her on the potty afterwards. I decided she was too little, but I knew she was close to being ready. I put her back in diapers but figured we would do a potty training boot camp, like the one I did with Savannah, in a few months.
A few weeks ago, at the beginning of this long illness we've been dealing with around the house, Hailey asked to go potty one morning, so I sat her on it and she peed! We were so excited! She then continued to ask to go and went on the potty many more times all day. It was very exciting, but the next day she was feeling even worse, so she kind of forgot about the potty seat, and then we didn't worry about it much more as we all battled colds/coughs/fevers. I told Matt that I was planning on doing our boot camp over his spring break; it seemed like it would be a good time, since it would be an "off" week for our activities and Matt would be home to help out with Savannah so I could focus on Hailey. However, Hailey had plans of her own.
Last week, Hailey asked to go on the potty one morning after breakfast, so I sat her on it and she went! She then continued to ask to go to the potty and went on it perfectly all.day.long. Her diaper stayed dry all day. It was like she just decided all on her own that she was ready to start going on the potty and ditch the diapers. The next day, she was going on the potty again, so I moved her into big girl undies. All day long, she did great! Today was the fourth day of this and her third day in underwear instead of diapers. She is telling us when she needs to go and going both #1 and #2 with no issues. There have been one or two small accidents each day where she starts to wet her undies, but she will stop herself and run over to the potty to finish up. Not bad at all for the first four days of potty training! She did have a #2 accident once, and unfortunately it fell on an evening when Matt was on duty! It was her first day in undies and I had gone out to dinner with some mom friends. Matt gave the girls dinner and was getting them ready for bed when it happened. He wound up throwing the underwear away but managed to get her bathed and cleaned up. He is super dad! She hasn't had another messy accident like that since then.
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I am so proud of Hailey and I'm also thrilled that she has made this so easy on me by deciding to do this all on her own! Potty training the second time around has been a bit different from the first time. For one thing, she initiated this instead of me initiating it and implementing a boot camp. Secondly, she has gone into undies right away instead of running around bare bottomed. Thirdly, she doesn't like our little Baby Bjorn potty chair, which is what Savannah preferred to use for the first several months. She only wants to use her little Elmo seat, which goes on the big potty; I think this is because she is trying to be like big sister, who uses the big potty. The plus side of this is that I don't have to clean out that yucky little plastic chair; the down side is that each time she needs to go I have to lift her up onto the potty instead of her just sitting down by herself. The last difference this time around is finding underwear that works for her. With Savannah, she was the same age, but she was wearing 2T clothes, so I just went to Target and bought 2T underwear. Hailey is really petite and still in 12-18 month clothing. (She actually weighs less now than her sister did at her 12 month appointment. She's really little.) I tried using Savannah's old 2T training pants, but they kept falling off, and I discovered that stores don't carry anything smaller than 2T in training pants! I had to order size 18 month training pants from Amazon. My mom also ended up going on Amazon and ordering some too, so now she should have a bunch. Also, without a diaper, some of the 18-24 month jeans that I had been starting to put her in are now ridiculously huge and falling off. We have been resorting to snug fitting leggings and skinny jeans so that they stay up on her skinny butt! I need to buy her some more of these.
It is so interesting how different it is parenting my two little girls! They are each so unique and they each have their own challenges and their own strengths and weaknesses. I do have to say that I am pretty happy with how easy this whole thing has been this second time around. :) I mostly think that it is has been so easy because Hailey has a great role model in Savannah. She watches her big sister to see what she is doing and then decides all on her own to emulate her. So I guess I should actually credit Savannah with potty training Hailey! :) Having two girls in undies is a great feeling! We are using Pull-Ups for sleeping and leaving the house. (Actually, I am finishing up a big Costco pack of diapers for sleeping, but when I run out of those I will move her 100% to Pull-Ups.) Little Hailey is officially becoming a big girl, and we are becoming a diaper-free house! Woohoo! :)
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