Hello world,
I just noticed my last post said "tomorrow" I would share the ways we helped get Sabrina on a sleep schedule. Apparently in mother words, tomorrow means "in 7 months." Mainly, we started a calming routine, stopped putting lights on at night, no interaction after 8pm. I think the distinguishing between day and night was one of the most helpful strategies we used. We also did our checklist (burp, bottle, diaper, hugs, etc) prior to putting her down to sleep so we knew she didn't need anything from us. If she cried, we would go in ad hug her and put her back down. Letting her learn to soothe herself and put herself back to sleep was very helpful. I am sure there may have been more strategies that were useful, but I don't even forget what I did yesterday, so remembering so long ago is a blur to me.
The last time I wrote, Jackie had requested to be in underwear at night. This is still very successful and a non-issue at this point. She stays dry every night, regardless of whether we wake her up before we go to bed at 11pm, or if she stays asleep from 8pm to morning. We change some of the things she earns -cookie, juice, sometimes its jellybeans (anything she doesn't get access to other times of the day so it's extra special , but we think she will love). I don't remember the last time she had a bowel accident or a night accident. So, Jackie is completely trained by 2.5 years old both day and night.
Who reading is going to infant toilet train after hearing this?
Well, I am. Sabrina is 8 months now and we just started taking her to the bathroom. We started Jackie much younger, but waited longer with Sabrina. My back is still injured, so I haven't been able to bend to help her sit on the toilet, and I have been postponing it. We rearranged the bathroom to make it easier for me to get in the routine of having her try to go. She was also so small I was worrying about her sitting on the potty, but now she is gaining weight and I am more comfortable having her sit.
Anytime we change her diaper, we have her sit down on the potty seat on the toilet. We moved the wipes, changing pad and diapers into the bathroom, so we had no choice but to start taking her to the bathroom to change her. It was too easy to forget to sit her on the potty when the changing table was in her bedroom. So, we've changed the environment to help us remember. For the most part, she pees each time we sit her down. One day this weekend, she pooped twice in the potty! Like Jackie, we want Sabrina to get used to the routine of going into the bathroom during key points of the day, so it's part of her life now. If we save diapers and wipes, that is a bonus. Right now, Sabrina goes potty when she wakes up, then anytime she gets a diaper change. It is so doable and fun and doesn't take time out of her regular scheduled diaper changes. It take about an extra minute to let her sit and feel the air on her tush.
Rearranging the bathroom was the final step we needed to get us and her back in the routine of sitting on the toilet. I am not sure I am going to go all gung - ho with the data collection, like I did with Jackie for the first TWO years of toileting (we have stacks and stacks of sheets saying when she went, if she voided from daycare and home, etc), but I am going to take Sabrina from now on to make her familiar to it, since it was so successful with Jackie and it doesn't take a lot of time out of my day for me to do it.
Happy Toileting!
