Potty Training and Mommy Jealousy

For the past few weeks I have been wanting to get started on potty training with Madison. We had started using a potty chair quite a while back and things were going pretty well but out of nowhere she lost all interest in it, so we let it go for a while. So tomorrow we are going to start actively working on it again, but this time we are going to make some changes to our plan of action. Starting tomorrow the only time that a diaper will touch her cute little butt will be at night (hopefully not even then after a few weeks!).

• I am going to have her in a shirt, big girl undies, and socks so that a) we can get her on the potty faster and b) we will have less laundry to wash as we go thru the accidets that we know will happen in the beginning.
• First thing in the morning we are going to pack up our remaining regular daytime diapers for mommy to give to the other little boys and girls, like baby Gavin, that need them. I am totally going to use him as part of it because she is completely in love with him so I think it will give her some extra motivation to do well!
•  We are going to make fluids available all day long and encourage her to drink as much as she wants. So that we will have even more chances to perfect her potty skills.
• As of right now we aren't planning of bringing her to the bathroom at set intervals because we want her to tell us on her own when she needs to go, but that could change as we actually give things a try. The most important thing I have learned as a mom is that you need to be flexible.

As I have been thinking about this the past few days and weeks I have started feeling some "mommy jealousy". By that I mean those times where I have compared Madison to another child and felt like she was behind in some way because a child her age or younger is doing something that she isn't. I remember feeling it when she was 18 months and still having a few bottles a day or when she was taking a lot longer to start talking. When she stayed in her crib until maybe a month ago and now with potty training. But the longer that I have thought about it all the more I have realized how crazy and pointless it is to think like that. In the grand scheme of things it doesn't matter at all. When she is getting ready for college someday I doubt they will have added a question about how old she was when she stopped using bottles or started sleeping in a big girl bed to their applications. With the exception of her speech, everything has still happened within a normal time frame. And once we were able to get her hearing back to normal her speech quickly got into the normal range again. So she drank bottles a little longer than recommended, it helped comfort her during a time where I was in the hospital more then I was out of it. Bottom line is that your child will do things when they are ready to and unless they are taking a bottle to school or wearing diapers to prom don't even worry about it. Wish us luck with potty training!