My how things can change quickly!!! In the world of a toddler, their development can immerse over night, let alone a week! This time last week, I had convinced myself that Mia (2 and 8 months) wasn’t going to be toilet trained anytime soon and like I would have been in the past, I wasn’t really fazed. Over the years of being a mother, I’ve relaxed into my role. With my first I was so routine and structured and wasn’t flexible at all. Then my second came along and the reins were loosened a bit and by the time our third came along, well lets just say that left me with very little time to worry or stress over much. Everyday I hit the ground running and my goal was always to make sure the kids were fed and bathed, the rest always fitted in around that. The only common denominator to all three children was consistency with rules and boundaries!
Over the past 7 and a half years, I’ve changed thousands of nappies, wiped poo and wee off three tiny little bottoms and am happy to say (but with a tear in my eye) my days of nappies are almost over. Last Thursday a miracle happened (well it was to me because it felt like it was never going to happen lol) Mia finally did a wee on the toilet!!! Hearing those 5 little words “mummy I did a wee!” out of my sweet little girl’s mouth was like music to my ears! I’ve been working (inconsistently) on toilet training for a few months now. On a nice warm sunny arvo I would let Mia run around in undies and we would go through the steps: Where do we wee or poo? Tell mummy if you need to go to the toilet! I’d ask her every 10 minutes if she needed to go and I’d sit her on the toilet every half an hour.
Mia could talk the talk, but she couldn’t walk the walk. Half her problem was that she wouldn’t sit still and concentrate on going. She is a real fidgety child and no matter how much I would remove everything around her so she had nothing to touch, she still would find an excuse to fidget. I never got mad or frustrated at her, as it was my fault that I wasn’t being consistent with the whole process. I’m the biggest advocate for consistency with anything to work successfully and that I wasn’t doing. When Bailey and Sienna toilet trained, I didn’t have anyone in school. We could stay home all day and focus on the task at hand. Now I have two kids in school, my days are busier than ever and am rarely home.
I had resigned myself to the fact that I wasn’t able to be consistent until the Christmas school holidays, but I knew Mia was close to finally letting go of her nappy. Instead I was being patient and encouraging her every chance that I got. Over the past month, Mia has gone from accidents all the time, to holding on for a couple of hours and then doing an accident, to doing a tiny wee in her undies and stopping herself from going, to actually telling me she needed to go…but still not actually going – this was happening even when offering a treat as the prize!! Then that moment of glory and what I would say was the key to my success….diced bacon!!! “Diced bacon” you say lol!
Last Thursday afternoon was very different like all the other days I’d tried. Mia seemed focused and determined to hit the jackpot and earn her treat! Instead of sitting on the toilet for 5 minutes trying to go she was determined to stay there until she did a wee. I kept saying “let’s try again later” Mia kept saying “no I’ll do it now!” I went about my business, cooking dinner, homework and the like and when I checked on her while chewing food, I had her attention. She asked could she have what I was eating – diced bacon. I placed a few bits in her mouth, just enough to allow her to relax and alas…she did a wee!!!!!
We were all SO exited!!!! We did a happy dance and she thought that was hilarious. She was super proud, as was I and she happily enjoyed her treat! She told the world! Well the world to her is all her family. Every time someone called or came over…”I did a wee on the toilet!!!” and we’d all cheer again! She didn’t go again that night but the next day I was determined to take this lead and run with it!
Mia enjoying her treat after her first wee on the toilet!
I was really hoping that the day before’s success wasn’t a once off and I had a really good gut instinct that once Mia did that first one, she’d take to going to the toilet like duck to water. Thankfully I can say she did. Day two was deemed a huge success. No accidents, telling me when she needed to go, a dry day sleep nappy, a successful shop visit even with a pit stop, and OMG her first poo on the toilet! I went to bed on such a high and was super proud of the little lady who had told me for weeks that “I’m too little to sit on the toilet!” lol!
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Super proud of my super star toilet trainer!
Almost a week on and Mia is completely toilet trained with her wees. She doesn’t wear a nappy to bed in the day now and even though it only took to day three to wake with a dry night nappy, I still put one on her just in case. BUT where she had done a couple of poos on the toilet, all of a sudden she has decided that she doesn’t like doing a poo on the toilet anymore! Again I’m not to fazed. I went through hell with my son and number 2s and if there is anything I learnt it’s not to force them. This is my next hurdle with ‘a life with Mia’ lol, but like everything else, I will be there for her and we will get through it!
It’s all getting a bit real now. My days of having a baby are almost at the end of its trail. I’m in two minds about it all. Apart of me is happy and I’m really embracing the little lady that is evolving before my eyes, but then I let myself think back to all the wonderful times I’ve had when my children we little babies and I’m sadden that I’ll never get to birth or breast feed again. I’ll never wrap another baby up or smell them like they are food (how delicious do babies smell lol). But one thing is always for sure, no matter how old my babies are, they’ll never be too old to kiss or cuddle. I may not be needed like a was when they were tiny babies, but while I’m on this earth, I’ll always be needed by them, just like I always need my mumma:)!
I’m sad to leave the baby phase behind, but I know there are so many exciting times ahead of us!
For now I will enjoy the baby that is left in Mia. She is cutting her last tooth…finally and in the new year she will go into a bed. I think once our home doesn’t hold a cot in it anymore, that will really be the day that my baby days will be over;(
My Party of 5 