Progress? Can it be?

I am so very, very happy to report that we have finally made some progress on the potty training department with Chloe! Whew, that only took about a year! (I'm not kidding, the whole saga was started about a year ago and we really aren't finished yet . . . so don't hold your breath!)

The main progress lately has come in the form of the portable, plastic potty being put in Chloe's room at night. In the morning when she wakes up, 99% of the time she will get up and poop on the potty. If the potty is not there, she will wake up and poop in her pants. (Sorry if that is just too much information for you!) In the past, her motivation level to take herself to the bathroom early in the morning was pretty close to zero. The pull-up was just way too convenient! We tried everything we could think of to motivate her: discipline, denial of privileges, having her bottom washed off with cold water, no sweet treats, taking away her favorite Bear and blanket, and the ultimate knife in the heart--no dress wearing. Nothing was working. Morning after morning, I would enter the girls' room to discover that Chloe had done the deed in her pull-ups, again.

However, then we hit upon the idea of putting the potty in her room. She obviously knows where the potty is and how to get there (we live in a small apartment, for goodness' sake! It's a few yards away!), but since she wouldn't go there, we brought it to her. And I'm so happy to say that in the last month, she has not pooped in her pull-up even once! Wow! That's a record!

Now we're working on nighttime dryness. She occasionally will keep her pull-up dry for a nap, but has never gone the whole night. Months ago, already, we began limiting her drinking after supper and now in the past month I have been taking her to the potty when I go to bed--she sits down and goes without really waking up. This has helped but her pull-up is still always slightly wet in the morning. Soon, very soon, I hope we will be able to give her the special gift that is hiding in the closet; whenever she can go even one whole night with dry undies then she can have her gift! We'll see how soon that could happen!

I've heard other mothers say that children are different when it comes to potty training, but boy I could not have imagined how different! Clara Anne was a "holder" and once she got the concept, trained quite quickly and within a month or so was done. Finished. Daytime and nighttime. Chloe, on the other hand, has dragged out this process for the past twelve months with so many ups and downs that it would take too long to tell you about them all!

My only hope is that maybe, finally, this time, it's for good. I hope there won't be any regression! Thankfully, there isn't a new baby coming, we aren't moving, we aren't traveling for a long while, and so she can really get accomplished in this new big-girl habit and we won't have to think about it anymore. Because, as we all know, bathroom behavior is something that we all need to do, but no one wants to think about! Which makes me wonder why I wrote this post . . . well, too late now! Hope it was helpful to a mom or two of you. Good night!