B-Bye, Nappies!!

It's official! Miss Mouse is officially, totally potty trained! Bye, bye diapers!!

Last week, Miss Mouse came rushing into our bedroom around 2 a.m. laughing and saying, "I don't have a diaper on!!!" Sure enough, in the hubub of getting both girls to bed and trying to do so without anyone having a meltdown (alone - it was a work night for Mr. T), I forgot to put a diaper on Miss Mouse. Oops! We ran into the bathroom, found the diaper I had lying out, and got her diapered up. The exciting part had been that she was dry at 2 a.m.

The next day, we talked about how soon she won't have to wear diapers at night because her "body would understand to hold potty until waking up". She thought this idea was ultra cool. Monday night when Daddy had to get her to bed (it was a late night at the grief group I help facilitate), she refused to put on a diaper....she even went and got the pajamas I had suggested for "when we try without a diaper". Apparently, she had decided Monday night was to be the "when"! I got her up to go at 10:30 before I turned in and couldn't help myself; I put a diaper on the half-sleeping tot.

Yesterday I looked online for cloth overnight training pants. There seem to be very few as far as selection, so I found one that looked decent (pull-up style, absorbent, functional but plain) and called Miss Mouse to the computer to choose a color. She wanted orange at first, but when we found her size didn't come in orange, she chose bright pink. She can't use regular pull-ups; they cause, well, she can't use them. We'll leave it at that.

Fast forward to last night. Obviously, we don't have the cloth training pant, and in truth, I had forgotten my credit card upstairs when we were looking at them online, so I hadn't even ordered the silly thing. As she was getting ready for bed, she commented about how she is such a big girl and doesn't need to have a diaper at night. Um, yeah. Think fast, Mommy. Sure, I agree. We'll use a thicker-underwear and line it with an old-style cloth diaper. Miss Mouse looks at me confusedly and says, "Did the new one come in the mail???!! Is it pink? Pink? Pink?!!" Broke my heart to say that no, it didn't come in the mail yet, and this is just a short-term, creative measure until "the real pink one" comes (better get downstairs to order it for real now....).

Poor Baby Mouse was asleep last night at 6:49 p.m., up from 11:00-1:00 with gas (perhaps from all the crying she did to let her dense mother know that babies can indeed have dirty diapers even if they don't smell like it), and then up again for a small snack at 4:00. It wasn't a bad night, but considering I had gotten up at 6:30 a.m. on Tuesday and wasn't in bed for the night until 1:00 a.m. on Wednesday.....I was pretty dog tired. I entertained the idea of putting Miss Mouse in the bathroom at 4 a.m., but I guess I decided against it (I don't remember consciously making any decisions other than "sleep, sleep, bed, bed, bed").

What to my wondering eyes greeted me at 7 a.m. but a dry, happy Miss Mouse! I think I'll probably be holding my breath most nights for a few weeks, but she's been consistently dry during any naps she may take (she's been taking them again during her quiet time the past week).....so maybe this is it?!! It's been just a wonderful process with her. I'm hoping for a repeat of this the second time around; their personalities are very different, but perhaps their experiences with this type of thing could go similarly....I hope!

Anyway - I write this long post about nappies not because I think most people actually are interested in the potty behavior of my children but because I'm afraid my feeble, permanently sleep-deprived mind is not going to remember this in a few years, and I sure would hate to forget. Speaking of not forgetting, I'd love to have a camera just to record these girls' everyday moments. We have a camera, but I'd like one to catch the spur-of-the-moment escapades. Like tonight, Miss Mouse was getting ready for bed and suddenly decided to give me a "tending lavder sajge" (i.e., pretending lavender massage) on my face, complete with dipping a finger on one hand into the other hand which was held in a fist to symbolize the cup of oil with lavender (Miss Mouse gets lots of massages to help stay calm and happy). So sweet. Or perhaps the camera could have caught Baby Mouse when she ran, literally ran, over to her big sister and wrapped her little arms around Miss Mouse's back to give her a full-body hug from behind. So sweet. Life just can't get better than this.