Torrential Pee

My almost three-year old daughter is not potty trained. Not hardly. And it's not that we don't talk about it. We do. All the time.

Here's a typical excerpt from one of our mommy-daughter potty conversations:

Me: "Emerson, do you wear underwear or diapers?"

Em: "I wear diapers. You were underwear, Mommy."

Me: "Do you want to wear underwear?"

Em: "Yes! Yes! Yes! With Dora on it!"

Me: "If you wear underwear, then you will have to use the potty."

Em: "Oh...No thanks."

Here's other attempts on my part to ratchet up the potty excitement in our household:

1. Em says to me, "Mommy, I'm not a baby; I'm a big girl." I leap on this opportunity with a well-placed: "Well, big girls use the potty. Do you use the potty?" Em considers this and answers: "Well, I'm a little girl."

2. I bound out of the bathroom and exclaim: "I just did the most fun thing ever, Emerson! I went potty!" And she looks at me like I'm a crazy person you smile at and hope they go away soon. (I could see where she gets that idea...)

3. I've made sticker charts, bought toys...the works. And I have bumpkiss to show for it.

However, I don't push. I don't make her, and I'm not panicking yet. Yet.

Unfortunately, there is a new issue related to the potty. That issue would be torrential pee.

Allow me to explain.

My daughter can hold her urine for HOURS. It is seriously shocking and I am a bit worried that it may not be too healthy. However, I have no idea how to convince her to do otherwise. Lately, this holding of urine has cause exploding diapers. No joke.

It starts innocently enough, most of the time at night with a small "Mommy/Daddy, I pee-peed." coming from her room. I stumbled into her room, trying to avoid the 20 pound cat who thinks I could only possibly be awake at 3 am to feed her.

And Em is SOAKED in pee. Head to toe. The pillow. The mattress. The sheets. The toys. Everything. It almost makes me think I didn't put her diaper on at night, but no. She has it on and it is so full of urine, it's actually pulling off her body.

This has happened twice at night and once during the day. It's very messy, inconvenient, and obviously distressing to Em.

My new plan is to not allow any water before bed. We'll see how that goes. But I'm seriously considering covering her bed in gortex.