Toilet Training and Such

We started toilet training Hana around end of last year, after school let out. It started very unsuccessfully - she'd remember sometimes, but then most times she wouldn't and accidents kept happening. Even when we asked if she wanted to go, she'd say no and pee all over the floor not 5 minutes later.

So we had to make do with a few days, and then stop because she clearly wasn't ready. This happened a few times in fact. We'd start a bout of toilet training and then decide to hold off on it for a few weeks and try again.

She started kindy again early January, this month, I decided that we should try yet again. Both of us were dragging our feet though because it sure is tiring, and we found that it was probably one of the hardest things we'd had to do as parents. (This tied first place with bf-ing for me)

The first day, we ended up with two accidents. Although to be fair, one of them happened because I was in the midst of cooking, turned the blender on and shocked the little girl into peeing in her playroom (facepalm). She was crying and I went to see what was happening and discovered her standing in a puddle. The second accident happened about 4-5 minutes after I asked her if she needed to pee. I began to feel even more dread of course, thinking that this time would be just like the last few times we tried.

I had a formula after observing her habits the few times we tried - I'd set an alarm for every 2 hours and take her on the clock whether she had to go or not. But then if she had drank a lot of water or had milk, I'd take her half an hour after the drink because she seemed to have to go a lot quicker after she had consumed a large amount of liquids. The second day, she had another two accidents, but we decided to persevere anyway and were rewarded when the number of accidents reduced to one the next day.

And then by the fourth day, things changed. I still took her every two hours but she began to tell me herself if she needed to go before the two hour mark was up. And there were no accidents.

The fifth day didn't see a very long period of toilet training because I experienced a pregnancy scare and my mom had to take Hana to her place for a while. But I noticed that her diaper was almost dry in the morning, and one of the first things she asked me in the morning was whether I could take her to her potty.I didn't think much of it, thought it was a fluke. After school though, (to my surprise, her diaper was completely dry and upon coming home, she asked to use the potty) she resisted from being taken out of diapers and into big girl pants. I was afraid she might have been regressing, but I think it was more due to the fact that her grandmother and aunties were around that day.

Now on the sixth day, she woke up and her diaper was completely dry. Asked for the potty, and even came home completely dry and asked for the potty again. At some point (I ask her every 1 1/2 to 2 hours whether she needs to go) she told me "Mama tak payah tanya Hana, ok? Nanti Hana nak potty Hana bagitau mama" (You don't have to ask me if I need to use the potty, I'll tell you if I have to go) and she did. Every single time.

The seventh day, she repeated the dry diaper in the morning, asked for her potty but spent the rest of the day after school at her grandmother's since we needed to do some serious decluttering at home. Upon picking her up, my mom told us that she had managed to pee in the toilet every time and managed to keep her diaper completely dry all day long, even though she wasn't at home.

Now, this morning (again, repeat of the prev few days, dry diaper in the morning, etc) we sent her to school for her first swimming lesson this year and reminded the teachers that she was in the process of being toilet trained and we were completely taken by surprise when they told us that she had been asking to use the potty!

I think we did it! I think she's potty trained! LOL. We can start trying to take her out without diapers now. :)

In other updates, these last few nights, she'd been the one to ask us to take her to bed. And when she was at her grandma's yesterday, we were sitting around talking to my mom, preparing to go through the usual "let's go home" "No! I want to stay here with wan" scene followed by a tantrum when out of the blue, she announced that she wanted to go home.

My husband commented that perhaps she easing into her "Fabulous Fours", leaving her "Terrible Twos" and "Tyrannous Threes" behind. Or perhaps she's just trying to fit into her role of future big sister, who knows.

All I know is I'm cherishing these changes as much as I can! (And hoping it's not a phase even though it makes me feel slightly sad that she's growing up so fast)