Well, I said we were calling it a day on the nappies, and we did.  Friday was our first full day nappy-free, and we haven’t touched another one since.  Bella’s been absolutely amazing.  She can sleep through the night, 11 hours (or even 12 hours in last night’s case) and stay dry.  No issues with naps.  No problems in the car.  I’m incredibly, incredibly proud of her.

Our bathroom setup

I’m also pretty proud of me.  It sounds wrong to say that, but it’s true.  I’m proud that I was watching her, observing what she was telling me, and I’m proud that I didn’t let my own fears mean that she wasn’t allowed to take this step that she has been clearly ready for.  Toilet learning is an emotive topic, and I couldn’t even begin to count the number of times that I’ve heard a parent say “I don’t want to rush them.”

I know that people think that I’m “rushing” Bella.  Their opinions aren’t relevant to how I raise my child, but it doesn’t mean that I don’t hear the words.  It doesn’t mean that there wasn’t a seed of doubt in the back of my head – what if she isn’t ready, what if I’m trying to make her grow up too fast?

But you know what?  You can’t rush it.  You can’t force a child to be ready for this.  They either are or they aren’t.  I sincerely believe that a lot of parents wait too long, because they aren’t ready, because they don’t want their child to grow up.  I never, ever want to be that parent.  I will support my girl to be who she is, when she makes that decision.  And I know that I’ll do it at the right time, because I’m observing her – which is the first and most important lesson of Montessori.

Six months has passed since we day trained Bella.  Six months.  Where did that time go? But they said that eventually, you wouldn’t think about the potty all day long and you know what, they’re right.  I haven’t thought about the potty for awhile.  It just happens when it needs to.

That’s all going to change tomorrow.  Tomorrow, I’m going to jump out of bed the second that Bella wanders into my room in the morning, and I’m going to take her to the bathroom.  I’m going to take off her nappy and tell her that we don’t wear nappies anymore, make her throw it in the bin, and we’re going to use the toilet for the rest of the day.  And the next day, and the one after that.

There are a few tests ahead for me.

The first is going in the car.  We struggled with car travel when we day trained.  Bella likes weeing in the carseat.  I have no idea why.  She’d go in the potty and five minutes later she somehow found some more wee for the car.  So I made my own life easier and introduced “travel undies” i.e. pull-ups.  It’s time to get rid of those.  We’re going to the toddler gym tomorrow, it’s a 15 minute drive, and she’s going in real undies.

I’m going to pack a lot of spare clothes.

Then, after we get home from the toddler gym, we’re going to race through lunch, have an hour of no liquids, use the potty and go down for a nap.  Again, in undies.  Bella’s frequently been dry during naptime so I’m hoping that that is fairly pain-free.  Her bed is loaded up with sheets on top of sheets and training pad protectors.

And then.  Then, she’ll wake up and oh my goodness I am going to give her water.  After a morning of setting her up for success in her undies, I intend to let the girl drink.  They say you want to build the bladder up, so she can learn to hold a reasonable amount of liquid.  So she will have her water, and then we’ll have dinner a touch earlier than usual, give her 1-1.5 hours without drinks, a good potty, and then to bed.

That’ll be the real test.  I’ve chosen to start this whole malarkey on a Friday night for a reason – so I’m not doing it alone.  We haven’t decided yet whether to wake her up for a wee when we go to bed, or whether to leave her alone with instructions to wake us up if she needs a wee.  I suspect we’ll go for the latter (especially if the day went well) and see what happens.

It’s scary, potty training.  I don’t know why it’s so scary, other than the mess, but perhaps it’s because our children are growing up and this is actually all on us to do right.  My baby won’t need nappies anymore.  What a crazy thought.  I want to do right by her, I want to keep things calm and easy and not upset her.  I hope it all goes well.