Potty training at 19 months.

We started casually potty training this week and it is going better than we ever could have imagined. First let me tell you what got us started at 19 months. 

Since Delilah was born, there has been no such thing as privacy in the bathroom. Our master bath seems to be her favorite room in the house. She imitates my every move in the bathroom and my potty time is no exception. At first I thought it was absolutely hilarious watching her pretend to go potty and shadow me and then I thought if she could pretend, then she might be ready. 

We talked with her pediatrician, who I love, about her potty habits and he said it definitely sounds like she has control and may be ready. She has not pooped in the middle of the night in forever and she poops on a pretty regular schedule everyday (after breakfast, lunch and dinner). She has also been holding her bladder at night. Every morning for the last couple of weeks, her diaper is completely dry and then once she wakes, she lets it all out. So much so that her diaper can't always handle it. The leaky morning diaper has had us crazy washing sheets everyday. We realized that she has to get out of be the instant that she wakes so she does not wet the bed. She follows us to the bathroom every morning so Patrick thought he would just put her on the big potty and see what she did. Well guess what, she went pee pee on the potty and she loved it! The next morning we did the same think and it was a success. She was now keeping her diaper dry throughout the night and then getting up to go pee pee on the potty once she woke up. I was amazed. 

We decided that we would go buy her a potty for training and just casually see if she really was ready. We took her to buy buy baby and she had a blast picking out her potty. They have many potties on display and she pulled them all down, lined them up and tested them out for comfort. We wanted a potty that looked like our potty at home and not like a toy so all of the talking, singing, sparkly potties were instantly ruled out. We found the perfect potty and Delilah was so thrilled to be bringing it home. 

We arrived home just in time for dinner. After dinner Delilah was so interested in her potty that we took it out of the box and set it up in our bathroom. She ran over, pointed at it and said "pee pee" we asked her if she wanted to go pee pee on her potty and she shook her head yes. We took off her diaper and sat her on the potty and guess what, she went pee pee and pooped in the potty. 

We are only a few days in but so far this process has been easy breezy. Every morning she sits on her potty and goes pee pee. When she is done, I put her cloth diaper on. I do let her spend some time without a diaper on in the morning, but not too long just yet. She usually has breakfast very soon after waking and as soon as breakfast is over, her diaper comes off and she sits on the potty until she poops (usually within 5 minutes). Then her cloth diaper goes back on. If she shows interest or tells me that she needs to go pee pee, her diaper comes off and we go to the potty. Every time she sits on the potty she either pees or poops. She also enjoys a good book during the process. The book keeps her seated and seems to keep her calm and comfortable. We do the same thing after lunch and dinner. 

We will continue with this method. It seems to be really working for her.