Potty Trained!

So, a week ago (Thursday of last week), Bailey decided that she was ready to be potty trained! Her diapers no longer fit her and she was ready to wear panties. And so she put the panties on and hasn't looked back. She's had three accidents. Those happened in the first 3 days. One of them was when I forgot to put a pullup on her during nap. She peed her bed. The other two were about not wanting to stop her activity. She is pooping without drama on the potty. She has used public toilets, gone on hour long car trips, and tells me whenever she needs help. She just doesn't struggle with this. She was ready and she did it on her own. I am a support player in this adventure. Pullups still while she is sleeping, but she knows that when she starts using her potty at night (it is in her room with her), she will be able to start wearing panties. When she is ready...

We are unbelievably proud of our baby girl...

I find myself being so amazed these days. I never thought that I could be this happy doing this job. I just wouldn't have believed it if you had told me that I would be good at this or that I would find a sense of peace. Really, I can't believe it took me so long to make this change. I have never been more confident as a woman or mother. This hasn't been the magic cure for all of the normal stressors. My marriage is still a source of struggle and there is all the normal stress of parenting two young children. But my relationship with me has seen such a dramatic improvement that I feel like a different person. I always carried around so much guilt and doubt. I wondered all the time if I was doing the right thing and I felt like I didn't really know my children. I cared for them, but the hour a day that they were in my direct care wasn't enough to build that deep knowledge of who these two people are. I also didn't know me. I knew that I wanted this, but I was so convinced that I couldn't do it. I was so afraid of failure that I
didn't allow myself to believe that I was capable. The dramatic effect that self-doubt had on my self-confidence as a woman and a mother was so damaging.

But that is over now. I have never been stronger in my role of Momma to these children. I trust myself and my instincts completely with them. Two months into this, and I know them so well they are almost like part of my brain. Because I am with them all the time, I carry no guilt when it's time to be a hardass. I am able to set boundaries and expectations for behavior and enforce them, know that 15 minutes later, when the storm has passed, I still have all day to be with them. We have such a good thing going.

I feel so blessed!