Life Without Diaper

23 January 2010 marks the last day when I put on the last diaper for Elaina. After throwing away dry diaper each morning for the last few weeks, we have decided to take the plunge and put Elaina in her undies even for the night as well once she finishes the last opened packet of pull-up pants. It was a milestone for the little girl and parents alike.

I used to hear about tormenting experiences of other parents when it comes to toilet-training the kids for night. The day training is one thing but the night training is worse. At least during the day, the mind is lucid and in the eventuality of an “accident”, the only washing involved is the butt, the underpants and the floor. During the night, the mind is only half-awake and the thought of a wet bed full of pee is not very entertaining. Plus I dreaded to relive those nightmarish days of waking up regularly at night to do night-feeding, except that this is night-peeing.

I have in fact prepared myself quietly that I am willing to continue to put the kids in diapers at night for a while until we run out of sizes to buy before I think of toilet training them at night. Waking up Elaina in the middle of the night was the last thing I wanted to do because she is able to sleep through till the morning and I didn’t want to break that. At least for Matty he is still likely to wake up once or twice each night which will be a good opportunity to train him.

But thank goodness, the kids have been very kind to their mother. Despite it was tough potty-training both for the day (Matty took 1 year when it is usually 3 to 4 months on an average, and Elaina throwing tantrums each time she is put on the throne), this mummy didn’t have to do anything with the night training. It just came so naturally for the both of them. As soon as they were fully trained for the day, within a week they will get out of bed each morning with a dry diaper.

The other thing that thrills me is that all these came just before we are due for our next holiday. For our last trip, we had one hand-carry luggage with nothing but diapers and even then it wasn’t enough to last through our 10-day trip. We ended up having to buy another pack for Elaina. This time we have one less load to worry about!