No more diapers during waking hours

I can confidently say now that Astrid is potty trained. Except for when she sleeps (nap and bedtime), she goes without a diaper all day. She tells us when she has to go potty and has the routine down.


The poop thing she's had down for awhile, but it was the peeing and controlling her bladder that we had to work on. The poop was a lot easier and faster because she only goes once or twice a day. With the peeing, it's almost impossible to time. But we learned to monitor her fluid intake, and ask her to go potty before we leave the house, before/after going to a restaurant, before leaving the park, or just anytime it's been awhile since she's gone.


In the beginning she had a few accidents when she'd tell me she needed to go pee pee, when she was actually going right that moment. But now she reassures me that she will tell me before she goes pee pee.


She also went through this period where right after I'd put her to bed she'd say she had to go potty. I wasn't sure if it was a stall tactic, but I'd go with her to the bathroom only to have a false alarm most times. Then other times she would pee in her diaper and start crying telling me she went pee pee. I'd immediately change her and put her back to bed. But those nighttime diapers are expensive! And they're extremely absorbent, so even after she goes it feels dry. So I now tell her it's ok to go pee pee when she's in a diaper, but when she's wearing her underwear she has to tell mama or papa that she has to go to the bathroom BEFORE she goes pee.


The bedtime diaper is the next thing we'll have to conquer. Anyone have any advice on that? Once piece of advice I was given was no fluids right before bedtime. That would be hard to do now because she eats and drinks before going to bed. A couple other moms told me that they'd wake their child up at midnight every night to take them to the bathroom, so they wouldn't pee in bed. I'm just not looking forward to that, but the day I don't have to buy a single diaper again would be nice.


I also took Peter's advice, and started having Astrid sit on the adult toilet. She gets up there on her own using her step, and she tells me when she's done. This helps immensely when we're out in public and she has to use the public restroom. (I just have to make sure the seat is well lined, including the inner ring of the lid so that when Astrid scoots down over it, she doesn't touch anything.) We haven't used her child's potty in a long time. Now I can rest assured that when we go on vacation we'll be fine (and won't have to worry about using a child's potty).